Bits and pieces

       Oops - think I've already posted this pic of Rudbeckia.

Back to work after a two-week holiday. Funny how everything there remains the same, for some reason I always think things will be different when I go back but no. I had this strange feeling this time that I wouldn't be coming back, that something would happen (winning Lotto, dying in my sleep) which would prevent me from returning, but this did not happen.
  Spent yesterday in a mediation session with a group of neighbours, the Council and a developer who has plans to put a 70-child preschool at the end of our narrow cul-de-sac. He is the typical rich prick wanting to get rich at others' expense. Don't you love developers? They see a nice neighbourhood, say "this is nice", then proceed to destroy all that was pleasant about it; cut down the trees, increase traffic, make more noise. He was turned down by our local Council on his first application, now he has appealed to the Environment Court (a national regulatory body) to overturn the Council's decision. 
   It was good to meet some of the neighbours that I don't know, those who live at the end of our street, who will be more affected than I by the proposal.  Some of them have lived here for many years and have interesting stories to tell. One neighbour told me something  about a previous tenant here, who lived here with his brother who rented the house. When I moved in, there was a 'presence' here, whom I felt rather than saw. I did have a vivid dream about him too; a dark, thin, tall man, pacing in an agitated way at the foot of my bed. ( I know this sounds flaky, but I'm not flaky at all. Really). He really disliked my redecoration of the bathroom, perhaps because he was the one who decorated it last. All sorts of things went wrong with my project in that room, not the least my being mysteriously locked in (the door has never, ever locked before or since) and having to climb out of the very small window sustaining a lot of impressive bruises in my fall to the ground. I asked my neighbour if one of the brothers living here was tall, thin and dark. Yes, very tall, thin and dark, an ex-alcoholic who became sober after living here in this benign spot. I didn't ask if he'd died in the house!! I don't want to know.