We’ve been working on our yard, spending the last few years turning it into a bit of an urban farm. One of the changes we made was to take out the 8-10 ft tall arbor vitae that had been completely blocking the view of the house from the street. It had been nice for privacy, but then again, we’d been robbed twice in a year thanks to all that privacy. Since then, we’ve put in a 3-ft wire fence that now supports grape and cucumber and bean vines. You can see everything in the yard from the sidewalk, and we can see everything on the sidewalk and street from the house. It’s been awesome – we’ve had people stop at the fence when we’re working in the yard, and they tell us how nice the yard looks with all the work we’ve done on it, that it’s so much nicer than when those other people lived here. We mostly just smile and say thank you and don’t tell them we are those other people.

We’ve met bunches of neighbors and passers-by because of the yard. People will ask what we have growing in the fruit & vegetable beds, they’ll ask about the grapevines on the fence, they’ll stop and watch the birds, and they’ll stay an extra moment and say hi and sometimes introduce themselves. We have some… I don’t know that ‘friendships’ is the right word, but definitely friendly acquaintances with some of the regular passers-by.

I’ve been a fan of BookCrossing for years. I love sending books out into the world and hoping to find out some of their stops along the way.  The Division92 library is a way to share books with the neighborhood. It will be easy enough for me to put books out there for others to take. I’m looking forward to seeing who decides to contribute to the library. I’m looking forward to meeting people at the library.