The neighbor, the same one who cut my lemon tree back ten feet from the fence, did something similar nearer the house. She said she wanted to remove the extension from the fence, and take down the ivy. I said "okay," because, some months ago, that did seem okay.

I shouldn't say "she." While it was the mom who spoke to me, I think it was her son who did the work. A week or so ago, I noticed that the extension on the fence hadn't been so much taken down as pushed over, crushing everything within five feet of the fence, on my side. The honeysuckle and my roses had been removed, crushed, or pushed over, as well as the ivy. All privacy once provided by the lush plantings had been negated, and I was gifted with a view of her crummy shed and stacks of discarded tires. So far this week, I've removed four giant bins worth of plant debris, and one of metal debris from the fence. I'm exhausted, and very, very discouraged.

In sock news, I determined that I was no way going to get an 8" leg out of the single skein of alpaca I had. The way I figure, 8" is the minimum length for the leg on a man's sock; men don't wear anklets. I'll do a stripe or two of a pleasingly contrasting colorway, to get the necessary length. I have two other skeins of alpaca sock yarn, all in coordinating colorways. I think I can get two pair of socks out of the total three skeins of yarn.

While I was looking for the alpaca sock yarn, I pulled down a few skeins of bamboo sock yarn. Yeah, right. I really need to knit two more pair of socks for Tom. What I really need are some sweaters for myself!