Neighbors

(PJ and our next door neighbor Jane admiring her new plants)

Our neighbor Jane has been our neighbor since the 1980's. By that, we mean she was Thomas' family's neighbor before she was ours, so she's always been a constant in our lives over the years. When we bought the house back in May of 2016, we immediately started brainstorming with her on ideas for fixing it up (she's an interior designer) and started to become close.

PJ and Jane bond over their mutual love of plants and flowers and are always spitting our names of random plants that Thomas has never heard of. Last night, while we were working on restoring a new furniture piece we found on the side of the road, we noticed she was outside and called her over to ask for her opinion on color. We went over all the different ways we could use the piece and some color options and that conversation somehow turned into talking about plants. PJ always gets excited when that topic comes up :).

She showed us her front and back yard and how well her grass was doing and some new plants she put in some pots she's had for a while. The weather was just about perfect as it was nearing sunset, and her grass felt like a soft rug under our bare feet. She promised to let us know when her fig tree produced later this summer so that we could have some figs to make a couple of new recipes.

It got us thinking how grateful we are to have her as a neighbor, even after all these years. She has always been nothing but sweet, kind, gracious, and helpful towards us. She helped us stage our house for the pilot and we borrowed a lot of her furniture (we even borrowed her huge antique Persian rug to stage the dining room with- you can see it in our last post) from her house and her sister's house who lives down the street. She was the one who told us about that estate sale a few weeks ago and we went with her to look at all the pieces. She always has the most creative ideas on how to use certain items in a home, and naturally, her own home is so cozy and well decorated.

We don't ever really think about it, and maybe some times we even take it for granted, but we feel blessed for all of our neighbors who have accepted us into the neighborhood without a judging eye. They've all been so welcoming and sweet, which isn't always the case, and could have easily been the complete opposite, given the fact that we live in the south and there aren't many gay couples in the area. There are a few, though, and everyone seems to get along well. Very grateful indeed.

Also feeling grateful that her yard is so pretty because this is what we see when we look out our dining room windows and while we're on our back deck. Why can't our yard look like that?!!