Friday, July 25, 2014

The neighbourhood where I live - Part 2


Something else happened recently in the neighbourhood and I can't work out whether it's really sweet or really creepy.

I have a couple of garden angels, one which is known and some which are not known. The first known one is my neighbour. He's a sweet, retired man who mows my front lawn, takes my bins in (and puts them out when I forget) and is just one of those general good neighbours you have a chat with over the fence.

The other garden angel or angels I don't know. When we had the old house there was a beautiful hedge of murrayas around the entire front yard. It was well over three metres high and took either a ladder or pole saw to hedge it and used to cost me over $150 to get it hedged.

While we were out of the house after the flood, someone hedged it. And not just a quick trim, a proper, dead straight, professional hedge. I never found out who it was.

That was a couple of years ago now. Then the other day, someone mowed and edged our front path AND left the hedge trimmer there. It wasn't a cheap one either, it was a brand name one. I went next door and asked the neighbour if it was his and he said no.  So I thought, maybe it was someone from the council who forgot while doing the path and accidentally left it there? It was a long shot, but I left it where it was on the land next door, definitely off the path and on our block, but not exactly in the house. I left it for 2 days and no one came to collect it (or steal it?).

That night was freezing cold so we went out to get ice cream. As you do. We were probably gone no more than 20 minutes and when we came back someone had moved it from the front path to our garage.

Dum Dum Duuuuum!!!

Is someone watching us? Is it a hint that we really need to trim our lawn? I have no idea and I'll probably never know.


Tuesday, July 15, 2014

The neighbourhood where I live - Part 1

Some very sweet things have happened lately that have really made me appreciate the neighbourhood. We've been so busy lately there's hardly been time to stop and just hang at home, chill the garden or even put up that painting that's been sitting there for months.

I forget sometimes what it's like to be part of the neighbourhood.

On the weekend I answered the door to an older man after he rang the doorbell. It was startling in itself cause most people who know us come through the garage door. He looked vaguely familiar, but we live on a main road so we often see the same people walking their dog or down at the local shops or at one of the three (yes, three) bakeries on our street. He was collecting signatures for a petition to extend the Neighbourhood Watch area to include more of our suburb. I do read the newsletters they put in the letterbox so I knew they needed signatures and it was actually on my to do list to call them, but, you know, that list is pretty long.

He introduced himself and I said that I'd read the newsletter and sorry I hadn't gotten around to calling and we had small chit chat about the neighbourhood and other programs that were going on.

Then as he left he said he'd been watching the house being built and was really glad I was back at home. Then he smiled and off he went. I thought that was sweet, but not unusual. Being on a main road and with the house being so ridiculously high we often have people chat with us in the front yard about how they've been watching the house etc.

Later that night though, in the shower (not a significant or relatable fact) I remembered where I'd seen him before. I'm 99.9% sure he was one of the first of the mud army to come in after the flood, Kartcher and generator in hand who cleaned out the entire inside of the house. I remembered him because he was quite tall and I was astounded that complete strangers were just coming in to help.

Anyway, it was sweet that he didn't mention what he'd done, he was just glad we were back at home.