Tuesday 19 June 2018

Good neighbours.

I am so lucky living here in my bungalow.   The neighbours in the road are so kind.    Here are just three examples today.

It is our refuse collection tomorrow.   My drive is quite steep and I do not find it all that easy to take my refuse down to the roadside.   It is recycling and 'green bin' week this week. There was a ring on my door bell and it was a neighbour from further down the road to say  she was passing and she hoped I didn't mind but she had put my green bin out for me.

Shortly afterwards my next door neighbour came round (and came in for a cup of tea) - I had ordered some sandals on line and they had come this morning and she had taken them in for me and was bringing them round.

As I went out with Tess this evening another neighbour stopped her car to say if I didn't feel like walking with Tess she would willingly get out of her car and leave it at my bungalow while she took Tess for her walk.

I just realise how lucky I am to have moved into an area where the people are so very friendly.   Do you live in a neighbourly place?

23 comments:

jinxxxygirl said...

ummm... no .. and its not from lack of trying... people just want to be left alone.. tried giving Christmas cards this past year and was told they don't exchange cards with neighbors... ok ... i can take a hint... lol Now our closest neighbor is friendly.. to a point.. At least he will take hubby out fishing in his boat... and thats a good thing.. I like to think of you surrounded by good neighbors Pat... Makes me happy to know you are well looked after... May we all have that...Hugs! deb

donna baker said...

Good neighbors are a gift indeed. In the US, we have lost that. Many do not even know their neighbors. I think since everyone is always in their cars and driving is one reason. Lots of reasons. Your neighborhood sounds good.

Dc said...

We do! It is so nice. At one time! We knew everyone but as people moved, those coming in kept themselves to themselves. Still know half of them well though.

Kathie said...

I live in South Dakota, USA and have, not only, wonderful neighbors, but an entire community of helpful, friendly and caring neighbors. I moved here a couple years ago after retiring. I have to almost pinch myself to believe this place is real...it's almost magical. I am very blessed.

angryparsnip said...


I love that you have such wonderful neighbors. That makes me very happy.

cheers, parsnip

Cro Magnon said...

I often think that if 'knife-wielding gang members' were to experience the 'buzz' of being kind to others, they would find the experience much more satisfying than hanging around street corners being a pain in the neck.

Bonnie said...

I am so happy for you to hear you have such good and helpful neighbors. That is a blessing. We have nice neighbors but not to the extreme that it used to be many years ago. Everyone is so busy and never home these days.

Derek Faulkner said...

It's a percentage thing where I live, at 71 I'm still very active, always out doing my garden, down the reserve with my dog, etc. etc, so I assume they consider me to not need any kind of help. Many of us chat to each other, some of us have never spoken to each other. Mostly I think it's an age thing, i.e. when you get to the kind of age that you are and live alone, then neighbours start to look out for you and feel that they should help.

Virginia said...

What a blessing having good and caring neighbours Pat. In our (wealthy) suburb, everyone drives into their attached-garages and thus into the house without any opportunity to greet neighbours. We see, and greet, neighbours from behind our house, and up the road, but have very little contact. Everyone is very pleasant, but also BUSY! And of course, virtually no-one is at home during the day.

Doc said...

What a joy to make the big changes that you have since the Farmer passed and find such a lovely neighborhood to live in. We live in just such a place as well. When my health was at an all time low and my dear wife was so overwhelmed the neighbors came together and saw to her every need so that she could care for me.

Hard up Hester said...

I'm glad you have good neighbours. My neighbours change regularly as we pootle up and down the canal, but the boating community on the whole is very friendly. There is, of course always the exception to every rule and we are currently moored next that exception. We are keeping our heads down and hoping to avoid confrontation.

Librarian said...

My favourite neighbour is the 84-year-old lady whose beautiful garden I see from my kitchen window (and have shown on my blog many times). She is kind without being overly sweet, has a dry sense of humour and we always stop for a chat when we come across each other outside the house.
With my other neighbours, I maintain good contact without being too close. Since most of them are Turkish and take their Muslim faith seriously, their life is very different from mine; they don't "do" Christmas etc., and I don't "do" Ramadan and so on. But we exchange friendly greetings when we meet, and I know they would help if it became necessary.
The couple downstairs are... well, special. I don't like them particularly because they are of the kind that always seek their advantage and profit over others, even if it means telling lies and ripping someone off, and then brag to me about how clever they are. Also, they feel above the other (Turkish) neighbours, because they are German and Italian, so they must be "better" - they think!
Still, even with them, I keep things friendly on a neutral base.
When I celebrated my 50th birthday in March, I invited the entire house, too, to promote neighbourly spirit a little. They all came, but didn't talk to each other, so that plan did not work out.

