A Shock For Two Neighbours.

I was out yesterday at the doctors; and I got the good news that I'm getting over my cold.  It's just brought along a nice little cough to keep me busy while it goes away, so I'm on antibiotics for a while to help it on its way.

Well, on my way home, I spent a few hours at Mum and Dad's house and had something to eat.  I managed to read a few pages of 'Passage To India' while sitting out the front with my folks and drinking Green Tea.  While I was sitting out there, a small insect kept flying underneath the metal chair and building its home, then taking off.  Now, normally, you'd think this insect would have a sting; but this one doesn't.  So, I thought to move its chair to let it build its nest in relative peace... instead I confused the poor little thing when it came back to the same spot and couldn't find its place, it buzzed around, looked at me, buzzed back at the seat and looked around as though to ask where its home had disappeared to.  Mum laughed and told me that I had confused the poor little thing... me, confused a bug?  So, we moved its seat back and I sat somewhere else and let the insect happily built its nest where it wanted to.  Funny little thing.

Then, not long after, Dad drove me home after we heard prang happen up the road (nothing out of the ordinary really; a lot of accidents occur on our street and we see plenty of cars get damaged and people get hurt unfortunately).  Fortunately, it was just a car that got clipped at the lights that's all.  We chatted about things to do with the complex and my next door neighbours and how she hates things.  I said that one thing's for sure is that we can't pick our neighbours; no matter what!  He agreed.

My garden April 2011 - 8 1/2 years after living here in Woodridge

My garden 2002 - in the beginning... no trees, no privacy.

When I had arrived home, I found that there was a lot of light coming into the back door and when I went to look, I was shocked to see that the back neighbours' yard had gotten their entire yard stripped of trees!  Not just trimmed severely... nope, chopped, ground and poisoned.  Zef and Kylie were not pleased about this as their landlord did not tell them about this happening; and if it hadn't been for Zef's brother being home, he didn't want to know what would have happened.  He told me that they had even broken a window too while they chopped down the trees; and I noticed that the fence was snicked here and there as well as some palings not surviving the change.  

Now, not only do they have full sun in their house all the time, but they can see into our unit complex, my house (upstairs and downstairs) but I can see everything in their house... it's very exposing and we all feel very naked no thanks to the thoughtless actions of their landlords.  

The question running through your minds is:  Why?  Okay.  Zef told me that the landlord wants to sell all three units he owns; and so did the tree-stripping treatment to all of them.  If you ask me, that landlord just brought down the value of their unit by thousands of dollars; not increased it!  Privacy is a big thing in unit complexes and to take it off people is something next to removing one's dignity.  Both Zef and Kylie weren't impressed that their landlord didn't tell them about this endeavour, and I encouraged them to go to the RTA about this - as it's a breech of contract on the landlords part - and that removing the trees removes shade, privacy... and really all he needed to do was trim them to make it look good, not remove them to make it look like a desert.  

Now, today, as I look outside, it looks like a pimple on a pumpkin... a bare spot as it's surrounded by trees and it's not.  They're not sitting outside for long and hate being out there.  Even their little dog doesn't spend any time outside anymore; and that says everything about what the landlord has done to them.  I have the shade of my house to hide in, whereas my neighbours over the back don't have anything.  Until my next post, take care, keep safe and remember, I'm always here.