My Neighbors Might Hate Me

   I stepped out my door and really looked around today for the first time in a week. Spoiler alert: Last Friday our first victim fell ill with Norovirus. Since then things continued to decline, slowly at first, until suddenly IT hit the fan in all forms and we were quickly all struck down. Norovirus 7, Us 0. Today I finally wasn't feeling in crisis. No potty-trained child was in diapers. No one had urine the color of apple juice. No one had tossed their cookies... err, dry toast or rice boiled in bone broth... in 24 hours. I was no longer blinded by a headache, too dizzy to stand, nor aching to the bone simply by breathing. Today I finally felt like I could take a deep breath and say we were making it out without hospitalization- something that wasn't a sure thing for several of us during this past week. I walked outside to hang up a load of laundry and realized spring had come while we were shut inside. I also realized how different our square of land is from all the properties around us.
   The land across from us is an enormous parcel, mostly wooded, but the acre directly across from us is mostly clear with a tiny house on it where an older couple lives. The gentleman comes out with his lawn equipment once a week like clockwork and mows, trims, and manicures that lawn to perfection.
   The land to our right is a tiny lot with an equally tiny house, an older couple and adult son- none of whom we see more than a momentary walk to or from a vehicle. They never wave, either, much to my children's chagrin. We've tried bringing them Christmas cards and goodies several years and despite their dog yapping like mad, the lights being on, and people moving around inside, no one ever answers.  A lawn service comes and professionally tends their lawn regularly, including trimming around their bird baths and statues.
   The land to our left is a wooded portion of a 2-acre wide rectangular lot. The house is situated at the furthest corner from us, and it is now clear after living here three years that they enjoy using their back corner closest to us and furthest from their house as their personal dump. An oven and exhaust fan from the 1950's, a broken, rotted table, broken buckets, and other small kitchen appliances- oh, and most recently a bunch of tangled and torn chicken wire, black barred gates, and tomato cages when they refreshed their chicken coop about a month ago.
   The land to the back of us is a cul de sac in an HOA, which is pretty comical plopped out here in the country, but it's becoming more and more common as people realize the commute to the capitol is actually not that bad from here, and the elbow room of the country really is quite nice. They have strict rules on what colors their houses can be, what kinds of dogs they can have, how long their grass can be, and more of those lovely regulations an HOA offers. Thankfully, none of those apply to us. Thankfully for us on THIS side of the evergreen hedge, that is, but clearly to their annoyance as they refuse to mingle with the likes of the commoners on this side.
   Then there's us. Just over an acre of land covered in kids during every moment of daylight rain or shine, bikes, mini ATVs, a giant trampoline, and an ever-growing food forest. While they're spraying their lawns, having sod laid- or like the Neighbors to the Left, pouring buckets of used engine oil- from the moment the snow leaves, we're planting edible landscape and fruit vine border 'fences' on every sunlit inch, turning our front half of the property into a grid of raised beds with precisely measured space between for the lawnmower to pass, building hügelkultur along the left to try to tastefully hide the neighbor's dump zones while creating fertile growth zones for the future, and leaving the first mowing of the year until we're positive there are plenty of other food sources for the first pollinators to thrive before we chop off the henbit, violets, grasses, wild chives and plantain into clippings we'll then painstakingly rake by hand and use to mulch and compost our beds and gardens weekly for the following seven months. Oh, and we have a washing machine on our porch that is hidden behind the hedges. We've been trying to GIVE it away on all the local boards, Freecycles, etc, since early January and NO ONE has wanted it- not even for scrap metal. Don't worry! Earth Day is coming here very shortly when the local transfer station will take it for free. If no one wants it by then it will be responsibly disposed of and we will return to a tastefully empty front porch. But hey- at least we're not the Neighbors to the Left! 
   Back to today when I realized Spring really has sprung. Trees and bulbs are in bloom all over and we can now say goodbye to my sacrificial lawn buffet for the bees, so I decided to head out with my camera and take some snapshots of those tiny signs of spring I'll miss next January before they become next week's mulch for the strawberry beds and my neighbors can cringe a little less at our acre bursting with gardens, permaculture, and free-range kids. 

Usually by now the ornamental cherry tree is nearly weighed to the 

ground in full bloom, but it's been a cold spring. 

Tiny little redbud blossoms hanging over the forsythia that's already 

finished its yellow burst of spring

We have two apricot trees that were here when we moved in. They 

never produce full fruit- just tiny green fruits that rot straight to pits,

while still on the tree, but they do give us glorious spring blossoms

The daffodils are nearly finished blooming, but these late bloomers 

are still full and gorgeous

Henbit is pretty much our first lawn covering, followed by wild

chives. The grass comes later.

Wild purple violas sprinkled in with the henbit

Tiny white violas occasionally pop up in the fray

The comical line between us and the Neighbors to the Right
marked by the sassy henbit and tall wild chives

A mystery bush that flowers all throughout the winter and into spring

The newest gnome- this one napping- addition to Asher's Lilac garden, 

which is a colorful circus of mismatched kids toys, creepy lawn ornaments

and flags my kids choose to lay(and come back to play with often) around

the memorial for their brother. 

Our tiny baby peach tree that was just planted last spring is covered

in gorgeous blossoms and leaf buds this spring

Empire apple leaf buds. We were worried the deer had nibbled the 

branches to oblivion this winter, but they're making a come-back!

Baby garlic chives rising out of the wood chips in the permaculture

orchard bed

Leaf buds on the Adams elderberry! We only just planted this two weeks ago!

Another gorgeous eye sore, this mass of briars beside my shed. I was all

set to take it out earlier this spring when I noticed three big ootheca nestled

in the branches. Well played, mantis. You've saved the briars. FOR NOW!