Meeting the Neighbors

Beloved at the neighborhood retention pond

A man that hath friends

must show himself friendly:

and there is a friend that

sticketh closer than a brother.

Proverbs 18:24

In keeping up this journal about our move from Colorado to Florida, I haven't said much about meeting our neighbors. 

We signed the closing papers on this house June 26th and our furniture arrived July 1st. Thus far, we have said "Hello" and exchanged names with six of the neighbors, but two of those were moving out while we were moving in, so maybe that means we've met only four?? Several others have given us a friendly wave in passing, and in my book that does count for something. 

Because it's so hot and humid here, most of us pay professionals  with large equipment to cut our grass, trim our trees and clean up the cuttings.  That reduces opportunities to meet neighbors while outside. We have been told the October temperatures get much more agreeable. That is when I imagine spontaneous introductions will  happen while people are out on their porches and patios. We look forward to that.

We miss our neighbors from Colorado. Two of them, in particular, became instant friends and we shared good times with them, doing a variety of interesting things together.

Beloved decided earlier this week that we really should make more of an effort, hot weather or not. So we put on our ball caps and sunglasses and took a walk down the street to see who we might find.

It was not a wasted effort. Some of our neighbors (who are obviously native to this climate) were sunning themselves on their concrete slab when one of them spied us approaching. He made a move in our direction and then maybe four more followed him just as quickly. That really started a parade and before we knew it, a virtual crowd of them had approached us with expectancy in their eyes.

A handsome black metal fence kept us from getting any closer, so we stopped to watch them and even called out greetings.

Florida turtles

There were so many of them, and they swam quickly in the pond. I couldn't get a good count, but there were at least four whose backs were the size of a lamp table surface (24 inches) and many more smaller ones were the size of dinner plates.

In addition to all of the turtles (smile -- you know I'm playing with you here), there were huge carp (fish). Beloved, who know's his fish, says the carp were easily four feet long. They stayed underwater and could not be photographed easily.

So yes, like the whimsical people we are, efforts were made to converse with them, albeit a one-sided conversation to be sure. I don't know that turtles make any noise.  They eventually figured out we were not distributing edibles for them, so their interest in us waned a bit. Yet, as we strolled to the other end of the pond, most of them followed alongside us in the water.

They were interesting to watch and will be good entertainment when guests come to see  us. Aside from the many tiny geckos (lizards) and occasional itty bitty tree frogs, we've never before this had 'friendly' reptiles for neighbors. 

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