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Thursday, May 1, 2008

East-side neighbour

There's a wall that stands between me and
my eastside niighbour. It isn't high enough
to be unscalable but because of it we haven't
really visited each other. The entrance to
their lane is way out and both of us have not
made a conscientious effort to step into each
other's homes. It's so much easier to talk
across the fence. And starting with family, the
house and the garden, we must've discussed
everything under the sun! The lady might be
watering her plants and I might be pottering
about the garden but we stop to take a moment
and sometimes more to catch up!
It's been over two years now of keeping up the
relationship. On festive occasions, we exchange
home-cooked goodies and garden produce is what
we gift each other. From my side it's blackberries
and mangoes in summer, tomatoes in winter. Depending
on the time of the year, it's bananas and sweet,
ripe papayas from her. Sometimes it's a bunch of
freshly unearthed dark green coriander with little
clods of soil still stuck on the roots. Oh, to
get the smell of fresh herbs ( haven't I practically
grown up with that?)one can't wait to garnish the
lunch-time fare that's already on the table. Bless
her!
Like I said, there's a wall that separates our
respective plots. But when it comes to being
neighbourly, there isn't any barrier between
us..........

1 comment:

Barbee' said...

That is a precious post and sweet attitude. Lovely.