Sunday, February 8, 2009

Meet the Neighbors

The farm closest to us has changed owners three times since we've lived here, and it looks like it will soon change again. The one thing these three owners have had in common was that they kept pretty much to themselves, and the current owners really take that to an extreme. They seem nice enough when we do happen to run into them, but that's not often. About a year ago we saw an ad that there farm was on the market. Then in January, we found out from other neighbors* that a family was renting in the area who were in the process of moving here from France. They wanted to buy the neighboring farm as soon as their place in France sold.

Yesterday my daughter and I decided to pay a visit to these new neighbors. We just showed up on their doorstep with a Swedish pastry and introduced ourselves. Since there really is no good time to just drop in unannounced on people you don't know, it turned out that they were just about to sit down to a late lunch. They invited us in anyhow, and the kids started playing immediately. They have two daughters, ages 4 and 7, so my 6 year old fit right in. The girls have only been here a few weeks and spoke French, but that didn't stop them. The mom is Swedish but had been living in France for the past 15 years. The dad is French and doesn't speak much Swedish yet, but they had no problem speaking English.

I really hope that everything works out so that they will soon be our new neighbors. It would be so great for my daughter to have somebody to play with within walking distance, and I'd be thrilled to have more friends around here too.

*I believe that's the way to find out anything around here--ask the neighbors, not the people in question. I don't know if asking directly would be considered rude. It really is funny how often we're asked about what other people around here are up to, and I've heard from our friends that they often get similar questions about us.

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