Monday, September 22, 2014

Country neighbors

Growing up we used the expression next-door neighbor to mean the house right next to ours.   We probably only considered maybe 8 more houses our neighbors; the ones we could see.  We wouldn't have said someone was our neighbor if they lived a mile away.  Now, even though we live in a rural area with large pieces of property and we can't see each others' houses, I would say we have hundreds of neighbors.

Last night we went to a party at one of our "neighbors".  They live about 4 or 5 miles from us.  Many of the folks there were also our neighbors (maybe 10 miles from us).  A few of the others lived in town, meaning Lexington; not considered neighbors since they don't live in our part of the county.  I don't know why it works this way, it just does.

One of our neighbors brought with him (as show-n-tell, I guess) this really cool caterpillar, a hickory horned devil.  It was more of a turquoise color than the green it appears in this picture.  It was longer than the width of my hand and almost an inch wide.  Even though it wasn't supposed to be poisonous or sting, none of us held it.
If it completes its life cycle it should one day turn into a regal moth.
Today I ran into another country neighbor but this one wasn't welcome.  I didn't invite him in.  He just showed up without me knowing it.  I had driven from our house about a 1/3 of a mile and parked next to the boat deck to work.  I rolled my windows down to keep the car cool and this neighbor decided he needed more fresh air too.
It took some coaxing to get him out but he finally realized he wasn't welcome.

2 comments:

  1. Is that a nice, friendly black snake? Still a shock to find it in your car! Hope it didn't leave any relations under the seat!

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  2. Yes, it was just a friendly black snake. I left my window open after it left because I figured it wouldn't return. James suggested later it might return if it had babies in there. I hadn't thought of that.

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