As I’ve previously mentioned, we have a giant pine tree in our front yard which is much older than our home. We also have several mature trees in our backyard, which provide much needed shade during our very hot summers, but were very overgrown when we moved in. We also had one dead oak tree, which we thought “added character” to the backyard, but for which our neighbors teased us. One day, I heard a tremendous POP, then CRACK, in the front yard, almost as loud as a gunshot. A little shaken, I went to the front door, opened it, and found a giant limb of that beautiful tree had fallen onto the yard. I glanced to the right, and saw a neighbor running toward my house screaming “are you ok?” She was shaken too. I’d never met her before, and to this day haven’t seen her again, but she was clearly very concerned about me at the time. I told her I was fine and went back to pondering how I was going to fix this.
Dave, who is married to Minion the French singer two doors up, came out about 5 minutes later to check in with me. “You know, these trees are very brittle. You have to keep them trimmed, or else…” and he glanced at the fallen limb as if to say… “You aren’t taking very good care of your trees.” So embarrassing. But I really wasn’t. Then he handled me the card to his arborist (a.k.a. the “Tree Guy”).
So I called up the “Tree Guy,” who was in the Pacific Northwest consulting on northern tree issues. He informed me that little could be done until the Fall. He informed me that if you cut the tree now, the Bark Beetle will invade. Very bad. So we had our gardener haul away the limb and hoped that the remaining limbs held out until the fall when we could get them safely trimmed. Thankfully, they did. As soon as fall set in, I called the “Tree Guy” back up, and he came out to give me a quote. He informed me of his illustrious career as an arborist, where he single handedly planted, raised, and pruned all of Disneyland’s trees (Ok, maybe I’m exaggerating a bit, but it was illustrious). And then he gave me the quote… the size of my mortgage payment (and that was before removal of the dead tree out back). Um… NO.
So back I went to find another Tree Guy that could be equally as competent, but maybe not so illustrious or expensive. I consulted our Neighborhood referrals in the newsletter, and came upon a Tree Guy named Pedro. Pedro came out, I showed him the front and back yard issues, and he gave me a much more manageable quote. The next week, Pedro and his guys had the entire front and back yards covered in tree limbs, trimmings, and leaves 3 feet high. He had to bring another truck and another couple guys to get the job done. Mid trim, Alex brought the guys a beer, they were working so hard. When Pedro and team were done, the limbs on the giant pine bounced upward and swayed proudly. The back yard was well groomed, and the dead tree was now gone. The garden was fresh and clean, and ready for the holidays. Pedro even saved all the wood for our fire pit, and brought some more the next week from another job.
Lesson learned. Maintain your trees: They will provide shade when warm, and warmth when cool.
How to be Neighborly: Vote for Pedro. Tell neighbors about people that do good work, for a reasonable price.
Here’s how you can use some of that wood:
Camp Fire S’mores
- Graham crackers
- Nutella
- Peanut butter
- Marshmallow
Assemble the bottom layer of the s’more with graham cracker, 1 tsp peanut butter, 1 tsp nutella, and then marshmallow. If you have a fire going, roast the marshmallow on the fire before placing on the nutella. You can also broil this in the toaster oven for about 2 minutes or until the marshmallow is brown. Leave the top cracker off until the bottom is cooked.
I made this for the mixer/impromptu wine tasting with some apples our neighbors Bev & Erwin had left for us on our front porch. Think of it like a sweet and savory pizza. Yummy!
This resulted in my chef friend Mila asking if I could give her some tips on photos, and how to use them to post on Instagram. She wanted to get the word out about her products. I told her we’d experiment together. So, after our neighborhood pancake breakfast, we headed to her home (Remember my favorite one? The 
On the first Saturday of every month, DTSA opens its arms, hearts and doors to artists. Well actually, the artists are always there. In fact, the artists open up their arms, hearts and doors to DTSA and others interested in viewing their offerings. A diverse group of people descend on one square block to enjoy art of all kinds: static, interactive, demonstrative, live. This night, a group of us biked downtown to enjoy the festivities.
