Said a brief hello to the next door neighbours as I was wrestling with the bird netting on my fig tree earlier. They were out gardening together in a vision of perfect domestic harmony. The husband looked rather abashed*, though, when he asked if I would mind terribly much not mowing their berm for them any more. When I reluctantly dig out the lawn mower every couple of weeks and mow the berm to keep the rest of the street, including the nosey neighbour three doors down, happy, I do my near neighbours half of the berm at the same time as a favour as it only adds a minute or so to my job. Unfortunately, this results in an uneven appearance to their berm, because their other half is then (infinitesimally) longer. I had never even noticed but obviously it has been causing my poor neighbour psychological pain for quite some time, although he was far too nice to say anything about it. I guess seeing me struggling with my bird netting was enough to lower the social barrier and allow him to raise the painful topic. I heard his mower going only moments after I’d given the OK, and now both their bits of berm have the same closely shaven appearance. Well, I’m glad to have made someone’s life better today.
*I could only see the top of his head over the fence, to be fair, so it was more in the tone of voice.
