Good Fences make Good Neighbours

Subtle signs make me aware of the changing of the  seasons at Towerwater.  It is darker when we arrive home on a Friday and groups of dry oak leaves are huddling in corners where the cooler wind has blown them.

The neatly cut green lawn gets a scattering of oak leaves every time a breeze moves through the trees.  The vegetable garden has a lot more fallow beds waiting for the next planting. The new season beetroot and carrots have joined the seasonal vegetables for the different meals.

The brinjals, Swiss chard, courgettes and salad are still producing copious harvests. In the orchard the pomegrenates and quinces are nearing the end of the harvest with the white and pink guavas, lemons, limes and granadillas coming into season.

I am tempted to slow down the sowing of vegetables to have more time for the autumn maintenance tasks on the property. The big job is the sanding and painting of the picket fence around the property before winter. I can sympathise with Tom Sawyer's feelings when faced with painting pickets.

“He surveyed the fence, and all gladness left him and a deep melancholy settled down upon his spirit. Thirty yards of board fence nine feet high. Life to him seemed hollow, and existence but a burden. Sighing, he dipped his brush and passed it along the topmost plank; repeated the operation; did it again; compared the insignificant whitewashed streak with the far-reaching continent of unwhitewashed fence, and sat down on a tree-box discouraged.” (From Mark Twain, Tom Sawyer, Chapter Two, 1876.)

a Winter View of the Fence on the East Side

I have to admit we are not whitewashing but using “Historical Green” enamel paint. When seeing the unpainted wooden pickets stretching out in front of you as far as you can see, I understand Tom’s sense of melancholy.

A Winter View of the Fence on the South Side

Keith wanted the fence to be authentic and complementing to the house. With determination he made all the pickets, screwed them into the cross planks with all the screw heads pointing in the same direction. Several sections had to be remade due to a flood in 2009 and also some planks not treated properly in the factory  had a shorter lifespan as a result. But I never heard him complain.

The Devastating Flood of April 2009

In the Robert Frost poem “Mending Wall” the poet questions his neighbour about  the repetitive nature of maintaining the wall between them when it seems that nature does not want fences. His neighbour responded that good fences make good neighbours. When mischievously pushed to explain his belief in this old fashioned notion, the neighbour retorted:,

" He will not go behind his father’s saying,

 And he likes having thought of it so well   

 He says again, “Good fences make good neighbors.”

I have to agree with the sentiment that good fences make good neighbours. Having a 3 meter wide canal as a fence on the one side of the property makes for even better neighbours. 

Maintenance on a historical building is part of the package. When you commit to the lifestyle that a property like this offers you, you have to keep this in mind. 

Unlike Tom, all gladness does not leave me when I need to do maintenance on the property. I just have to prioritise and reduce the amount of garden work in autumn. 

When I spend less time on gardening in autumn I instinctively enjoy the memory of the summer garden.