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Scented Elder Flower

[ 2 minute read ]

Opinion 

How can you tell your neighbour that if they are miserable, rude and won't give you the time of day, they are building a route to problems. By not encouraging an open and courteous debate on local issues they inhibit healthy relationships and foment brewing resentment that tends to finalise in complaints to official bodies (The Environment Agency, DVLA, the Police and even HMRC).

My neighbour thinks it is me who complains to his landlord. It isn't; there are other neighbours who make complaints about him. Yet, he is convinced I am drunk all the time and stay awake all night watching the telly, and his father seemed to think I had bent a pear tree to grow towards my garden so I could reap the fruit. I don't have a telly and I am not drunk all the time, and I wouldn't dream of being so lazy that I can't even be bothered to 'scrump' properly! But he thinks because he is lazy then everyone else is.

He and his live-in carer/girlfriend even act suspiciously. I opened my front door this evening and she hurriedly turned away as though she was pretending not to be looking at my front door. He hides behind his front door among the hanging coats to eavesdrop on conversations anyone has with his girlfriend; and they think I am weird! He even asked me once why I leave young tomato plants and art supplies for the neighbours and passers-by to take. I explained why but he didn't get it. I could feel him thinking, 'You consider other people to have a value?'

How can you tell them to be polite and open, when they don't notice people showing them it?

I think someone needs to count the cats in the neighbourhood to see if any are missing. I know if I asked my neighbour he would have a recipe for cooking his own coccyx, and he knows exactly what an Elder shrub is used for; even if, weirdly, his dad cannot identify one. How socially isolated do you need to be if you live in the countryside and cannot recognise Elder; the cat-piss-smell flowers? the little black berries? and the astringent smell of the leaves? Really?

Well, I suppose I will just have to go on wondering.