Tuesday 31 March 2020

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.

15 comments:

  1. I've just watched so many people and their dogs walking past in the lane and then going down my meadow and thinking "who are they? and where have they come from?"

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    1. I imagine that the lane has seen much more traffic this past month than you ever imagined!

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  2. Oh, you have a lovely view of the neighborhood from your windows! That's the nice thing about having access to an upstairs window. At times, these days, anyway, just about all I can see from my living room window are delivery trucks! Never seen so many delivery trucks pass by my house in all the years I've lived here! Of course, I am always curious to know what they delivered!

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    1. Once retire, I shall be in a bungalow in a quiet close. I must enjoy my distance views whilst I can

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  3. I have put a teddy bear in my front window, with a sign saying 'we're going on a bear hunt' above it, after reading about a street where many people have done that to amuse small passers by. I shall add another bear today!
    Also, when Nancy has mumps in 'Winter Holiday' by Arthur Ransome the communicate with semaphore. And also in Secret Water!

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    1. Going on a Bear Hunt author Michael Rosen is very ill in hospital with covid19. A lovely man, I hope he pulls through ths

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  4. I love “Rear Window” and watched it — again — not too long ago! Is the garden gnome essential? Hmmmm......it is very cheery so maybe it could be classified as an emotional support gnome. We are doing work outdoors as well — when I say “we” I mean NOT me! Hubs has moved from trimming bushes to felling trees — I fear for his safety. I wish I had gone to the home store prior for plants for my pots but alas I will have to wait I guess. Stay well and stay safe!

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  5. There are going to be a lot of compost heaps made this year!

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    1. I suspect some of my neighbours haven't used those fancy garden tools for years....

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  6. I love “Rear Window” and watched it — again — not too long ago! Is the garden gnome essential? Hmmmm......it is very cheery so maybe it could be classified as an emotional support gnome. We are doing work outdoors as well — when I say “we” I mean NOT me! Hubs has moved from trimming bushes to felling trees — I fear for his safety. I wish I had gone to the home store prior for plants for my pots but alas I will have to wait I guess. Stay well and stay safe!

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    1. Oops, published twice. Enjoy your gardening but do keep safe!

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  7. I remember semaphore in the Brownies! We just couldn't learn anything because we kept corpsing because of how daft we looked. Brown Owl said we might be sorry one day and look at us now!

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    1. Brown Owls up and down the land threatened little girls like that!

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  8. Ha ha, I love Semaphoreheights! Very good! I must find a Semaphore video for my year 2's music lesson on the blog on Friday as our topic is Communication! I might put that as a Cross-curricular activity to spell their name in Semaphore using something red and something white! The last lesson was on Morse Code!

    I've not looked out the windows at all! Because the main rooms we use (kitchen, living room, bedroom, bathroom are all on the back of the house, I've not really looked out!

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  9. When does your term end, Kezzie?

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