Southern California Spring

When I wrote about Spring yesterday, I had a comment from Lori saying she would like to see a picture of what Spring looked like here in Southern California so this morning I took the camera outside and took two pictures of my yard.  The first one is looking at the front of the house from the street.  The tree in the round planter is a Brazilian Pepperwood tree.  The tall narrow tree behind it to the right is a Liquid Amber.  It turns a beautiful gold to rust color in the Fall and loses all of it's leaves.  The tree to the right of that is a Birch which is actually in our neighbor's yard.  We have a Birch and another Liquid Amber in our backyard.

The second picture is a stained glass stepping stone that was made for me as a gift by my friend Joyce.  She is an artist who paints as well as does beautiful stained glass work.  She cuts the glass and sets it in a pattern then pours concrete in a mold over it about 2 1/2" thick.  When the concrete sets, she pops it out of the mold, turns it over and cleans it off so the glass is right side up.  Tah-Dah!  You have a beautiful stepping stone.  She has done many but this one was one of her favorites.  I really like it, too.  If you can't make it out, it's grapes, grape leaves, a wine glass and a bottle of wine.

The last picture is looking from my front door toward the street.  It will give you a little idea about what I see when I head out to get the mail, take Kasey for a walk, or greet guests.  It's a very quiet neighborhood.  We have 16 houses on our street and there are about 12 houses on the street that goes up the hill off of ours.  Dennis and I are about the only ones around during the day and we enjoy the peace and quiet very much. 

Since I am talking about the neighborhood, perhaps I  will share the tale of The Phantom Neighbors.  We bought this house when it was brand new and moved into it in July, 1988.  Cari was only 4 years old at the time and Bryan was in his second year of high school.  The family on the right of us had moved in a week or so before we did.  They were very nice and had a little girl who was almost 2 years old.  We also got to know a few other newcomers.

The house on the left of ours (the one with the birch tree in the picture) sat empty until the end of November.  I will never forget the day that the new Mrs. Owner and one of her son's pulled up in front a few days before they moved in.  I was outside with Cari and one of her friends.  As Mrs. New Owner got out of her car, I looked over, smiled and waved.  Whoa!  Did I get the cold shoulder.  She saw me but totally avoided returning a smile or any acknowledgement.  "Oh, well,"  I thought, "not too friendly, I guess."

Ha!  Little did I know.  In the 18 years that we have lived here, she has NEVER acknowledged anyone in this neighborhood.  That does make me feel better because I know it's not personal.  Her husband is only a teeny bit friendlier.  He will say hello if you come face to face and he absolutely cannot avoid the contact.

There are weeks and once, months at a time when we don't see them at all.  During one 3-month long stretch, we and some other neighbors thought about calling the police to do a well check thinking they may be dead inside that house.  A day or so later, one of the neighbors did make visual contact so the mission to call in law enforcement was called off. LOL  It's really kind of sad; if I saw her in the grocery store I literally would not recognize her and she's been my next door neighbor for 18 years!  I don't know her name.  I do know her husband's name is Ron. 

I will say this, they keep their yard perfect, they never make any noise, they never have company, they don't have dogs that bark (like I do), and they have no annoying habits that I can complain about so when I think about it, I guess The Phantoms are really the perfect neighbors.  LOL