With wild abandon...
My dining room window on the second-floor apartment overlooks a concrete inground pool and the land behind the property’s fence line. Since my literary endeavors keep me confined to my office at the opposite end of my unit, any swimmers or sunbathers are out of sight and out of earshot—even those shrill cries of joy ricocheting off the kids playing Marco Polo.
Although the pool is available for residents in two buildings, each structure harboring 106 units over a spread of three floors—there are days when no one is around. Then, I take the liberty to gaze out the window and scan the view beyond the pool, encompassing a vast meadow, once a heavily-wooded area from where rabbits ventured forth and an occasional deer trespassed onto the manicured lawn.
A wild habitat destroyed by backhoes and bulldozers, a couple of years ago, in a matter of days just before the onset of winter! Mother Nature’s blankets of snow covered the ground’s barren shame, frozen for a time, until spring thaw. Then, any substantial amount of rain settled into craters formed by pockmarked depressions in the soil. During summer’s periods of drought, a layer of dust skimmed the surface of the pool and infiltrated outlying areas.
All because a developer abandoned a massive construction project, citing a “soft” condominium market, and left shaky ground in its wake! Just as anything built by man can be destroyed by Mother Nature, she is also restorative by nature, having a way with weeds.
To my delight, every square inch of acreage is now overgrown, inhibiting one from wading hip-deep through thick-as-thieves density. The rampage of weeds obscures those few houses in the distance, preventing one from peering at the windows to their souls. Rabbits and deer have regained their footage to grace us with their presence. Recently, a coyote has been sighted.
Weeds and the wild imaginations of writers cannot be restrained to fit preconceived notions or imposed sanctions.
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Thank you, Eva, for another trip down memory lane.
In your case, the regrowth of that area has created a wonderful place for wildlife to find a variety of food.
I wish the woods was still there and I do hope that that property never gets developed when the condominium market is “hard,” again. ;-)
Ron