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Our neighbor C. left yesterday. She was one of the first people we met in our "hamlet" (neighborhood) when we moved here 18 years ago. I remember that she came to our front gate one day in June or July 2003 and rang the bell. She was carrying a basket of her home-grown tomatoes and offered them to us as a gift. We didn't have a vegetable garden that first summer were were here, so the tomatoes were welcome. And we were glad to meet a neighbor.
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C. was a really good neighbor and became a friend. She kept to herself, but always showed us a big smile when she saw us. We had some rough times. When we took Bertie the black cat in 11 years ago, he promptly started fighting with C.'s cats. C. tried to befriend Bertie but, according to what she told us, he attacked her and badly scratched her legs. I assured her that Bert was lovable and docile when he was around us. Things started settling down after a year or two, but C. and her mother (who passed away eight or nine years ago) were convinced that Bert was vicious and untameable.
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A few years later the "hostilities" had ended. One year, C. was going out of town for a few days. She normally called on another of our neighbors to take care of her cat or cats in her absence, but that time the other neighbor was also going to be out of town. She told C. that she might ask me and Walt to take care of her cat while she was gone. She did, and we said that would not be a problem. She gave us the keys to her house and told us what needed to be done. The cat needed to be let out in the morning, and then let back in at mid-morning and fed. It would go back outside after eating and needed to be let back in before dark. Walt did most of the job and it all went very smoothly.
A year or so later, Walt and I wanted to go spend a week in a gîte in Burgundy. We asked C. if she would take care of Bertie while we were gone. She said she would — her wariness about him had waned — and we invited her over, showed her how it would all be set up (over an apéritif), and gave her the keys to our house.
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P.S. The photos here are some more that I took inside the Cathédrale de Chartres back in 2006, on my last visit there. I obviously didn't know how to use the camera well enough to get clear, sharp pictures of the stained-glass windows. Nonetheless, I found them interesting and striking, so I'm posting them anyway. I was thinking about Chartres because our friends Evelyn and Esta went there when they left Saint-Aignan last week. I wish I could have gone with them.
In my opinion, stained-glass windows are the most difficult subjects to photograph and get them right.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the new neighbor(s) will be as nice as C. was.
What I've figured out, I think and believe, is that you can get good photos of stained-glass windows if you can frame the pictures so that all the dark stone in the church is out of frame. Then the camera doesn't get confused by the deep contrast between the dark stone and the luminous glass.
DeleteI hope the new neighbors will be as nice as C. They are definitely moving in today. There have been at least two vans, one car with a trailer, and two or three other cars parked out back. I have to go introduce myself and warn them that Bertie might be over there looking for a handout, since C. used to feed him everyd day.
A good neighbor is a wonderful thing especially when they are helpful. I'm glad Bertie redeemed himself. Esta and I would have loved your company in Chartres! It rained pretty hard part of the time, but the weather was fine by the time we arrived in Chartres. Checking into our hotel was difficult since there was no place to park. We went to an underground parking area first to scope things out and left our parking ticket in the car. Whoops, we needed it to get back into the garage. We just followed some people into the elevator and found our car.
ReplyDeleteThat happened to us when we parked in an underground garage out at CDG airport.
DeleteChantal was definitely a good neighbor to you as you and Walt were to her. I hope you have a good relationship with the new people.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tip on taking pictures of stained glass windows!
Good neighbors are the way to go for both parties, imo! Each looks after the other and is there for assistance when a need arrives, be it just some sugar, or perhaps an egg (I once started baking and realized I only had 1 egg, so I had to borrow one!) I will remember your advice for stained glass windows! Merci, Ken.
ReplyDeleteIt's sad to lose a good neighbor. We still miss the next-door neighbor that moved away 16 years ago.
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