From My Windows

Do you remember the brilliant Hitchcock film "Rear Window" ? James Stewart plays a professional photographer, with a broken leg, who is housebound in his upstairs New York apartment.
He spends his time looking out of the window watching the activities of his neighbours opposite - and has two regular visitors, his no-nonsense nurse [Thelma Ritter] and his stunningly attractive girlfriend [Grace Kelly]
It's summer, the windows are open- he hears snatches of conversation, he watches his neighbours, gives them nicknames and creates stories about them.
...he becomes convinced that one has murdered his wife.
Fantastic story, clever, typical Hitchcock thriller. Many regard it as his best - check it out if you have never seen it.
It's a bit like that round here [watching the nighbours, not suspecting murder]

When did someone come out with chalk and draw the hopscotch grid outside that house? It's great exercise - but were they playing alone, or with a parent, or a sibling? I haven't seen [or heard] it being used yet.
Being at the top of a hill, opposite a side turning means I can see lots of houses in all directions.

Over the weekend, the family next door put up the most humongous tent, similar to this one. It covered a high proportion of their back garden. Plans for a family holiday with the cousins have been abandoned, but they thought they'd check out the tent anyway.  Sadly the wind became quite strong, and it had to come down again.
I had a good conversation from my rear window with Mum, and she said that at 4pm every day her son plays a game of chess online with his Grandad. How good is that?

Lots of neighbours on all sides are gardening. Including our neighbour next door [the other side] who knew we'd been isolating and trimmed our front lawn as well as his own. 
Dorset Waste have announced they are suspending garden bin collection for the foreseeable future.
Some people are going a bit crazy though - cousin Gill in Wilko said one of their customers bought a 2 foot high garden gnome last week, and toddled off back to the car park with it standing proudly in her trolley.
Is this essential shopping ? Wilko remains open because they sell cleaning products, loorolls and pet food. Not sure about the gnomes. I love watching families going for a walk together, toddlers struggling to master their bicycles, older children on scooters and skateboards, etc. Often they look up and wave and smile when they see me at the front window. That's lovely. At the end of the side turning is a tiny gap between the houses and you can see flashes of colour as the busy Ringwood Road traffic passes. Not as busy as it was last month! 
If I go to the extreme end of my window, and lean close to the glass, I can see the houses to the East which back on to Ringwood Road. One is where my friend Angela lives. But I cannot work out which [it is quite away off] Perhaps she and I should stand and wave flags at 4pm, so we can each work out the other's location? I wish I had kept practising the semaphore I learned in the Brownies. It could prove very useful when 'social distancing' But it does depend on the other person knowing it too, of course.