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NEW NEIGHBORS

In my random mountainside wanderings today I made the surprising discovery that, on the other side of the very big clearing that comprises all the rice paddies between here and where the forest resumes its work, a whole new little community is burgeoning right there among the trees on the upper slope. I often look in that direction when I enjoy the panorama at dawn, or in pauses in my work throughout the day, and at sunset (of course as well as on starry or moony nights), but I never noticed any building activity or woodstove smoke coming from over there, or even signs of traffic; this afternoon, though, I found that there are several very nice, new and large houses of nature-friendly design over there now, right in among the trees, the owners clearly caring for the surroundings.
Since they're not members of the water co-op as we are on this side (our water co-op, sourced by the mountain streams, was founded about 30 years ago; we joined upon buying land here), as far as I can tell our new neighbors have done the next best thing and are getting their water from rainfall, via their roofs into large holding tanks, as we used to do in Spain using cisternas. It must be quite enough water, given the amount of rainfall here. Most heartening to see and know that some folks are leaving the cities, taking up caring residence on the land and ready to accept the many new natural labors and responsibilities involved in such husbandry. It is proof of their care and effectiveness at doing this that until today I didn't even know they were there.