Christina said...

How wonderful to have such thoughtful and kind neighbours. We live in a very friendly street and talk to lots of neighbours, except those right next door. I don't like the man living there, he is a controlling individual and very peculiar about how he wants things to be. There are sometimes really awful arguments we have to witness, it is unpleasant.

Frances said...

Most councils in UK will organise " assisted collection" of bins/wheelies etc. I had it for my Mum in Leicester, and also arranged it for the elderly lady who I look after. Just a phone call to the council and they should get bins from wherever you keep them and also should put them back!! Glad that you have such good neighbours. XX

John "By Stargoose And Hanglands" said...

My next-door neighbour goes out every Tuesday morning and lines up the bins of all the nearby houses ready for the bin men, then after they've been he puts everyone's bin back tidily. He also cuts most of the grass in the street, even that which the council are supposed to do!

the veg artist said...

I think my neighbours like us because we are much quieter than the previous owners, we let them park in our drive when their family stay, and we have a large garden and are happy to supply greenery when they decorate the church at Easter and Christmas. Next-door-but-one is a widow whose bins are always moved to the bottom of her drive for her. There is always someone around to take in parcels and change light-bulbs. None of this costs anything, but it makes for a very pleasant environment in which to live.
I'm glad you have found yourself somewhere similar.

Heather said...

Good neighbours are so precious. My previous neighbours were good ones even though sometimes we hardly ever saw each other as they were at work all day - we would take in parcels for all and sundry! Here I am lucky too and everyone seems to get on with everyone else. You have obviously made a good impression with your neighbours and they are happy to help you become part of the community. Like attracts like.

Tom Stephenson said...

Here in town, we have temporary lets both sides of our Georgian terrace and I know none of them. In the country I had good neighbours, but it could get a little claustrophobic for me as a youngish man.

Rachel Phillips said...

Yes, they are good people here.

Midmarsh John said...

I am pleased to say there are many willing, helpful neighbours living in my lane. We all try to look out for each other when needed.

kt said...

We live on a rather remote country road, neighbors are not too close, which is the way we like it! Most of them would come help if we called, I am sure, and we would help them too if asked, but people just don't "neighbor" like they used to.
However, last fall we had nearly a week of power outage and two very nice neighbors unexpectedly helped us, one with water and another with the loan of a generator. We are in our late 70's and husband is handicapped so the help was very much appreciated!

liparifam said...

My neighbors in the little townhome community I lived in for the 8 months I spent in a small college town before moving to the city were fabulous. At age 55, I was one of the youngest residents, lol, and though they were never intrusive, they were so friendly and helpful, and we did socialize. I knew there was always someone just yards away who would be there for me if needed. I still try to make the 3 hour round trip back to have lunch and visit with them for the day at least every 4-8 weeks... In the city, on my street we are friendly, but not "friends", if you know what I mean. I think we would all help each other if needed, but we mostly keep our distance. But we do have a thing here called Nextdoor, which is an online community where you can connect with people in your neighborhood as well as nearby neighborhoods, and it is amazing! People ask for advice, report neighborhood news, post lost and found pets. give away and sell things, and ask for/offer help - anything from - is there someone with a truck who can pickup a piece of furniture for me, to does someone have a carpet cleaning machine I can borrow for a couple of hours, to a friend lost her job and could use some help feeding her kids this week, to I found a dog that had been hit by a car and need help paying for the vet bills, to can I borrow a wheelbarrow for a project I'm working on. This is constant, and people really step up every time... I check it several times a day. After a big storm when we were without power, water, and could not even leave the neighborhood due to flooding, we were able to use the phone app to keep in touch and help one another. People with food invited everyone to walk to their homes to get something to eat, people who had bottled drinking water brought some to those who had none, people with swimming pools invited other to come get buckets of water to flush toilets - it was really amazing...

thousandflower said...

Even though I live in a very rural place and my nearest neighbor is half mile away, we all look out for each other and help when it's needed. Good neighbors are a wonderful thing.