A senior journalist

asked for three things people like about their neighbourhood.
It made for a positive thought in all the gloom and doom of the past week.
I responded by saying, "the trees, it is mostly quiet - and we have great neighbours". 
Yes, there are still plenty of trees around here. I hope it stays that way. I would be happier still if more of them were food producing trees - even if it meant an invasion of noisy sulphur-crested cockatoos eating green walnuts. (Those birds must have a cast iron digestive system.)  
Middle Cat and I had a close look at our avocado tree yesterday. We never intended to have an avocado tree. It came up by accident. My mother, who knew about such things, realised what it was when it was just tiny and left it there. It doesn't produce much fruit - you apparently need two trees for that to happen - but it does produce a little for the possums. If they would only stop playing night hockey with the stones on the carport roof I wouldn't mind them having that either. 
The rest of the neighbourhood is relatively quiet. We haven't had the Tactical Response Group out for the past few years. That suggests the mentally ill man in the next street is still taking his medication. There is the occasional motor bike left running but there haven't been any fights or anything else requiring emergency police presence.  Parties? There have been a few in the distance but nothing close at hand now that one family has moved. 
We've been lucky.
And our neighbours? We said a sad farewell to one of our "over the road" neighbours in January. It is not entirely farewell as they have only moved about two and a half kilometres away but we don't see them on an almost daily basis now. The little boys next door to them are really missing them. 
But new people moved in. We have met the father, the two small children and his parents. The mother works and although we have seen her rushing to and fro we haven't spoken yet. The rest of the family is nice and we expect she will be too.  
We know our other neighbours - know them by name and know them well enough to have the occasional conversation over the fence or pick up their mail or water their garden if they happen to be away.  One older neighbour puts our bins out each week. I could do it but she insists because she has so little rubbish she just adds it to our bin rather than using hers. One of them is a paediatrician and has told me, "Never hesitate if you need a doctor for the Senior Cat. If I am home I'll come." 
I hope I never need to call her but I will if I need to do just that. If she isn't there I know someone else might well be there and that, if they can, they will help. I know I would reciprocate if I could too. It's all part of what makes this neighbourhood just that - a neighbourhood. I feel sorry for people who don't have trees in a quiet place where they know their neighbours.