D.O.P.-T.

The new family that moved into one of the neighboring houses ripped the front off it and extended it out a foot or two, replacing the front windows with high, narrow openings that remind me of gunslits. In the process their workmen tore out the exuberant trumpet vine that had tried to eat the frontage every summer. They put its trellis back, and the lady put a plastic pothos vine there instead. There are also plastic trailing plants in the window boxes, beside the door, and on the trellis over the carport beside it. And mulch has been laid over the front lawn and stone holes set in it, which contain small plastic shrubs. This morning a carpet of fragrant wildflowers and grass was laid in the driveway, I assume from a taming of the back.