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2007-03-26 15:46 My Blackberries. Not that electrical gizmo for sending messages. My blackberries are real, juicy, yummy, loved by people and birds. They form a privacy barrier between the living room windows and the street uphill. There are 12 steps down to our yard from that street. Those blackberries are the delicious hedge between our home life and people parking and walking on the street. Last summer a tragic thing happened to them. Our little hill dwelling neighborhood has one member who is socially corrupt. He's "at war" with everybody else over something or another. He is irrational, sneaky, rude, and all sorts of other things not fun to be around. Oh and controlling! He has been the object of several restraining orders over the years filed by various neighbors. His actions are THAT TROUBLESOME! I had the luck of not being the focus of Mr Trouble's actions for 15
years. Outside his fixation for being able to park anywhere he wants
(in a hill dwelling area with few spare places) to park, and the time
his car rolled down our back steps because he left it running on the
street, Last summer he did something that really upset me. I suspected it, but didn't find out for sure until last week. On my way back from a dog walk I looked at my brown dead blackberries. All the other blackberries around are green and growing. Mine are dead or struggling. I couldn't deny it. Mr. Trouble sprayed them with herbicide last summer. I saw my neighbor working on her front yard. I said to her, "I think Mr. Trouble did something to my blackberries." And she said, "oh yes, I saw him show up really early in the morning last summer a couple of times, take something out of the trunk of his car, and spray them" "Why didn't you tell us?" I asked. She and her husband are in their 90's, and have been Mr. Trouble's target for abuse many times before. I know why she never said anything- FEAR. Once I got in the house I cried. Part of me wanted to report this to the police. Part of me wanted to get another IP Network cam to do surveillance on the berries. Part of me wanted to confront him. I know better than that- I needed time for making a sensible choice. In two days I knew! I want to encourage recovery of my berries. I don't want to give Mr Trouble fuel for his irrational fire by confronting him- that will have him sneak spraying the bushes again. So today I fed the berries! They need it for their damaged roots. It rained right after I threw 10 Lbs of food under them. How Perfect! Hopefully in a couple weeks I will not be able to see the street from the Living Room anymore. And hopefully this summer there will be enough berries to pick. My favorite it getting a little stoned and wandering outside to "graze" on the berries- eating them right off the bush! So much fun and healthy too. | ||
