As someone who works from home all the time I’ve become accustomed to having very little noise in the house. It helps me to concentrate – especially when Bingle isn’t barking through the windows at passers by. Whenever I need to change the mood, however, there are times when it’s nice to have just a bit of background “texture”.

Sometimes I turn to music or perhaps even an audio book – but both can be a bit distracting. More often than not I now stick on an ambient background sound. These first became popular almost 20 years ago when people started listening to whale song or thunderstorms. Today they are far more varied and much easier on the ear. YouTube is full of them – and that means they’re free. They include everything from birdsong, forest sounds to running rivers. I find them very relaxing.  I’ve placed a selection for people to play with on the following page…

https://titchmarsh.info/ambient-sounds/

Most of them run for several hours. Find the one that suits you then just leave it on in the background.

Note: Living in Titchmarsh you’d think we’d be surrounded by birdsong. However, in Chapel Street all we ever hear are the pigeons repeating “We dooo like foot-ball, we dooo like foot-ball“!