Neighbors Up the Road

Tonight, after a drenching five inches of pure Florida summer rain, it is just beginning to clear though I still hear distant rolls of thunder.

I see distant lights up the hill in the little house and it makes me glad. I see the warm glow of the chili lights and I think that dinner may be happening up there.

At the beginning of June we decided to rent the guest house to our dear friends who have been using it for ages when there was an opening between other guests. It seemed that when our family comes to visit they always wanted to be in the main house and that is great for us.

We want to sell twenty acres of our land to our good friends who have used and loved the little house. But there are some legal issues, yet to be resolved, about making this happen. So, we came up with the idea of renting the little house to them until they can have their very own slice of this paradise. This is a good deal for everyone. They feel free to come and go as they please. They have use of everything here, and most of all, these folks truly love the place and know it almost as well as we do. They pitch in with mowing the pastures, weeding the vegetable garden, heaving mulch. We love to walk together in the woods and swamp. Their kids have grown up here and frequently come to visit. I was charmed when we went to one of their boys' graduations this spring, and we were introduced as his grandparents. We are that close.

Having neighbors, even sporadically, is the best! We live out here in such a vast space it makes the people who come to fix things gasp. (The drive way is a mile long!) But having such wonderful people as neighbors on the hill, not very near, is perfect, just perfect.

You never know how life will turn out; it always takes unexpected turns.  Many years ago, I thought that one of our sons would live in the vicinity and would be interested in making this ranch a part of his life. But that didn't happen and his career and family life soars elsewhere. If you give your kids wings to fly, they'll fly. And all of mine have flown and I am pleased with that.

But one of the very best and unexpected things has been having a close connection to one of my grandsons, who is now nine years old. He has spent a lot of time with us since infancy, has his own room here, his own toys and books and he folds seamlessly and joyfully

into our lives. I know that soon he will be a teenager and be more distant. But for now, I enjoy every moment.

The neighbors up the road will bring ribs to barbecue for the 4th of July, everyone will make food and our daughter and her wife will be here, my sister and brother in law, and we'll set off firecrackers and smoke bombs. The nine year old is still in camp in North Carolina, our neighbors' boys are not in the vicinity, so it will be just adults. (Unless the Mexican neighbors from Lacoochee come to swim).

I am pretty wildly happy to be here in this swampy and forested place in Florida and it is all the better to have neighbors up the hill who love frogs and birds and plants. Who knew?