Hudson Valley Home and Garden

Living and gardening in an older Hudson Valley home

Neighbors

Posted on by Paul

When I lived in Denver, Colorado I had many wonderful neighbors. I didn’t give it much thought when I moved to Newburgh, but I hoped I would have good neighbors. Without a doubt I can say my neighbors are incredible. – even better than I could have imagined.

We enjoy our neighbors. They are intelligent, kind and thoughtful people. In our turn we also try to be good neighbors.

Here are some of the ways we have tried to be good neighbors.

We invited all the immediate neighbors for a small get together last Winter.
Cupcakes we made for our neighborhood gathering.

Our neighbors did not have a strong history of socializing with each other over the past few years. Changes in who lived in our house did not make for good neighborhood connections.

A cake I made for one of our neighbor’s birthday.

Our neighbors have invited us to their homes for lunch, dinner and parties. In the middle of summer, one of our neighbors came by with a wagon load of the most beautiful hydrangea blooms, after I had commented they were the nicest I had ever seen. They were magical and even more so because of the thoughtfulness of our neighbors.

Amazing hydrangea blooms – they were enormous.
In the summer the garden yielded an over abundance of vegetables. Our neighbors were often imposed upon to take our numerous extra vegetables.
In the fall we had a lunch for some of our neighbors who did not know each other well.
It was a lovely opportunity to meet and enjoy a meal.
Even our youngest neighbor enjoyed the luncheon.

Recently, I managed to get my car stuck in the yard, after a snowstorm. My neighbor graciously offered to help me. We pushed and dug, but could not make any progress. In the end another neighbor came along with a truck and chain to pull the car out.

I tried to take Andrew to the train, but instead got the car stuck in the grass off the driveway. Thank goodness for my neighbors’ help.
2019 holiday cookies for the neighbors.

As 2019 comes to a close, I am most thankful for my neighbors. They have helped me by giving their advice, their friendship, gifts, and too many acts of kindness to list. I am truly grateful for each of them. I am looking forward to another nice year with the neighbors in 2020.