Him next door.

Sorry for not keeping the posts up to date, but I have been doing alot of thinking rather than writting over the last couple of weeks, and although not entirely sure that things are clearer in my head, they are clear enough to tell you about my next door neighbour.

He is old. (they all are!) He should be about 6'2 but walks bent over and he shuffles rather than walks. He is a little hard of hearing and dribbles a bit from the right side of his mouth.

Last week when I was getting the bin in, he cheerly said "hello" (they all do!) and waved (they all do that as well!) and I stopped to pass the time of day with him. His daughter visits him everyday on her bicycle, so cant live far and you can hear then chattering and laughing, and they always give each other an enormous hug when she leaves.
Anyway, there was clearly something bothering him. He made several attempts to say something but was hesitant and clearly embarressed. He commented on my garden which he had peeked at the other day when my gate was open, and congratulated me on the hard work I had put into it. He had listened, he told me, to Laa-Laa and myself weed and move the enormous planter with much swearing and grunting, with much amusement. He had watched me carry into the garden the pots and plants I had bought and had wondered where I was putting things and what they looked like. He told me that before he lived next door he had had a huge garden with a pond and prize winning chrysanthemums which he had shown anually.

I was a little worried as to what this was all leading to. Was Stinky doing her 'I'm bored so I'll bark' thing when I was out? Had one of the cats been using his garden as a loo? Had the music I had been playing been on too loud?

No, the reason he wanted to say something was that he had been worried that I hadnt been shutting my gate properly. The gate is on the side of my garden there is then a path that leads out beside the garage, he uses the same path to get out of his garden.
He had worried, apparently, everytime he went out of his garden that I hadnt bolted the gate at the bottom as well as the top, and if I hadnt bolted the gate, he was worried that someone would break in, and steal something.

I could have hugged him. My grandfathers would have had the same concerns had they been living next door, he was so apologetic about saying something, but it had concerned him so much he had to.

I am very lucky to live where I do. I can hear the church bells clearly when they practise on a thursday evening, and again on sunday mornings. There is an organic shop just round the corner. It is a lovely house. We are happy here. And now I have an admittedly frail but friendly and gentlemanly (in every sence of the word) next door neighbour.


lybxx