So you know that I am against overdone privacy plantings, this is because they are antithetical to new urbanism, discourage pedestrians and also because I like to look into other people's windows. Our neighborhood is an old one, with "spanish style" houses set back and front yards that are grass. Very sweet. (Well don't get me started on GRASS in Southern California that's another rant!) But some people, like the house above, have done a few privacy plantings. This house is a drag to walk by because you can't tell what's behind it, and the dogs bark but you don't know if they're outside or not and the plants are taking over the sidewalk.
But from the street, as you can see, there is no way to see the house. So what's up with the holiday decorations gone crazy? It started the first week of October with this extravagant Halloween display that no one can see. That was then re-done with stuffed chickens and turkeys for the thanksgiving holiday. Now of course it is a winter wonderland with christmas elves and trees. Stuck behind the privacy plantings. It is odd to think of this outpouring of public civic mindedness in decorating for the holidays and hiding it. An even odder note is that our neighborhood is predominantly and rather pointedly orthodox jewish and so the happy secular christmas theme hidden behind the privacy plantings takes on this subversive tone.
I don't get it. Going to all this decor galore "public" work and keeping it hidden.
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