Proving Good Neighbors Still Exist - By Being One

I hope it catches on. :)

So, I've heard the complaint many a time, including from my own lips. Someone moves to a new neighborhood and days, weeks, months pass by with seeming no notice from their neighbors. This happened to us. We were one of the last to move in on our street (it's a newly built neighborhood) and no one came to introduce themselves. No one came by to welcome us. Of course, we never went to their houses to introduce ourselves either. I think in our first year I'd waved at our next door neighbor maybe twice. We just kept different hours or something. Plus we both park in our garage, which makes it a little harder to meet each other.

Finally, after living here for two years, I happened to come home and see her and her daughters in their driveway. So, I parked my car...and then got out and introduced myself. It was nice. She seemed nice. We talked about the chore of maintaining our front yards. She mentioned that all she has are little hand shears - the kind you might use for a small indoor plant. I told her I'd send the boys (Mr. Man and 2 of his friends) her way next time they trimmed our trees.

That was several months ago. The boys have yet to return to trim our trees. However, I have gone out and done the deed. Today I started out trimming my favorite plant in our yard - a bird of paradise. It's beautiful. It's like a really large bush that gets beautiful orange, red and yellow flowers in the summer. And the hotter it gets the happier it is. It's perfect for the desert. And it's thriving overgrowth is a testament to that. I won't let Mr. Man trim it - I love it so much. I insist that I get to be the one to shape the beautiful beast of a bush. It's nearly as tall as our neighbor's tree it grows right next to. :) But it was starting to grow over the driveway as well, and the flowers are starting to fade so it was time.

So I trimmed the Bird of Paradise. And then noticed that our neighbor's tree was out of control. These two plants grow between our driveways, and the tree was starting to look more like a bush. And the branches hanging down not only blocked our view while backing out, but were starting to limit the sunlight my beloved Bird of Paradise was getting. So I decided to just go ahead and trim it up for her. So, not a totally self-less act, clearly, but one I hope she appreciates. A small part of me worries I should have asked first...but I really didn't do too much. Just pruned away all the branches I could reach at the bottom.

Anyway, I think it was the neighborly thing to do.