Is your dog's unusual barking a secret code for something mysterious?

[The Dogmother]

Do you draw your curtains at night, or leave them open?

 

When i lived in London, I used to catch the train home and be amazed that people didn't close their curtains after dark, so everyone travelling past had a clear view of the minutiae of their lives

 

I live in a road of Victorian terraced houses with front gardens a maximum of 4' deep, quite a few people leave their curtains open after dark when the lights are on. A neighbour stopped me this morning to complain that 'a man' had been peeking in through her front room windows. I pointed out that I'd walked by earlier that evening and had seen her sitting in the front room in her undies, painting her toenails, and that perhaps she ought to close the curtains.... she looked stunned as if I'd asked her to sit there in an astronaut suit. This evening when I went past, she at least had some clothes on but was watching TV and picking her nose

 

I shall never understand peoples' need to have their personal lives on display

[Chickvic]

Closed - as soon as it gets dark enough! It makes me feel cosy and kind of tucked up I don't like the idea of someone walking past and looking in

[LuckyChickenLover-]

 

Well I always close mine! I close all curtains apart from the ones in my bedroom, (because the light is probably the only things that gets me up in the morning ) but my bedroom is at the back of the house so no one can look in.

 

It amazes me that one of my friends has got no net curtains and a very small front garden. He lives in a busy street and it means that his huge TV/ Wii/ PS3/ all the other fancy technology he's got are on display...

[Sam]

We live down a similar street to yours, and people always leave their curtains open! You can't help but peak in... I can't sit in the room at night without shutting the curtains even the light from the TV is enough to light you up and I wouldn't want anyone peering in looking at me!

[Sam Palmer]

We tend to leave ours open, unless it's really cold, but then our living room faces the back garden and has patio doors. I tend to shut them if I'm at home on my own though!

[LuckyChickenLover-]

When I was younger, me and my friend would always walk to Cubs (Scouts for younger kids) together. In one of the streets we walked through, one of the houses would always have the curtains open, so me and my friend would always watch about half a minute of the Simpsons on their TV They noticed what we were doing once or twice, but that hasn't deterred them, and lo and behold their curtains are still always open when I walk past.

[rossco]

we sometime forget to draw the curtains for a while at night once i went to the shop and walking home looked through my window and there was my wife and daughter on just dance on the wii they looked well daft we also live on a victorian terrace road

[The Dogmother]

It amazes me that one of my friends has got no net curtains and a very small front garden. He lives in a busy street and it means that his huge TV/ Wii/ PS3/ all the other fancy technology he's got are on display...

 

We have the same problem in our road - it's all on display and then people wonder why they are burgled.

[bluekarin]

We close them too. Our kitchen faces onto the road, but it's such a huge window, if the blind is left open, I feel like I am being watched as everyone can see everything going on in there. Not that much goes on in there

The living room is at the back of the house, but we still close the blinds. It helps to keep the heat in, plus I don't want to think I've seen someone out there The garden is enclosed and very dark and no one can see into our living room, unless the end of garden neighbours came down tothe end of their garden.

 

But that all said, I do like a little nosey into other peoples windows and lives when I walk or hubby drives past

[keyhole kate]

I live in a townhouse with the lounge on the 2nd floor and overlooking the back garden only a giant could see in but I still close the wooden blinds once it gets dark and the curtains when very cold I cant understand why anyone would want passers by looking in at them that's just plain weird

[percy049]

We live on a quite cul-de-sac, so basically no-one goes past anyway, put we still close all the curtains every night. We do spend most of our time at the back of the house (front room, bedrooms and chickens) though

[Griffin]

Closed - as soon as it gets dark enough! It makes me feel cosy and kind of tucked up I don't like the idea of someone walking past and looking in

Ditto. I'm even more aware because I know just how nosey my neighbours are because the old chap opposite once remarked to my father-in-law how disgusted he was by the sight of our cats on the dining table Needless to say when I re-decorated I moved the table to the other end of the room so it's now near our back window

[Eggasperated]

Closed - no-one can really see in where we are but my parents drummed it in to me to close curtains to keep the heat in .

[Lesley]

We have no neighbours but I close the blinds - it's very dark out there and I don't like feeling I'm in a goldfish bowl

[Henchanted]

Definitely closed.

If I go past a window with lights on and curtains open, I am compelled to look (no matter how much I don't want to consciously ) so I know I/we would be looked at and I don't want to be, so definitely closed

[Snowy]

Closed! Another quiet cul de sac here, but a very narrow front garden, so very visible if anyone does walk past. But the main reason is to keep in the warmth - it makes such a difference on a cold night! If it's not cold I often leave the patio door curtains open at the back as our back garden is not overlooked. If I ever get the garden tidy again, I plan on having some lights out there to create a bit of a night view. Not sure it will ever happen though!

[Ain't Nobody Here]

Closed - as soon as it gets dark enough! It makes me feel cosy and kind of tucked up I don't like the idea of someone walking past and looking in

 

Ditto ditto ditto

[bronze]

Closed but more to keep the heat in. if there was someone around looking in I dont think the looking would be the biggest of my worries. We live down a long private drive in the middle of nowhere though

[Willow]

Open usually - we had so few curtains for ages after we moved in as all the windows are huge I got out of the habit even though we now have curtains or blinds everywhere. We're in a quiet cul de sac and a good size front garden so I don't think we are that exposed. We're not directly overlooked front or back. But I should close curtains to retain heat

[chuckmum6]

I hate them open, I feel exposed even though "Ooops, word censored!"ody can look in. Also if they are open, I keep seeing a scary woman looking at me in the glass - me, my reflection, definately a good reason to close them!

[sadietoo]

we've only been in our house six years now, so haven't quite got round to curtains yet

we are in a bungalow and our bedrooms are at the front with wooden venetian blinds so they are down or drawn...at the back..well we have a conservatory off our sitting room, so no curtains there and although we have a blind at our kitchen window it's only drawn down in the summer to keep the sun out. We really don't have any other curtains..we've never been able to agree on what to put up...!!!

[Seagazer]

I close ours when it gets dark so often later in summer. We have about a 15ft front garden and we're slightly higher than the pavement so if we're sitting down you can only see the tops of peoples heads going past

[ali-s]

we are surrounded by fields so no neighbours or passes by able to see in

Living room, my bedroom, bathroom and door curtains closed as it gets dark in winter to keep the warmth in the cottage. No curtains in the kitchen and when we first moved here I was a bit silly by not making eye contact with windows after it got dark in case someone or something was looking in, fine about it now and love the darkness. Recently put up curtains in the bathroom (ground floor) as the window in there has plain glass and the glass shower cubicle faces the window so now no more embarresed family member outside passing the bathroom and accidently seeing some one in the shower.

 

DD never opens her bedroom curtains which annoys me and DS never closes his bedroom blinds.

[Valkyrie]

We are on a hill, so "Ooops, word censored!"ody can see into the back of our house and the front is in a cul-de-sac. In summer we don't bother pulling the curtains, but we do in winter to keep the warmth in. So saying that we sometimes close the front curtains because we have a very curious neighbour across the other side of the close. So much so that when DD was babysitting another neighbours' daughter they staged a murder for his benefit. Little minxes.

[Reikiranf]

That's fab Valkyrie.

 

I don't have nets but have blinds and I do put them down when it starts getting dark, I also have curtains which get drawn over them if it's very cold.

 

Griffin saying about your cat reminded me of an old thread where I mentioned how my cat Lily used to sit on our dining room table and play her harp in full view of passers by