A walk through our neighborhood

Hi there!!

I've been so busy lately...

Been here, there and everywhere

Spinning busy round the house and gardens as ever. 

Mad nature girl.

Oh yes, and my head is a living forest

full of song birds...

Yesterday, right at the summit of day when the sun was in its most highest place, I felt the need to go out for a walk.  I should had done this during the early morning hours when heat and humidity levels are the lowest in the day, but sometimes my heart is a bird, and it must take flight.     

As I went up and down our hilly neighborhood I could see cars parked outside houses... one, two, sometimes three cars, yet, this was a silent world I walked.  Not a movement; a silent hush, nor a shift in nature.  Only the quiet swish sound of my footsteps on the hot pavement.

I should have taken heeds from those people hiding from summer, lounging somewhere indoors in air conditioning, but despite the almost unbearable heat, I felt so alive... my skin prickling with delight, as this incredible warmth entered my body, connecting all of my senses to Nature and the Power behind it.    

I crossed the street and passed Sheena's quiet home with the red aluminum roof like a flame ablaze under the heat.  Too tired to bark, their two young black labs in the backyard looked at me with forlorn eyes as I passed by; keeping quiet under the heavy weight of mid-day.

I squinted at the horizon down the hill with my sun-drenched eyes and passed the house of our neighbor on the right.  Dawn.  Whatever made me think that the patrol vehicle park outside their home belonged to a male officer in the house?  The morning I met Dawn I understood why she had chosen to be a police officer.  I remember her stopping her car right in the middle of the road one morning to run help us pull up a heavy piece of equipment into my truck.  Strong beyond imagination, and serviceable.  

To our left, up and down the hill right on a corner where both the roads collide, stands Miss Nan's house... a uninteresting structure with a huge maple tree right in the center of their small front yard. Miss Nan and the husband whom on several occasions I have discovered spying down on us behind the huge maple tree while pretending to be watering their lawn....  I suppose there is no malice on his behavior, except perhaps it is just his shy nature what let him act in such way? For some unreasonable reason, however, it always comes to my mind the obscured image of a man hiding his vices behind a computer screen.

Up the winding road, stopping almost at a flat on the other street, stands blue-eyed old Nancy's house.  I wanted to stop by and knock on her door, but thinking that perhaps I might be disrupting the most delicious daydreaming siesta, I kept on going... up onto the other road, where a dozen or so of lethargic felines dozed off the afternoon in muted colors...  and the Cat Lady, who promised me a white cat many moons ago.  Across from this view, is Roberto and Minerva's lovely large home with the Scandinavian windows.  I love speaking in Spanish with them. 

On another road up the stiff hill in the farthest part of the neighborhood is Jane's blue house and her shabby garden.  A while back I discovered that "Ruby" belongs to her and that her real name is "Princess".  This I was told by Jane's husband, for I haven't seen Jane ever again since that first day we met.  

Several houses later stands the house with the stone facade and neat garden. Diane's house... Diane is the lady who awhile back thank me for bringing beauty to our neighborhood, one morning when she saw me working outside. She was our neighborhood warden who saw that people comply with our neighborhood ordinances, but  discouraged by lack of support, resigned.  I only learned about this a few months ago when I read the letter she sent.

Then, there's Virgil's two story white house, quiet and neatly kept under the sun of August.  And a little further down the road, the big brick house with the fountain in front.... residence to the eldest neighbor in our neighborhood, Ernie... a 99 year old man, of whom I hear lives alone with all of his children far away.  Ernie and Virgil are best friend, and whenever bones and weather permit, you'd see them walking together round the neighborhood.  I love these guys, and I guess they must like me too, for I can tell they always find an excuse to stop by for a chat, whenever they see me outside.

I would then take the elderly man by his arm and gently help him down our sunken little white cottage to show them around the gardens and offer water.  And how they enjoy these little moments of their day!  And how I love spending a fraction of my day sharing life with theirs.  Time is a precious thing.  Life is not a forever dream, and one mustn't waste any time to love. 

I love our neighborhood and I'm always amazed at how opened and friendly most southerners are.  In all the many years we lived up north in the house in the roses I only got acquaintance with a few of our neighbors... the next door neighbors at the most.  With our long hibernating winters and people being so much more reserved to themselves up north, it was a lonely neighborhood.  I find the south more akin to the true nature of my heart... and what can I say about the way Nature here complements the desires of my soul?  A longing to dream grab my wings whenever I hear trees rustling in the wind... if I listen to them silently for some time, Nature always reveals its essence and meaning in amazing ways...

Thank you for strolling our neighborhood with me... ;)

I hope you enjoyed our little walk! ;)