We got new neighbors in the midst of this global pandemic. They have sweet twins, one boy and one girl who just turned 8. With another boy due in January.
We've had lots of over the fence chats, driveway talks and side yard discussions over this long socially distanced shelter in place time.
The twins had a very small, mostly family birthday party that we got invited to.
We sat in the backyard and ate bbq and watched an epic girls vs. boys kickball game.
Monte and I never wanted to play kickball more in our lives.
Alas, we were not asked to join.
So we cheered from the picnic table.
Sitting in our neighbor's backyard gave me a chance to see my yard from a different perspective.
Monte and I noticed a piece of trim hanging a bit from the side of our garage that only they can see.
Some of my Rose of Sharon limbs were scraggly
and haphazardly growing through the fence.
But the worst thing I discovered were these vines that had taken over the backside (or my neighbor's side) of the ornamental grasses and forsythia that separate our yards.
They were covered and I didn't even realize it!
I spent Saturday pulling the choking vines from my plants.
Some had bloomed with the daintiest little misleading white flowers
while I uncovered brown leaves underneath on my forsythia bush.
And isn't that just how it is?
When we don't change our perspective every now and then,
take the time to actually leave our own yard,
we can't clean up what we don't see.
We assume everything is ok because it looks good from the comfort of our own back patio.
From our safe distance,
we might even get a glimpse of the vine's tiny white flowers blooming and think all is well,
never realizing the damage
its vines are doing to the plant underneath.
My yard cleanup was much overdue and it's going to take some serious maintenance to stay on top of.
Lots of pruning.
Cutting back.
Uprooting.
I might even have to dig up and replant.
But now that I've seen my yard from another's,
I can't pretend I didn't.
