Grrr! Complaints from nana neighbours...

This is also totally OT, but DH isn't home so I needed a small rant! We are in a rental in a nice suburb and all of our neighbours are the, ahem, grandparently type. This morning our property manager came to do an inspection and said that while the house is fine, and the neighbours think that we are very quiet, she has had a few phone calls complaining about the state of our garden.

Now, if it was a jungle, with weeds everywhere and grass up to my knees, I would be able to understand it. But no. They are grumpy because the lawn -- which is fully fenced and you can't see AT ALL unless you're standing on a ladder looking down into it -- has some tall grass near the fence, where the mower doesn't reach. Our weed-whacker-thingie is broken so we are waiting to get it fixed, hence the tall grass. And by "tall", I am talking about 6 inches. And it's only by the fence. INSIDE the fence, not outside where they can see it. The lawn is mowed regularly.

They are also grumpy because there is a patch of dirt next to our front porch, which was there when we moved in -- there is one struggling plant in the middle of it, but it's basically a square metre of dirt that hasn't been properly "gardened". The oldies want some flowers. They want some plants. They want our property to look like theirs. Our property is very tidy, weeded, and mowed, but it's not House & Garden out there.

What HACKS ME OFF is that the house can't even be SEEN by any of the neighbours unless they are actually in our driveway snooping around, or standing on a ladder looking over the fence. It's at the end of a long driveway and is almost entirely hidden from the road and from the other houses by our fence and by the garage of the house in front of us. So what were they doing, wandering around peeping over our fence and looking at our dirt patch at the front door?

Now, I see these grandparently neighbours out in their gardens ALL THE TIME, weeding and planting and grooming with nail scissors. Sorry, I ain't doing that. I have a baby, and a part-time job, and DH has a full-time job. I don't have hours and hours to be out gardening in my little sunhat and flowered gloves. Unless you are going to offer to watch my child while I garden, Nana, or bring your little spade over and get stuck in yourself, BUTT OUT!

Thanks, I needed that.

i reckon how rude wouldn't worry about it

It's one of those neighbourhoods where everyone knows everyone else, and apparently when the owner of the house decided to rent it out, he gave the rental agent's details to all the neighbours to help the agent keep tabs on the house. I don't mind that they know who the agent is, and I don't even really care about them spying on us and reporting on us to her -- that seems to be just the kind of people they are (nosy, nosy, nosy). But you would think they would thank their lucky stars that we are quiet and keep to ourselves and don't throw wild parties or have empty beer cans littering our driveway. Our baby sleeps through the night, and our dog doesn't bark, so they have nothing to complain about. But no, they have to find SOMETHING to pick on, I guess. Sigh.

DH says not to worry about it, so I'll try not to... Except for later today when I have to trek to our letterbox and pass three of the old bats on the way, all of them gardening like mad! LOL

OOOOOH it gets better!

Just had a call from the rental agent -- "I forgot to mention that the neighbours would prefer if you kept your recycling bin out of sight instead of on the porch, and if you could please collect it from the kerb soon after the recycling truck comes by."

Now this is getting ridiculous! The recycling bin is on the porch because it's the easiest place for me to biff empty baby food jars into it. And the recycling truck comes on a Monday morning, after DH has gone to work and when I'm usually working too. I'm not sitting waiting for them to come so I can run out and grab the bin from the kerb! Give me a break, people!