The church across the way has for some reason taken us under its wing—they came to our rescue when Jane was sick last year, laying paths in the back yard, around the koi pond, helping with weeding, and such, and laying the very heavy boundary stones, moving our load of rock up onto the level of the lawn and putting it in place, and generally doing in one day things that would have taken us all summer.
They are coming back tomorrow to do their thing, move basalt chips, lay paths in front, and generally to help us get in shape for summer. They are, the next week, having a garage sale, and we have ton’ o’ stuff to offload, literally not the kitchen sink, but the bathroom one, and so on and so on. This was an offer we couldn’t refuse—or afford, if we had to hire them: we contribute cookies and sinks and they contribute labor, making it possible for us to get our whole lives sorted out.. We were supposed to be at Miscon, not as guests, but as attendees, and I’m going to miss my old corresponding buddy George RR Martin—and John Dalmas; but we just can’t turn this down. Our wheelbarrow finally broke down (one of those really tough Lowe’s best ones) and we got another. So we’ll have two wheelbarrows going and people with rakes and weedcloth and weedcloth pins, and it’s all going to be so good!
We’re not members. They’re just being nice. Maybe one year we can go across the way and help them gardenize their corner, which could be a great garden.
whether one is a member of an organized church, or an atheist, good works for other people should only result in a better life for all involved.
Maybe some day, we’ll get back out there to see the garden (and the kitchen) to see how things have changed since ShejiCon3. That was a most extraordinary time in my life, and I was deeply touched by the event.
We’d like to do it again someday, too. It’s been too chaotic the last couple of years; but maybe if we can get things in shape.
A sad casualty of the modern age is the concept of “neighboring.” There was a time when neighbors looked after each other. Neighbors banded together to do the tasks that were too large for one family to accomplish — like raising a roof, or a barn. You watched out for their kids and they watched out for yours. There was this web of reciprocity holding everything together. The cities have lost that sense of community. Nobody knows their neighbors any more or cares to. Your Methodist “Garden Angels” have found a way to recreate that “neighboring” thing. Not only do you appreciate them for helping, they appreciate themselves — It’s hard not to care about something or someone when you’ve invested your time and effort in them. What the world needs now is not love, but caring.
… sounds like everywhere *I* have lived, anyway. Maybe it’s the stereotypical North/South distinction, but I would *hope* that people help out their neighbors. We’ve had homes under foreclosure in the neighborhood that everyone contributes to the upkeep on… Don’t know where your 14 year old has gotten to? Ask around, someone has seen him, and will let you know. I don’t want to live somewhere that people don’t do this – glad CJ and Jane have re-entered the civilized age, evidently. Hope you can find a better place, WOL…
It also depends on specific neighbors. Every neighborhood has a mix, ranging from people who you chat with across the fence and share bread recipes with, to the crabby house with the ‘No Soliciting’ sign. Hopefully you are in an area where the first type dominate.
Oh of course, my neighbors served ham and eggs for breakfast Wednesday morning. 2 slices of ham on my car’s hood, another slice on my trunk, and probably half a dozen eggs on the side and back of my house. Very nice neighbors……
Spam cannon misfire…? o_O
retaliation for being a witness to the oldest boy assaulting his girlfriend and breaking her car window. All of the other people who saw it didn’t come forward, I was the only one, so I was the target. I have spoken with the police and their landlord. I am doing nothing to these people, I just want to live here without conflict, but they are going out of their way to be unkind. I don’t know where to find an enzyme based cleaner to dissolve the protein, but I’ll keep trying to locate something that won’t damage vinyl siding. As I’ve been doing all along, I leave these people alone, and I want them to do the same for me. Stay out of my yard, keep their basketballs out of my gardens, and stop leaving their trash on the ground so that the wind blows it over into my yard.
My next-door neighbor dropped a dozen raw eggs on my car hood last fall… Of course, they were whole and in a carton, a home-grown thank-you for keeping track of one of her dogs who managed to escape while they were out…
I wonder if the same enzyme stuff you can put down your drains to keep them schmutz free would work to remove dried on egg without hurting the siding. It is supposed to be safe for plastic pipes. The neighbors on the W side of our place haven’t yet escalated to the family violence, but the rest of it, well… I tried to give them some ripe mangoes (putting them in a neat line just on the other side of the property line, I thought obviously a gift) but I found them tossed back into my yard. I will not be trying to give them any more freebies.
We have some bozo who throws eggs at our cars every once in a while. DH reported him to the police for stealing some of our property. He’s moved away but comes back every 18 months or so to throw eggs again.
BTW, have they thought of calling themselves “The Gardening Angels?”
Wow, Joe. I had no idea it had that impact upon you.
The yard & pond are so much more amazing today than 3 years ago. Lots of changes and additions(incl. the red bridge), and the plantings have really grown in.
…and the “wounded hawthorn” from whence we hung Pegleg Pete, the Pirate Pinata, and he was cruelly served by several cuts from Changeling, but then, the branches of the hawthorn around his tether also suffered.
Would you believe that Pegleg Pete’s head still hangs from the hawthorne, and we occasionally turn up the odd piece of eight?
I still have my miniature hand grenade squirt gun that I picked up from the patio.
Heck, I still have the pair of “chirping cricket” squirtguns from Shejicon *1* (which you can see me holding in some pictures from Sheji-3)…
You guys have the neatest parties!
It was a 3 day party! Not just a series of parties. The canoe trip on the Little Spokane was really fun, even though several people lost items when their boats spilled.
I gots my pirate beads and “sunburned Bren” tee-shirt 😀