This house sit is in a great neighbourhood.

You know, neighbourhoods have lost their closeness over the years. So often we never really know who our neighbours are, don’t know them by name and never really get to talk to them at all.  This house sit is different.

Our previous house sit was on acreage, so by nature we did not see the neighbours. We got to know one of them, but we could not see their house from the inside of the house and we didn’t really get to talk to any of them much either. Distance was the culprit mostly I guess. But this house sit is right in the Brisbane suburbs, on a piece of land that may be about one eight of an acre, so the neighbours are all around.

 It is quite a well-established area, and we have been told by the house owners that many of the neighbours are retired and they all know each other. I find it really nice to be able to stand on the deck and say hi to Sue over the back fence, or Denis over the side fence. From the little I have seen so far it’s not a ‘nosey’ sort of neighbourhood, but one that just keeps an eye on things, and that’s a good thing.

Sue, over the back feeds the kookaburras. About 4 pm each afternoon 3 or 4 of them fly in and sit on the clothes line. One will go and sit on a rail right beside her back door. She comes out with little bits of mince and hand feeds the one by the back door and throws titbits to the others. Sue says she can not only hand feed this bird but the bird allows her to pat it too. That’s terrific!

Listen to the kookaburra here. For a small bird they can certainly make a lot of noise. They are related to the kingfisher and usually call at dawn and dusk.

I remember my own childhood, living in a small town, the entire neighbourhood knew each other by name. It was not an intrusive thing, but we all knew who was who, where they worked, and all the children knew each other and played together after school. Well, I guess we all went to school together too, so quite a close community grew over the years. It gave a safety that is not apparent in most neighbourhoods today. Rather sad isn’t it?