Last night I met my neighbours for the first time and dug up their garden area. It was wonderful.

It's funny how much horrendous crap I was told from others about these people. Worse, without actually getting a chance to introduce myself to those who were being gossiped about. Even though I know better than to believe a stupid word anyone said, I still become wary of this apparently "abusive, drunken, irresponsive, neglectful" family.

Last night I was berating myself for taking this long to get to know these nieghbours across from me. They are lovely, generous and have nothing terrible to say about anyone. My nieghbourhood can get vicious if you talk to certain people. In fact, for some of us, it's nothing better than a depressive hole that they are stuck in until they can peel out of here. For others, like the mother and daughter of the garden space I worked on last night, it is a wonderful place to live. Of course, it has its problems, but it’s a great place to raise kids in an incredibly expensive city.

The storage locker that I was told was where she was making her daughter sleep because she had kicked her out of her house?
Yeah, that's her study. She has a computer and a little television set up in there and its just her place to concentrate. I got to listen to a Much Music tribute to Sonny and Cher as I pulled weeds and racked leaves.

The mother gave me her carrot seeds that she received from her donation to World Vision. She also has a pretty good motherly handle on the "troubled teenager" and her boyfriend next door. Instead of yelling at these kids and dismissing them to an eventual homeless life on the street, she asked about their day, whether they went to school, what their field trip was like, etc.

Let's just say it was a bit of an eye-opener on the "informed opinion" of the people I normally come in contact with around my home.

I'm excited to start planting. I just noticed this morning that the pumpkin I planted eons ago has finally sprouted in a major way. Those things take so long to get themselves out of the ground. I've had feel-good butterflies ever since I saw the shoot and knew I was going to be able to plant this weekend.

Of course, I have this major paper to do as well so I have to be careful with my time. I also have to remember to plant when the small kids around the complex aren't outside playing or I'll have a ton of little "helpers" who will want to make "stweams" and "gussing wivers" through the space. I'm all for teaching kids to garden, but these little guys (3 and 4) need their own, isolated flower boxes. A garden space like this would likely be massacred.

Perhaps I'll try to make it more kid friendly though. After all, I've got to walk the walk.