Fences

I went for a short walk today – just down to the dead-end of our street. There is only one cross-street and there is a house on the corner. I haven’t noticed if it has changed ownership – they used to have a sign beside the door with the occupants’ names. However, as I passed by today, I noticed they were in the midst of building a new fence around the back yard.

I liked walking past this house. They had some beautiful trees and flowers around the perimeter of their yard, and bird feeders for all kinds of birds – most notably, finches and hummingbirds. Many times I walked by – slowly and carefully – past hummingbirds feeding, and both gold finches and purple finches. I’ve seen Baltimore Orioles in their yard, and even a few Cedar Waxwings. I think the only reason we have had finches and hummingbirds in our back yard is because of these neighbours.

That they are building a fence is not really momentous in itself. What disappointed me was that they replaced the chain link fence with a higher privacy fence. Now when I walk by, I won’t see those beautiful birds, flowers and trees.

I have no idea why they decided to change to a privacy fence. Maybe they had problems with people looking into their house since the glass doors leading to the deck are closest to the street. There are five townhouse complexes on this short section of street contributing to a high volume of pedestrian traffic. Maybe the chain link fence was wearing out or the posts were needing repair – I don’t know. I probably won’t ever know. Although I had chatted with the woman a few times on my walks, I would never recognize her to see her out of the context of her back yard.

I think I miss it because it was the only chain link fence in the neighbourhood of privacy fencing. I hadn’t even thought of that until it was gone. And I surely wouldn’t want to be without privacy fencing for our back yard, especially after the condo management cut down the two trees behind our house. And I will probably still see the finches, hummingbirds and orioles in the neighbourhood. And I hope this fence serves their purposes. Maybe it’s one more severing of human connection that I miss too, however thin this connection was.

Until next time, enjoy your neighbourhood…