Living at the top of a building in a two storied apartment with a glazed in roof terrace overlooking Västerås harbour as well as a large section of the adjoining waters is difficult to find fault with. Not to mention the absence of virtually any motorised traffic thus maintaining a calm, unusual in an area so close to the centre of the town.
On most days of the year the only outstanding sounds to be heard are the birds, not even a Ryanair flight from Alicante or London, seen but not heard as it disappears in the distance behind the trees to land at Västerås airport a few miles away. Idyllic is the word and even though the rest of the world is only 7 floors down it is an existance that could match any country retreat deep in the woods.
Apart from the occasional very popular Zumba session on the quay during the summer months with music loud enough to upset some apparently, little is to be heard from a very popular harbour with several restaurants, bars and ice cream stalls. Getting upset is of course a very individual thing and should be respected if not necessarily acted upon. However complaining that a boat in the harbour is obstructing someone´ s view of the lake is perhaps a little too Monty Python to be taken seriously.
Living up in the sky so to speak entitles you to a bird´´ s eye view of the world and all that comes with it. For the most part the screeching of seagulls or a swarm of jackdaws darkening the sky and then hundreds of soft thuds as they land on the roof are on and off occurrences of shoulder shrugging consequence.
Not so with pigeons where the icing on the cake does nothing to enhance the idyll. Pigeons are intelligent creatures and although lazy, rather unskillful nest builders, they are also very attached to their ”homes” Keeping them at bay therefore requires a permanent, well thought out response and we found that spikes attached at strategic locations kept them at arm´ s length. Arm´´ s length is the word as these birds are fully aware of our shortcomings as airborne predators and will completely ignore you while they go about their business of making sure the world never runs out of pigeons, when they´ re not icing the cake that is.
The emotionally closest we ever got to our friends in the sky was when a tern couple decided to make their nest in the corner of the roof adjacent to our terrace. At first a no-brainer that turned out to be rather the opposite. No sooner had the couple laid an egg than we became persona non grata.
It wasn´ t just a case of angry stares but actual dive bombing attacks accompanied by gatling gun sound effects. For several weeks we felt like squatters in our own home surreptitiously watching a small bundle of fluff waddle around the terrace to finally grow into a beautiful, fully fledged tern.
The indignity of being treated as a threat was exacerbated by us being almost as concerned as the parents that their chick should come to no harm. We were not even granted being party to the epilogue as one fine morning the nest was empty.
Our family of summer guests had departed, to who knows where?