Concrete and Grass

There they go.  The high whine of the mower, the scream of the whipper snipper and the howl of the leaf blower.

I live in a community of lawn and concrete obsessed neighbours.  No gardens just huge lawns or lawn with pool with another noisy pool pump to contend with.  I don't want to complain as I came from the inner city which is supposed to be the epitome of the concrete jungle to a coastal town with houses on large blocks.  All I wanted was a garden to grow vegetables and flowers and try to do my bit for the planet.  No such luck.
This isn't to say that all the people who live here are like the obsessed above but a huge majority are.

My husband and I have practically removed all the lawn from our place.  We replaced it with newspapers covered with woodchips.  It is so much easier.  I leave the front verge - quite frankly I don't care if it gets mowed or not.  It amazes me how the people all get out there and not only mow but they also marshall the edges into straight lines.  Like buses they all seem to do the lawn at the same time.  If one mower starts it seems to signal a reaction in all the other lawn obsessed people.  One then another.  You may as well retire to your bedroom for some peace for the rest of the day.  When my front verge has reached about 7 centimeters in height my dear neighbour comes out and mows his and mine at the same time.  He then thoughtfully dumps the cut grass under my lime tree.  We feel bad about his generosity and give him a couple of beers for his trouble but if he didn't do it I would ignore the verge altogether.

The house on the other side of our house is a rental property.  It used to have a beautiful Tibouchina tree on the side of the house hiding a pretty ugly fibro wall.  The house had just become vacant again and the Tibouchina along with a few other shrubs were hacked down.  I cannot even fathom the reasoning behind this.  The tree was only of medium height and had the most beautiful purple flowers.  There is now only a bare wall of no particular distinction.  It was a barbaric act from people who don't understand their place in the universe (at least, as far as I'm concerned).

Oh well I have now got all that off my chest and honestly it doesn't make me feel better.  No one will ever care until the sky falls in.