My Neighborhood

I hope to post a blog a day for the entire month of April. I just noticed I missed one on the 3rd, so I am doubling up tonight.I blogged about food (is blogged even a word?) before.

I have forgotten to mention that we have banana peels, if anyone wants some. Seriously, my neighbor Ryan works at the coffee shop called the Daily Grind, which offers smoothies and freshly squeezed juices. Anyway, I am guessing that is where the huge trash bag filled with banana peels came from. My other neighbor Starr told him they are really good for the garden. Ryan and Steph are a couple, and Mike is a geologist whose girlfriend Liz moved to South America to study espanol. Liz and I became fast friends one day, when we started hiking. Ryan is studying chemistry and Steph works full time. They are all exactly 25 years old . Steph and I talk a lot when we have the time, which has not been lately. They have barbeques, play horseshoes, like to make old things new, and are totally organic. They are all so awesome.

Ryan, Steph and Mike live in the front house, and constructed a compost container a while ago. We all contribute to this pile, and Ryan mixes it up. I throw all sorts of stuff in there, like my daily carrot juice pulp. He never complains about the plethora of flies that increase with my contributions.

We live in a small alcove off of a very busy street. We have our own community, replete with roses, garden vegetables, a loquat tree, lots of cats, and a seeing eye dog in training. We all get along well, with the exception of last night, when my next door neighbors were way too loud til really late. They had too much wine. They are the couple with Suzie, the seeing eye dog in training. They are James and Jamie to us, but Jamie calls him Ryan since their names are essentially the same. Jamie wants to learn to garden, but still feels nervous about it. I am going to teach her how to transplant, one of these days.

Starr just lost a kitty named Ophelia Rose to a sudden stroke, so she has recently accelerated her plant purchases. In fact, she has taken to calling it garden therapy. We all enjoy the route she decided upon, which resulted in more than a dozen rose plants, sweet peas, freesias, and our most recent addition, the wysteria. My favorite byproduct is the aroma of our common area. We also have jasmine in bloom at the moment, and the sweetness can make a person pause in awe just passing by.

Anna adopted my kitty Tabitha, who visits me every day and has found relief and a happy life there. She just never adjusted with 4 other cats around. Anna will call me if one of my kitties is not quite ready to come inside. On occasion, she will shut the cat door, and I walk 2 doors down to her house and pick them up. What a sweet woman, Anna. She keeps to herself most of the time, enjoying a good read on a Sunday afternoon. And she adores all kitty cats. Even before Tabitha went to live with her, Anna would have food and water out for all the neighborhood cats who came to visit her. She also brought my cat Sebastian to the hospital when I was away, and paid the bill. Sebastian never made it home from there. Anna keeps pictures of him along with her Margaret who passed several years ago, available for viewing anytime on her coffee table.

Sally is my other neighbor, who always has family living with her, or coming to visit. She is my friend Gail Jean’s mom. I almost never see her, but I see her son and grandkids all the time. This is just a taste of our wonderful little ’hood. I love my home.