Saturday morning we went to Tess and Josh’s for coffee. Tess is Esther and Hendrik’s daughter. And of course mother to the adorable Juneau and Cleo. And sweet kitty Marmelade with kitten Toast on the way. They live maybe 15 minutes walk from where we were staying, on a canal in a home they recently renovated. Three stories…slim but tall as many homes are. And darn, I neglected to take photos of the family or the house.
We learned that there is a great sense of community along the street. Each house has a bench in front for socializing. They’ve even formed a band with some neighbors to play for neighborhood get togethers. Josh is a musician (guitar) and Tess sings. There is another guy, the bass guitarist who apparently plays one beat but does that well.
We fondly remembered the time when Tess, Grubb and I (and friend from Albuquerque, Jamie, who just happened to be there at the same time) had met up in London for an evening (Tess lived in London for 10ish years) and enjoyed a fabulous Indian meal and then went to the funniest play I’ve ever seen: The Play that Went Wrong. If a production ever comes your way and you need a laugh, go see it.
Then it was time to leave them to the rest of their Saturday and take a ramble through the antiques and farmers markets.
Makes me sad we don’t have stronger ties with our neighbors in Albuquerque. We do know our two nextdoor neighbors and the three across the street neighbors and are friendly when we happen to see each other and even share favors like watering or pet care when someone goes out of town. But we hardly ever actually see each other. For a time several years ago Charlie and I would sit on our front porch and occasionally interact with people who would pass by and think it would be nice if people sat on their porch more often. But we haven’t done that in a while. Maybe we need to get some comfortable chairs for our front porch. I’m always in awe how much community life there is in Spain and it sounds like this is true all over Europe.
I feel the same. Perhaps some it comes down to mode of transportation. We aren’t out walking to the market or any of our destinations. We get in our car which isolates us from everyone else. Even sitting on the front porch, our porches are set back from the street so someone has to walk up the driveway or across the front yard.
Yes, I agree it would be nice to just sit and yak with neighbors. It feels like everyone is in such a big hurry!