Once when we lived in New Mexico in the mountains a whole family came up to
our house and were looking in the window. Faces pressed against the glass
while we were having dinner. My dad went out to see what they wanted and
they actually wanted to come inside and look around. They were tourists
whose brains must have gone to Alaska for vacation while they went to New
Mexico.

The only thing worse was when we came home from work to find about 7 guys on
our roof. They claimed we called to get a roofing estimate. Only problem
was we hadn't and their company didn't exist when we checked. Very
disconcerting.

Shell


"paghat" wrote in message
news
In article , Janet Baraclough..
wrote:

On the other side of the coin, I've occasionally come home to find
people wandering or sitting in my gardens, just enjoying them.
Neighbours sometimes bring their visitors for a look-see.

Janet. (Isle of Arran, Scotland).

When I'm home I don't mind when kids knock on the door to ask to play with
the rats or look at the salamanders but it's alarming to come in from
gardening to find the neighbor kids already in the house. Or neighbors
bring visiting family members to circle my house exploring the gardens
whether or not I'm here. It has kind of creeped me out to come home from
an errand & find a neighbor launging in the yard, or getting the crap
scared out of me coming around a corner only to encounter someone from
down the block is standing there. Once I heard strange noises & went
outside to find a half-dozen visitors who claimed they knocked first &
thought I wasn't home, so invited themselves out back -- when I first saw
them I thought the house must be burning down or something or why would so
many people be gathering around the place.

I don't complain but it's not a comfortable thing to have happen. It's
rare enough to not make a big thing of it, & I'm already always struggling
against a misanthropic nature & have to stick to this effort to not
discourage the neighbors from liking me. I guess as I've aged I've come to
be seen as the neighborhood's harmless old aunty; I miss being able to
scare people with a glance, but a gardening outfit with sun-hat doesn't
have the same impact as my old leather jacket with chains.

I find it bewildering that people think they can open a gate, circle
through gardens to a very quiet fully enclosed obviously private area, &
just sit there for a while like it was a public park. Worse, at least one
unknown visitor stole blooms. Well, my most common visitor is a bit addled
& has mistaken me for her best friend, but that group-visit was
astoundingly bizarre to me. It would not be within the realm of
possibility for me to trespass uninvited into someone's back yard, let
alone pick a bouquet for myself as I was wandering through. People are
just nuts, even friendly well-meaning people.

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
Visit the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com


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