September 22nd, 2022

"Good Fences make Good Neighbors".   So said Robert Frost.  And while we do have a fence around our backyard, that is not why we have good neighbors. And we do. Honestly, we really got lucky when we bought this house because it came with the best neighbors ever.  The are friendly without being intrusive, helpful without being pushy and delightful to spend time with.

And this was especially apparent during the past few months as I've been recovering from surgery.  While the surgery certainly wasn't a secret, I mean I blog posted about it after the fact for heaven's sakes, I also didn't advertise it before hand.

Oh of course immediate family knew, but otherwise, I just wasn't ready to talk about it.  I guess I was coming to terms with it on my own. And I am, in an odd way for a person with a blog, kind of a private person.   There are the things I am comfortable writing about on my blog, but there are also things I only tell family and maybe  those few very close friends. There are other things that I only tell Tim and then there are those few tiny things that I only discuss with myself.  This one, at first, fell into the only family category.

But one day, as I was coming home from a walk and passed my neighbors house, I saw that she was outside so we stopped to talk for a short time.  As we caught up, I was surprised to find myself telling her, candidly, about my upcoming surgery.  She was surprised and concerned and very kind. But it was a brief discussion and I changed the subject  very quickly.  Apparently that was all I needed to do.

Post surgery there were almost daily, cards, flowers, notes, avocados and lemons from almost everyone around us wishing me well and asking what they could do to help. I was surprised but in the best  possible way.  The care and concern has continued even though I'm out and about and doing very well thank you.  I've been taken to lunch, received book recommendations and had other books loaned to me.  Puzzles have been dropped off to help me pass the time and there have been many sincere offers to drive me anywhere I need to go. 

Well Tim is happy to drive me and he handled being the chief cook and bottle washer just fine, (he is an excellent caregiver) so we really didn't need to call upon anyone for their assistance but it was wonderful to know that so many people were ready to jump in and help.  I greatly appreciated the many offers.

I'm doing so well now that my entire journey is pretty much something in the past  as far as I'm concerned.  I am back up and running. Okay not running, but I'm walking at a sprightly clip.  There are no more cards, notes, books or flowers left (or needing to be left) on the doorstep. Things are back to what passes for normal around here.

Which is why it was such a surprise to look out the window on Sunday and see activity in the front yard.  What?  I stepped outside to find two of my neighbors working in our front yard.  They were, first of all, cleaning up an area under one of the remaining palm trees that has some wildly growing things that usually, during the cooler months, once a year, I trim back hard.  I have no idea what I am doing of course.

She on the other hand, is a Master Gardener and knows precisely what she is doing.  She brushed off my surprised thanks and pointed to a different spot.  And to my surprise, suddenly, we have a new shrub!  

Do you remember when I wrote about how we had a couple of ginormous palm trees cut down and that  there was an empty spot in front of the courtyard wall?  The naked spot between the two large bougainvillea's bothered me.  I was debating what to do with it.

Well it is empty no longer!  We now are the very pleased owners of a pink Plumeria!

Okay it looks like a baby now but eventually, once it's used to it's new home (perhaps the next blooming season?) it will have the most gorgeous pink blossoms!  They look like this:

I thanked both of them repeatedly and promised to pay them back in baked goods and was told to not be ridiculous.  It made them happy to do this!    They insisted that no repayment of any kind was necessary.  My Goodness!  How did we get so lucky??

I was instructed on the care and feeding of my Plumeria and have been faithfully following instructions.   It's been four days now and so far, so good.  I haven't managed to kill it off yet, thank heavens!!

So how exactly do you thank a neighbor for such kindnesses over and over and over?  Well of course, by being kind and a good neighbor in return. But I do believe a lot of baked goods are in order here.  That is absolutely something I can (and will) do.

So, like I said, the best neighbors ever!