Thursday Thoughts #21

H: I folded my arms. “I don’t usually do stakeouts.”

M: “I thought it might be a nice change of pace for you. All that knocking down of doors and burning down of buildings must get tiring.”

H: “I don’t always knock down doors,” I said. :Sometimes it’s a wall.”

My thoughts today: 

Neighbours. 

I've been living here just over three years now, and I haven't got to know many neighbours, which is normal for me. I keep to myself and watch how things are before getting to know people. I take it slow. Glacier slow.  

So I was in town recently and waiting for the bus to come home and a woman sat down next to me and asked was I waiting for the (number) bus. I said yes and she said did I live in the flats? I said yes again and we got to talking.  V asked have we met because I looked familiar and I said no, I didn't think so.
We continued the conversation on the bus and then walked along the driveway through the flats to her unit, which is where I suddenly remembered her. At that point V took off her hat and I knew who she was. 

Last Christmas, a group of us had got together and had a Christmas lunch at the nearby hotel. I'd taken my camera and shot a few pictures of us, (without me since I was the one holding the camera) and a few days later printed the photos and taken them around to the others. I hadn't seen V since then.

On this bus day, we were standing discussing her garden and she invited me in to see her back garden where she has built a cat run for her cats. 
Her back door opens onto a wire netted structure with plenty of room and scratching posts, large tree branches and other things that cats love, this in turn opens onto another netted structure, V's fruit and vegetable garden. 
Talk about Eden!!

V has lived there for twenty years, (she is 78 years old) so her fruit trees are very well established. 
Apricot trees!! I'd mentioned mine and how the tiny seedlings had died and I was trying to grow another with my last remaining seed and here I was looking at V's twenty year old apricot tree absolutely laden with more apricots than I'd ever seen. 

There are paths through the trees and beds and we walked through looking at lettuce, (she pulled one up for her dinner as we walked), strawberries etc, then V mentioned that she keeps the seeds from her apricots to eat the kernels and would I like some? 
To plant or to eat. 
Well of course I said yes please! and she brought out a bag with about two kilos of seeds and gave me half! 
I'll have to buy a nutcracker.
I've planted three in the same pot where my last remaining seed is and I'm hoping they all grow. 

I learned more about V in that one short visit than I would normally learn in a couple of years of 'hello, how are you?' passings on the street. I'm uncomfortable talking to people, but V made it easy. 
Some people can do that. 
It impresses the heck out of me, I find it very hard to start a conversation.

Along with her garden, V has another hobby to keep busy. 
A small spinning wheel in her living room and a small loom in the front bedroom. 
(She has two bedrooms). 
She spins yarn from Alpaca hair that one of her friends gives her, then she weaves that yarn into mats and scarves, vests too. 
She was wearing a vest that day, over her shirt, it was quite fluffy, it had been made from the hair collected in the brushes when she brushed her four cats!
Wow.