A Good Neighbor

Our neighbor to the east is older and sweet as can be. Her flowers, lawn, and porch decorations are always beautiful and well-kept. Her bushes are trimmed and her trees are pruned. The people who owned our home before us were like her. Unfortunately, yard care hasn't been a high priority for us.

A few days ago, my brother was visiting. We were laughing about the contrasting sides of this bush that straddles the two properties. The bush originated on her property, but has grown through the fence into our backyard. It's usually green, but turns red in fall. I actually prefer a natural-looking, wild bush, but half of it wild just looks silly.

While my brother and I were looking at the bush, our neighbor happened to be outside.

I made introductions then explained, "We were just laughing about the bush. I thought I'd take a picture of it. It looks so funny."

"Oh, you go ahead," she said.

"Does it bother you it looks like this?" I asked.

"Yes, a little bit," she said while she squinted and nodded, but she also smiled. "The man who trims our bushes said he couldn't trim your side without your permission."

 I felt a little bad. She'd never said a word. It had probably been bothering her for years.

"He has my permission, but I guess I should take care of it," I said cheerfully.

"That'd be nice," she said.

I forgive our lack of effort in the yard, but I did feel a little guilty about annoying our sweet neighbor. She's quiet, patient, and tolerant about her grievances. 

It was sprinkling, so I didn't trim the bush right then. The next day, I dragged a ladder out of the garage, grabbed our hand clippers, and went at it. The bush was really easy to trim. There aren't as many branches on our side. I kept it wild below the top of the fence. It took me less than fifteen minutes. I had overestimated the job.

Now the bush is trimmed, the broken stone on top of the brick part of the fence kind of bothers me. If it bothers me a little, it probably bothers my neighbor a lot. She won't say a word. I'll need more tools and time to remove it, but who knows, maybe it'll be an easy job too. I'll do it for my neighbor.

Update:

It was easy! Especially because I asked my husband to help. He found a chisel. I found my pink hammer. He found safety goggles. 

I told him what to do. He did it. We both cleaned up. The whole thing took maybe ten minutes. The top row of bricks came off a little, but we can probably cement them down later.

It looks so much better. 

The final picture: