Secret Garden

Next door on the right, live a nice quiet couple and their grown up daughter. He is a very keen gardener, and we often meet when working in our front gardens or when we are getting in or out of our cars, as our drives are side-by-side.

However, our back gardens are separated by his very high fence, and a line of extremely tall and hideous Leylandii trees. This used to be a hedge apparently, but had grown out of control long before we came to live here. The trees had reached at least 30-40 ft when we managed to persuade him to get them topped a few years ago. The branches extended about 8ft into out garden.

G went mad a few years ago, and lopped them all back to the fence, as high as he could. I went mad because the bare sticks of trunks with protruding bare branches was even uglier than the fully clothed variety!

The curious thing is, in all these years I have never actually seen my neighbour's back garden! I'm sure it is lovely, because I hear him working in it, and he has a couple of huge sheds where he does lots of pottering.

All I can see though, are little strips between the fence posts or between the slight gaps in Leylandii trunks.

I'd LOVE to sneak in for a look one day when they are out, but I'm too scared I'd get caught!