NEIGHBOURS

One of the nice things about living in a rural area is that you get to know your neighbours better. There is, in principle, no reason why it should be different in cities; after all, if physical distance is the criterion, then your neighbour in a block of flats will be much nearer than ours are. However, based on my experience of living in London, I would say that it just doesn't seem to work out that way.

We live on a cul-de-sac off a cul-de-sac, on a tarmac road that turns into a track leading down to the Baltic Sea, about half a mile away. There are four houses on the other side of the road (of which one is a summer house, so the owners are not often there), but ours is the only one on this side. Nobody is closer than 200 metres.

Despite that, we know all of the people in our little cul-de-sac, and most of the people in the bigger cul-de-sac, even though that runs for almost a mile up, and over, and around, the hill. In part, that is because we exchange services. Our neighbour with horses cuts and keeps the grass in our paddock; in return, I can call on him and his tractor to help me pull out tree roots. Another neighbour has chickens, where we buy our eggs. A third is a builder, who lent me one of his small scaffolding systems when I put a new roof on the middle building in return for three bottles of red wine. A fourth has a job driving big machines that make the trenches for sewerage pipes and such like. When we had our optic fibre cable installed, he helpfully brought home one of the machines and dug the connection trench for us from the road to the house; it took about 5 minutes.

Given enough time, we would probably have got to know all of them in due course. However, what really helps the process along is the annual street dinner for the two culs-de-sac, which we hold every August. This year's took place last night up the road, with my wife standing as one of the two co-hosts. 20 people came, which was a pretty good showing. We had great food, and I had a lot of extra strong beer (one neighbour works for the local brewery). It was all very "hyggeligt", as they say in these parts.

The other co-host will be leaving our little society, since he is getting divorced and has had to sell his house, the oldest in our village. But we were able to welcome two newcomers to the area. And on 1 October, the new owners of the house will arrive, fresh from 5 years in Australia. I'll probably get to know them before long.

Walter Blotscher