Seeing the Forest and the Trees in my Backyard The rented house next door to us was sold in late spring and the long-time tenants moved out. On the day it changed hands (from one neighbour to another) I went over to visit a friend hired to wash the windows. I’d never set foot on the property before even though it borders ours; the woman who lived there with her two teenage daughters was polite but made no overtures to friendship and we didn’t connect in the time we lived beside each other. Although the properties are separated by trees, I can see into the next door yard from the deck of my second story studio. It’s unfenced, and the neighbourhood deer make a home there; I often see them bedding down on the mossy lawn or hear them chawing on foliage along the fence line. The deer are numerous on our island and do not start in the presence of humans, though when I walk up the driveway there are none around. I know from the real estate listing that this lot is double the size of ours, and it appears that at one time was professionally landscaped into a “park like setting”. Real estate agents here love that term. It implies that nature is cut back, unthreatening. Trees yes, but park-like trees. Maybe even a peek-a-boo view of the ocean. This language is most often used when the house, as in this case, is older and not extravagant.