Fences

Fences have been on my mind a lot lately. This is our tiny little back lawn which I love but have never loved the gang type corrugated iron fence that separated our space from our neighbour. When we brought this house back in 2004 I thought it would be one of the first things we replaced but instead, we have re wired, re roofed, re- bath roomed, re- painted (several times) and landscaped around it. To be honest the weeds hid it most of the time.

It was the arrival of this little guy, Sam the puppy that has forced us to do something about it.

As you can see he likes to dig, and the hap hazard fence wasn't up to it. I'm hoping this tree's roots go deep and it will be.

So with the help of our neighbour David. Down it came in a weekend. Now let me tell you about David. He is Welsh and been in his house behind us with his wife Mere for 27 years. They are amazing gardeners, both with flowers and vegetables. Actually for about a year before we knew his real name Marcus and I had nicknamed him Mr Gregor from the children's story books Peter Rabbit. It was partly his welsh accent and partly his neatly rowed vege patch that made this name stick. But stuck it has been.

Despite seeing David and Mere almost every day over the back fence. Them gardening, me hanging washing or hiding from the kids we didn't know much about them. Isn't that always the case with neighbours? Weird really but it gets to that awkward stage of knowing that you should know more about them (like their actual names) but it's been years and now it's too late for those first introductions so you have to ask in round about ways and pick up clues from conversation about the weather or the bag of fruit and veges they leave for me on the clothes line. "Thanks for the Oranges, do they grow these where you are from?.. and where was that again?" you get the picture.

So this fence building has been wonderful in getting to know the neighbours. Proper conversation and we always knew it, (by how good their rhubarb and silver beet tasted) but David and Mere are awesome.

And for a whole week my kitchen window has looked out not over my pitiful excuse of a back lawn or the gang type fence but in between the old fence coming down and the new one I have been blessed to look out over their garden too.

This is Lucy taking the liberty to explore and she is quite smitten with David's tomato hot house tent he built this summer. Like I have said, they are serious gardeners. Despite me liking privacy part of me has really liked not having a barrier up between us and the neighbours. Yes I grew up in a Christian community which might have something to do with my liking of community but it has been really nice not feeling boxed in.

And it has also meant other neighbours have come visiting too making use of fences been down. Check out Te Mati (he's a blog entry on his own) hanging with the men folk and talking building.

So even though I've been nagging for a new fence for years, today I'm kinda sad that we need fences at all. Yes it will look pretty but I'm thinking it will also be lonely.

And because it's the day of the Rugby World Cup final and the nation is waiting with baited breath to see whether this is the year the All Blacks might actually win it back after 24 years of trying. It wouldn't be right to end this blog with anything less than a All Black Haka performed by the kids hanging at our place this avo. Brothers- Mohaka (4 years) and Te Mati (11 years) Lucy (4.5 years) and Oliver (2.5 years.)