Remembering Hitchcock's Rear Window

Image Credit  for Rear Window Poster is Here

Nearly fifty-eight years ago in the month of September,  the famous Alfred Hitchcock film, Rear Window, was released. The film's movie poster can be seen at the top of today's blog entry in an image credited with Wiki. Wiki's intro to the film's plot is this, "after breaking his leg during a dangerous assignment, professional photographer L.B. "Jeff' Jefferies (James Stewart) is confined in his Greenwich Village apartment, using a wheelchair as he recuperates. His rear window looks onto a small courtyard and several other apartments. During a summer heat wave, he passes the time by watching his neighbors, who keep their windows open to stay cool . . . " 

Like "Jeff", I have a rear window in New York City, and like "Jeff", my window faces a small courtyard and several other apartments. The apartments that I face are in a high-rise building directly north of where I live, and the rear windows of that building are in close proximity to my rooftop garden, as seen in the image below which shows a partial view of my garden as it looked this past September. I have included it here to give you a perspective.

During the growing season my garden is always lush and thriving, so I rarely think about what my neighbors are doing behind their rear windows. Aside from the fact that what they are doing is not my business, I don't have the time or inclination to think about it, as my work and my gardening are extremely time consuming. Moreover, I have very poor eye-sight and would not be able to see what they are doing even if I wanted to.

However, because today is January the Fourth, and many of the things that I grow in my garden have been moved away from those "rear windows" and placed towards my back door, I am much more aware of the rear windows in the high-rise across from me: they really seem much closer when the garden is empty (as you can see in the image below which I took this afternoon).

My awareness of how close those "rear windows" are makes me feel vulnerable. I can just imagine how the 80+ things I grow feel during the growing season. 

Most of the things I grow were moved from their "normal location" within the garden to protect them from the winter wind, and now they are all huddled together, where they are hopefully sleeping comfortably for the winter season. An image of how a few of them look in slumber can be seen below.

While most of the things I grow were moved towards my back door, a few of them remain in their places, including all of the "big guys" that are located in the northern corners of my garden, which are my Japanese Larch (Larix Kaempferi), H.F. Young Clematis, Physocarpus opulifolius (Coppertina), as well as my Actinida kolomikta and Actimida (Kiwi Vines), as seen below in an image I took this afternoon.

And perhaps I am projecting my aforementioned vulnerability when it comes to the proximity of these "rear windows" windows on things that I grow. For example, my Japanese Larch (Larix Kaempferi), the tree in the upper righthand corner, probably has no qualms if people look out their rear windows at him. In fact, I know he looks in their rear windows from time to time — especially when he get bored with me. I don't have a television and I know that my Larix Kaempferi has watched a program or two from his vantage point on the terrace. For all I know he has even seen someone watching the Hitchcock classic — and watched it with them — maybe I'll nickname my Larix Kaempferi "Jeff" in honor of Jimmy Stewart.