Before 7am this morning I awoke to the distinct sound of a voice; a loud, female voice, outside my bedroom window and not too far away.

My next door neighbour is not known for her dulcet tones. When she has something to say, the whole street hears it!

Upon inspection, my sleep-eyed cat and I noted our neighbour of loud voice fame escorting workmen down to the bottom of her garden.

Shortly after 7am, said workmen, wearing hi-visibility yellow safety shirts and wielding large chainsaws, had shattered the peace of my last sleep-in before my family returns home today.

They’ve been hard at it all morning, firstly cutting down large limbs of trees, after which the wood is sawn up into fire-place sized chunks for my loud voiced neighbour’s stockpile of wood.

The lady with the loud voice arrived in our peaceful little street six or seven years ago. She purchased a quaint little cottage, built next door to our house at around the same time as we were building our house.

Although only a small two bedroom home, the first owners ensured that only the best quality bricks, timbers, tiles, etc. were used during construction.

Over the next few years the first owners worked tirelessly, spending every spare moment they could find, in planting trees throughout the garden…that would be the whole garden…every available inch of the one acre garden!

The fresh manure that they regularly dumped around any available space at the base of the trees worked wonders in helping the trees to grow…and grow…and grow…

To cut a long and sad story short, we lost the majority of our beautiful view of the Tweed Valley, and we spent a number of years living in the shadows of a veritable jungle.

We rejoiced when the “For Sale” sign appeared outside the house next door!

When the house was finally sold, the residents of the street all rejoiced!

Enter new loud voiced neighbour. Another tireless gardener, she really has worked wonders with the garden.

Huge expanses of neatly mowed grass can now be seen, edged by carefully constructed garden beds, which contain a variety of neatly pruned, flowering shrubs.

Our view is not fully restored to its former splendour, although my loud voiced neighbour has assured me that a lot of the trees remaining are still tagged to go. It all takes time, she assures me; time, and a bank load of money, to have those trees removed!

The trees she inherited with the purchase of her new home were never intended to be grown on a one acre block of land in a sleepy country village, nor should they have ever been considered for planting in such a situation as to prevent the enjoyment of an amazing view.

Some of the rainforest trees planted in our loud voiced neighbour’s yard are expected to grow up to two or three hundred feet in height!

Being in an area where we have regular electrical storms, I shudder to imagine the devastation just one of those trees could cause if struck by lightning, causing it to fall, as has been known to happen with smaller trees over the years we have lived in this area.

Just as soon as another tree is removed, our neighbour relaces it, with a suitable, lower growing tree. As I have said, she is an avid garden and opens her home and garden at least twice a year for the members of a local garden club to admire!

Yes, the hi-visibility shirt wearing, chainsaw-wielding men are still hard at it, shattering my peace, along with interjections of my loud voiced neighbour’s loud voice, conveying instructions to the workers.

And on this very rare occasion, it is all music to my ears!

Moral of the Story ~ Do the research first; plant trees in your garden which are suited to their environment. Your neighbours will love you for it!

(In the photo above, taken three years ago, much of the jungle has been cleared away, although plenty of work is still neccessary. Click on the photo to enlargen).