over the back fence

This is a sight often seen at our back fence.
You see, we are blessed. We have great neighbours.
There is a besser block platform on our side and a ladder on theirs.
It is our meeting ground, a place for a chat or a beer, a point to plan who's house we will congregate at for dinner or a spot for just a quick hello.
We joke but I know there will be a gate built there one day....someone has to spare the dress wearing Mama from climbing that ladder too many more times.

We gathered at our house for another impromptu dinner last night that rightly turned into a feast....of food and friendship. A half baked pie was quickly transferred...via that ladder...to our oven. A salad was picked from the garden and tossed on the table to add to the BBQ'd food we already had grilling. The best kind of pot luck dinner!
The wine flowed and the laughter grew louder...as did the children before it was time for a quick splash in the bath together. The very kind of thing memories are made from.

We have been lucky to add another neighbourhood family with another little one of their own to our melting pot this week too. We have lived across the street as long as we have been here. Sometimes it takes a little longer to put the *ladder* up you know, but when you do it is a special thing. It feels a bit like turning back the clock to times when I was young and almost all the houses in the street were common ground. It's a shame the world has become such a cautious and withdrawn place.
But we have created a small sanctuary of community....our tribe.
A community where our children can grow together and we can watch out for each other, plan more camping trips together (the more the merrier) and though it creates some regular late school nights....lots more pot luck dinners together at one of our three homes.

And as for the family on the other side? Well those wild tomatoes have been staked to their side of the fence and are quickly fattening and turning red. Every now and then I hear them talking and make out the words *tomato* and *red*. It makes me smile...not because I don't have luck with fat red tomatoes that should be growing on my side of the fence!...but because I'm inadvertently sharing my harvests, hopefully a passion for growing food and, friendship....in a round about way. There is hope.

Maybe I won't be so hasty as to move away from civilisation to my dream patch of paradise....well, unless our tribe comes too.