Grateful for our neighbors

We've lived in our current house for nearly five years. 

When we moved in, we were new to the suburb and had made the big leap of moving 'over the bridge'...that would be the infamous Spit Bridge.  Famous in Sydney for it's narowness and tendency to be a huge monster of a bottleneck!

Our immediate neighbors on either side of us were quickly befriended...they are both older couples with adult children.  They have been in varying degrees substitute parents, grandparents, friends, helping hands and great BBQ companions over the last five years.

The suburb has also experienced an influx of young families and had a baby-boom in the time we've been in residence so we're fortunate to have met neighbors a bit further afield...over the back fence and to the right type of distance or just around the corner.

I am so grateful to have met so many lovely neighbors and try to catch up with them as frequently as our busy schedule allows.  Last night, one of our neighbors hosted a ladies evening at her place.

She wasn't selling anything, she had no hidden agend...it was just a chance to catch up over a glass of bubbly and copious amounts of wicked chocky and shoot the breeze.

We had a lovely evening and the conversation traversed many and varied topics from books, TV shows (The Slap got a mention of course!), babies, children, schooling, husbands, labour experiences (always a huge hit) and everything else you could imagine we could share.

As I am still rigidly sticking to my Siberian diet my contribution was 'in that spirit' but a little bit wicked nonetheless - Pineapple with bashed mint and caster sugar and Strawberries with balsamic drizzled over them...plus a bowl of yummy blueberries unadorned as they were delicious on their own (and I couldn't think of what to add to them except chocky!!!!)

There are times when I feel incredibly lonely without having my family and friends that live interstate around.  But then I am buoyed by the fantastic neighbors that I am surrounded by and I feel comforted and 'at home'.

So thanks to Maxabella and her Grateful Saturday for forcing me to reflect on something like this that I am truly deeply grateful for :)