Bah! Spring

This is next door at our neighbor's house. Over the last year, while we have been planting begonias and cultivating roses, this guy has been systematically removing 95% of the plant life from his property. He even went so far as to remove a large oak tree from the back. It must have cost thousands of dollars to do that. I joked that maybe he was getting ready to put in a grass tennis court, but it really is no joke. It is not that the fact that he made all these changes-- it is his property and he can do with it as he chooses within the city codes and ordinances and the bounds of civilized urban society. The problem is that he wants everyone around him to do the same and has engaged in aggressive and verbally abusive behavior to get his point across. Anyone that has been to our street knows what an unlikely and undesirable prospect it would be to carry out his plan to turn it into the surface of the moon. So, we try to stay out of his way and hope that he doesn't snap like so many twigs he has removed from his yard. In the meantime, it is not all bad. The roses get a lot more sun now.