On neighbors.

We have neighbours. This is a bit of a non brainer, since we do not live in the outback. Living on a corner block we have many neighbours.

Weirdly, they all have connections to M's home town and there are many women who share my name.

There are the Veranda Watchers, who live across the road and about two houses down. I'm yet to officially meet them. In good weather they sit on their balcony and watch their children (grandchildren?) play in the front yard. Once Willow asked to go outside to see M and his mate. I was doing the dishes, I said yes, and she walked outside. Dishes done, I walked outside to check on her. She had never gone to M, she had wandered off. Uh oh. I ran down the yard looking for her, I looked around the corner of the block, no luck. I began to panic as I turned to walk back up the hill. Mrs. Veranda Watcher was out the front.
Are you looking for your little girl? She called.
Yes!
She's just lying in the long grass!

I turned back, to see Willow now sitting up in a patch of our Shift Worker's neighbour's overgrown lawn and watching me.
Thanks! I called back, while dying of embarrassment inside.

Across the road we have the house with the Barking Dog. I would very much like to poison it. It barks an awful lot. Sometimes it even appears to bark at us moving around the living room with our blinds up. Mark and I suspect he must... "work from home" due to the endless stream of cars rocking up at his house. (We know there is an endless stream of cars because his dog helpfully tells us.) 

A few houses up the road Willow has made a new friend, Piper, who goes to the same pre-school as her. Piper visits her nan every Wednesday, so we've taken to dropping in so the two girls can play and talk about shoes. They both love shoes. 

Our other next door neighbours are the Bird Feeders. They are very nice. Sometimes it borders on feeling a little smothered, but its nice to know if I were to drop down dead, they would notice... Probably before M even would. I recently had some friends over for a house warming and Mrs. Bird Feeder saw all the extra cars and came over to see if everything was alright. Mr Bird Feeder plays the bagpipes. This thrills Willow to no end, as Willow loves "marching bands." Mrs. Bird Feeder has suggested that maybe Mr Bird Feeder should come over to our house to practice, as after several decades of marriage she's a little over hearing him tootle away on the bagpipes. 

Next to us on the other side is Mr Shift Worker. I don't know anything about him, except that he has a loud voiced lady friend. But, live and let live.

On the way to pre-school there is a tree covered in tinsel and Spanish moss. Willow thinks it's the most magical tree in the world and loves to walk under it. The owner was nice enough to give us big armfuls of Spanish moss that Willow proudly carried home and used to decorate our one tree with. Unfortunately, unlike Mrs. Magical Tree tree, our tree is rather exposed on the hill, and strong winds have strewn the Spanish moss all over the lawn. I keep picking it up, and now it's living on a curtain bracket in the kitchen, in a giant clump. 

So, that's our neighbours so far.