Some of the art was temporary, some of it more permanent, some of it literally disappeared as time passed. One display was a continually updated work of words, which showed thought provoking political headlines and the time posted… like a human enabled Twitter feed, on a giant marquis. There one minute, gone the next. A cardboard Lady Liberty wept in the foreground of this display. Accident?
Combine oil, zucchini, dill, oregano, thyme, salt and pepper in a bowl and coat the zucchini. Put the zucchini on a sheet pan and roast at 350 degrees for 20 minutes until just softened, but not mushy or brown. Let the zucchini cool to room temperature. Once cool, add zucchini, onion, pomegranate seeds, avocado, and lemon juice to a bowl. Stir to combine, but be gentle with the avocado.
We are fortunate to have a couple chefs in our neighborhood. When we became Membership Directors of the neighborhood association and were responsible for creating a welcome basket for new neighbors, I wanted to create a basket of locally produced treats. I reached out to one such chef, the Brazilian wonder Chef Mila, to see if she might contribute her “Chocolate Sauce for Adults.” Kinky? No. Delicious? Yes. It’s a rich Kahlua chocolate sauce that is good on everything. She sells it in high end boutiques, and at our neighborhood events. She graciously agreed to supply the sauce, and a friendship was forged.
Our old neighbor from our last home just happened to do concrete work, so we called up Sergio to help us with the driveway. He and his crew installed our new and improved driveway and left room for the ribbon in the middle. Countless neighbors would walk by and ask, “So, what are you going to do with the ribbon.” Here’s where Alex and I had to get our hands dirty. It’s about a 50 foot strip about 1.5 feet wide that traditionally would hold grass. Unfortunately, we don’t have any irrigation there, and California has a draught situation at the moment, so turf was out of the question. We opted to go with a synthetic grass strip around the exterior (about 6 inches on each side) and river rock down the center. Design in hand, we headed to the home improvement store to purchase the supplies. Oh, the engineering that went into this…. 150 feet of pressure treated redwood, three pallets of gravel and stone, and three rolls of synthetic turf later, we were ready to get to installation. It just happened to be one of the hottest days of the year that we chose to embark on this effort. First was gravel, on neighbor had let us borrow their tamper to even everything out, then the wooden strips with synthetic turf, and then finally the river rock. Half way through the day (1/2 way through gravel, that is), our neighbor Alisha drove by. She was headed from a pool party to her house to pick up some snacks. On her way back, she stopped in front of our house- we
thought to check out our progress. But no! A most wonderful thing happened. She pulled two red Solo cups from her center console, and proudly presented them to us and said “You two look like you could use a drink.” In the red Solo cup was the “house drink,” the specialty of the house at that fabulous home that resembles a Cabo San Lucas oasis.
When we arrived, we were greeted with a big hug, and personalized wine glasses affixed with heart studded wine charms with our names on them. In attendance were both singles and couples, all of whom shared a love of wine, cheese, food, old homes, and equality in love. They had set up stations around the living room that paired various wines with various cheeses. White wine and cheese to the right, red wine and cheese to the left. Dessert table in the middle. I don’t know where their furniture went for the night, but much of it was removed to make room for mingling. One piece remained, and it was the long antique pew from an old church. This was the spot where everyone rested for a spell between sips. In the kitchen, the hosts set out two soups, roasted tomato and veggie, with tasting cups to ladle as you saw fit. Next to the soup, they had sliced tender, delicious, bread from our local restaurant Crave to dip into the soups. They had also made an apple crisp topped with bleu cheese and walnuts, which we munched straight out of the oven. Everything was delicious, and truly heartwarming.
That night, we sipped, we mixed and mingled, we munched and chatted, and sipped some more with new found friends. That night, I observed how love can be all accepting and all welcoming. I watched how neighbors could truly love each other, and that was far better than any pre-fix menu.
Neighborly Life 