The Grass is Always Greener

..on the other side of the fence....as are the gardens over there...and oh that lovely pond... I can sit out in my garden and listen to the delightful sound of a water feature without having to have a water feature to look after! So in some ways, perhaps it is better to be on this side of the fence? 

Today Mark and Marg, the folks with the pond who live in the big heritage house behind me - on the other side of the fence - hosted a luncheon for their "over-the-fence"neighbours....as well as former neighbours who used to live over-the-fence but who have moved away..

.... neighbours like Eldon - my wonderful gardener for the summer of 2022  whose family lived next door to me for 50 years, his wife Dale - whom I taught  - she was in my Grade 10 English class - and his sister Phyllis.. AND Nora whom we really miss too - She and her husband (now deceased) owned the big house and sold it to Mark and Marg just a few years ago.. She came to lunch too..and to have a nostalgic look at what they have done to the cherished house she lived in for so long...and she was pleased...a bit sad..but pleased.  We had wonderful afternoon..it was like old home week....with good conversation, stories and just catching up.....

I did note that the one thing we all had in common, aside from knowing each other for decades, was that fence! I thought that was neat...and it got me thinking that you could write a book - or a poem - about the stories that fence could tell, and lines of poetry studied and memorized long ago began to pop up...like Robert Frost's Mending Wall... with memorable lines like  "Something there is that doesn't love a wall" and  "Before I build a wall, I would ask to know what I was walling in or walling out"...and, of course the famous  "Good fences make good neighbours"...Really?  Why? Why would a fence make good neighbours? But why do we all have them in the first place? To define our turf? To protect us? From what? And..what makes a "good fence" anyway? 

These are the thoughts that keep me awake at night...Not! I just like to ramble and ponder .....as is obvious...