What a weekend, full of unexpected events. A weekend of joy, fun ... and an unexpected big disappointment.

Since we moved, 5.5 years ago it has been a changing mind with the neighbor. Not that we've been so difficult now. On the contrary. We have always accepted how he is and that he has problems. We always anticipated that, as far as we could, and never blamed him if he was cursed or scolded again. We have let it go our way and have always stood above it. We never got involved in his behavior to prevent it from going beyond scolding and screaming in his own yard.

I felt like living in a big brother is watching me world.

Since a few weeks, however, I no longer felt comfortable because the neighbor just pretended that she has to keep an eye on me, because the landlord asked her to do so. I checked this twice with the landlord and we have come to the conclusion that these are lies again. The landlord never asked her to keep an eye on me, in fact ... it didn't even occur to him for the simple reason that he obviously doesn't care what I / we do here, as long as we keep it tidy and the pay rent on time. Both are no more than normal for us, so no problem you would think.

Wow a leaf of weed in the tiles.

The neighbor, however, thought that our place is not clean, well… maybe a leaf of weeds grows between the tiles, but in general I really keep up with this. However, she thought it necessary to talk about it completely differently, and also to tell me to keep an eye on me for that. So not very cozy. Anyway, that problem was out of the world for me after a few phone calls to the landlord.

Building up a swimming pool for the dogs.

Now we have set up a swimming pool in the garden last Friday, so that the dogs can cool down and play in the water now that summer is really coming and temperatures are already rising. And yesterday we left together with our new car for the first time in years.

Buying some new trees and shrubs.

A visit to the Intratuin to buy some new trees and shrubs that we want to make new Bonsai trees. The Bonsai hobby that arose from "Rheno's Legacy" I wrote a blog about earlier. Enjoying the fact that after five years without a car we finally have our own car again, enjoying the fact that for the first time in years we came a little further away as at most 10 kilometers away from home, and enjoying the fact that we could EASILY leave together again. Gosh, it was about four years ago that we LEANED TOGETHER. There was always one of the two of us at home, and just for fun we hadn't done in a long time. Firstly, because it was not so easy in the first instance. Later because between us it went really bad for a while, and after that because Rowan was not doing well, and after that because we had Skipper back at home, who of course also had to get his time to get used to the new situation for him and gain confidence.

Now that we have gone through all that, and the two of us are just fine again… and we have a car again, it was great to finally go somewhere together again. A real trip, even if it was just a few hours walking around Intratuin to buy some trees and shrubs. It was wonderful. We enjoyed.

What a great disappointment when we came home… and saw some of our beautiful Bonsai trees lying around the yard, and saw the beautiful Bonsai pots that we had chosen with care and love in shards. And also there was a hole cut in the mesh around the garden, so we couldn't even let our dogs enjoy the garden.

Some idiots destroyed it in a tantrum.

That really gives a very bitter aftertaste to a very nice afternoon together ... precisely the Bonsais that we have spent so much time in, have given so much love to grow it from nothing to a tree. Put hours into cutting them, shaping them, choosing the right pots, looking for moss to make it beautiful so that you don't just look at a tree. Make a wooden house to put next to it. With a lot of patience, make and paint a tiny little fence of wood to put near the trees. Looking for stones when you are walking with the dogs to put near the trees. Make it fun, 'dress up'. In short, build up. And just now that we had left together, for the first time in years, and came home with more trees to expand the Bonsai corner, to build on, you see when you get home some idiot has destroyed all your work of the last three years in a tantrum … And you can start again from wherever you were three years ago. Starting over again when it was already beautiful ... Really how we felt 'hurt in the heart'.

This was over our limit.

It is not about that the bonsai pots are broken. You order or make new bowls, but the fact that someone is with his fingers on your things, and that willfully destroys ... that touched us! That hurts, especially because we have never harmed them. And have given them so many opportunities. Always remained friendly even when they were gossiping about us that we would have rent arrears etc. We never got angry. But now ... Now it was enough for us. This was over our limit and now we have taken action.

The landlord has to take it from here.

We took pictures and called the landlord. He came to see immediately and took it very high, fortunately. After that we literally started collecting the shards and cleaning them up again. 3 years of work… straight into the garbage.

Just one more thing ...

Sunday morning the landlord went to talk to the neighbors again, and he made it clear to them that if there is anything again they will be evicted from the house. Now we are curious. And it is not that I enjoy it when it happens of course ... but if we are still bothered by them once, then we do call the landlord right away, and in the meantime we are also going to install a few security cameras very quickly in order to keep an eye on when we're gone and at night. Because should it happen again, we want to immediately provide rock solid proof…

Furthermore, we can only hope that Karma will indeed turn out to be that bitch as it is always said. Time will tell!

It is now Tuesday… and so far I have to say that they are very quiet compared to normal. But whether this is a calm before the storm, or “The new normal”… we have to wait and see.

To be continued!

this is not my usual standard in photography, but just a few quick snapshots I took with my phone.