Ah this peaceful season of fall, with its long-shadowed days and glorious sunsets. The ease of autumn is working its magic, encouraging everyone outside to enjoy more comfortable temperatures and deeply rich colours. This is the season of sharing summer’s bounty, no matter how big or small the plot is that you’re harvesting!
The other day I heard my two-doors-down neighbour, so I went to the backyard thinking she was calling me. But she was calling for the neighbour between us, whose door was ajar as he puttered around his kitchen. She was giving him a little package of granular plant food – just enough to keep the blossoms in his hanging pots going for another few weeks. I recognized it, because she had given some to me the day before, after her neighbour on the other side had shared some with her. And so it goes, round and round, as the carousel of time brings moments of caring and sharing over the backyard fence.
The neighbour between us, in turn, gave her some lettuce from his garden while his wife rushed out and handed both of us a small decorative fan from her recent visit home to The Philippines. We happily flipped them open in the late afternoon sun and waved them in various directions as we discussed fan etiquette from Victorian times. She told us about her trip, while I sipped one of the bottles of flavoured water the neighbour to my other side had given me after realizing she didn’t like them. We have all exchanged recipes, books, cups of sugar, gardening gloves we had duplicates of, camping stoves we no longer used, condolences after losses, congratulations after successes.
Down the lane a bit seems to be where the younger families are. They are front yard people, as they gather to watch their young children ride bikes together along the quiet street. Sometimes they bring out their lawn chairs and sit together, some sipping a beverage, some rocking a baby while they chat. They take turns tending the needs of the older kids, their camaraderie a strong support at the end of busy days that the demands of parenting bring.
The pace of tending a young family and tackling hectic work days is starting to seem like an eternity ago, as though those younger people inhabit a foreign land. Most of us backyard fence folks are quite happy to have jettisoned far past that time! The generations mix, of course, in the neighbourliness of the area. Lives lived side by side, and what a wonderful life it is!
Sandy Bexon is stepping into retirement after over 35 years as a communications professional, reporter and writer. She lives in Red Deer.
