the holly and the ivy....

oh wait, it's nowhere near Christmas yet.

This is just about the ivy.

We all know I live in a block of units.
Right behind is an identical block of units.
The unit directly behind mine has a new family, with a toddling baby.
About one year old or thereabouts.
The mother brings him outside to play every afternoon for about an hour.

The unit behind me also has ivy growing along and through the back fence.
It's been there since before I moved in over eight years ago.
It's a big stand of ivy.
Some of the stems are quite thick and tough.
I've been trimming back the edge whenever it gets too close to the lawn, but that's it.
I'm not fussed about the ivy.

The new family however, is fussed. The ivy hides all manner of creepy crawlies.
Mostly spiders.
Today while I was reading emails, I heard lots of scraping noises coming from the fence area.
I looked out the back window just in time to see a clump of ivy being pulled back through the fence.
I assumed the father was beginning to remove the ivy.

After a while though, I noticed that not much progress was being made.
I decided to help.
I went outside with the short shears and my thick gardening gloves, knocked on the fence, and asked if they'd like me to cut back some of the stems from my side.
A woman about my own size popped her head up and said it was okay, she'd manage.
Well! I wasn't letting her do all that on her own, so I said there's a lot of ivy on my side and I'd start cutting.
Which I did.

I cut, I yanked, I tossed long ropes of ivy behind me onto my lawn.
Until my side of the fence was almost clear, with only knotted stems poking through the fence in places.
I couldn't get those out, neither could she.

The woman thanked me, then I raked the huge pile of ivy off the grass and onto my driveway.
I'll bin it tomorrow.

I'm here to say,  I've never seen so many spiders running for cover all at once.
No wonder she wants the ivy gone!!  Her baby needs to be safe.
Me? I don't care one way or the other. I like ivy, it's nice to look at, but I can live without it.

I was very careful to check my clothes for spiders before going back inside.

I knew that my arms and shoulders would ache later, but I didn't think it would happen 5 minutes later.
I thought a couple of hours at least. But I have plenty of Deep Heat to rub in, so I'll be fine.