Keeping up with the Joneses
Friday July 02nd 2010, 11:41 pm
Filed under: Food,Friends,Knit,My Garden,Wildlife

A constant reminder to myself: it doesn’t get finished if you don’t finish it. That half a cast-off row isn’t going to cut it.

Right, right. So there you go.

And while we’re talking about glorious deep rosy reds like that–a return doorbelling, plum jam, a surprised plum-tree-owning neighbor, a protest of “But you didn’t have to do that!”, a response of “But may I?” (And I explained that Michelle had wanted to learn how to make jam, so it was from both of us.)

And then I got invited out to their garden.  Squashes were picked and I was gifted right back again.

My kind of neighbor wars.

Oh, and–they showed me a large leaf, quite shredded; insects, I thought, and a bad case at that. Birds, they corrected me: they’d liked it for their nests. (They clearly thought that was pretty cool, actually.)

So THAT’S where they…! So we talked birds a moment, and when I described my Nuttall’s, they smiled, oh yes, they knew that one. It has really taken to my suet feeder–that’s today’s picture, and I’m hoping it’ll let me get closer and closer.

Meantime, my black squirrel climbed a tree and stared at my being somehow on the wrong side of the fence.  What are you doing over there?!

Speaking of squirrels–my tomato container got dug into, bad, and trying to figure out how to keep the bushy-taileds out, I hit upon this: I took the lid of a plastic spinach box, cut out to the center and wider there for the stem and pushed it down into the pot. Voila! Mulched, sort of, and squirrel free. (Picture taken after the digging and before the sweeping up the mess.)

One of the things about the pot is I can haul it inside when I’m not around to give those squirrels The Look. It is the funniest thing to see one of them stop dead in their tracks and even sometimes turn tail.  You don’t mess with the momma here. You can have sunflower gleanings, but the tomatoes, those are mine.

I’d share them with the neighbors when they ripen but they’ve got their own ahead of me.


6 Comments so far
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Don’t you just love those win/win situations with neighbors. Mine used to be a toutierre (pork pie)and in return I would geat a wonderful array of Christmas cookies. Of course, we had the “visit” to enjoy each others specialites.

Comment by Joansie 07.03.10 @ 5:18 am

We take raspberries to our next door neighbors. We receive in return their tolerance of our dandelions (much to our goldfinches’ delight).

Comment by twinsetellen 07.03.10 @ 6:06 am

What wonderful neighbors – except for the squirrel who parties in your tomato planter when you’re not looking…

Comment by Channon 07.03.10 @ 6:31 am

Would that all wars were like the one between you and your neighbors! Me? I exchange jokes.

Comment by Don Meyer 07.03.10 @ 10:05 am

That color is glorious!

Comment by Diana Troldahl 07.03.10 @ 7:46 pm

What a colourful post!

For years now, my mother and I have been in this kinda war with presents: for now reason, gift each other – the thought does count, the occasion, not so much. 😉

Comment by Suzanne in Montreal 07.07.10 @ 5:45 am



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