My backyard swing used to be tucked up behind the garage next to the fence under a big River Birch. You could sit out there, hidden from view, with only the trees and the grass and the birds as your witness. I liked taking my afternoon tea out there and watching the squirrels run around the yard. Then this Spring, new people bought the house behind us and cut down all the beautiful bamboo that served as our fence along the back. David spent the first summer we lived here battling the bamboo which wanted to take over the yard, but he eventually got it under control, and it was a beautiful tall evergreen forest between us and the house that sits up above us. With the bamboo forest gone, sitting in the backyard now felt like being in a big soup bowl with the new neighbours looking down from above. And my view from the swing went from a green forest to a big ugly bare slope.
And so, the swing sat empty all summer.
A few days ago it dawned on me that I could move the swing to the BACK of the yard facing the house. Might not be as cosy and private as the old spot, but I could look at the other nice trees in the yard, and besides, I wasn't using the swing where it was anyway.
Given my druthers, I'd take the bamboo back and still be in my little private corner. But the ugly slope is what I have to work with now, and it is sorta nice to see the house and wave at David when he pulls in the driveway.
Today, Carol and I took Tiger out to his new home in the country. They are a nice young couple with an energetic Jack Russell on a dead end gravel road 35 minutes from here.
The situation is not my "perfect". There's no fenced yard.
But the couple is gentle and kind and Tiger will be cuddled and loved and have his fill of entertainment and exercise with his new sister. There is a huge Great Dane puppy next door who also seems to roam the property and will probably make a great playmate. I've never lived rurally. I don't "get" letting dogs run loose. Alarm bells go off about cars and dog-nappers and scary monsters in the woods. But the couple seems responsible, have put up a big dog run, and have managed to train the Jack Russell to stay in the yard.
Given my druthers, I'd put Tiger in a home with a 6 foot fence. But this is what we have to work with now, and in the end all the good things outweighed my fears about the fence.
So tonight, with Tiger in his new home, I'm working on changing another view.
And letting go.
PS. No "Thursday Mix" this week. We are going to the coast for American Thanksgiving. See you Sunday :-)
