Please save me from the neighbor with the concrete backyard

User warning: Please do not read any further if you don't want to hear complaints. I just need to get this off my chest so that I can stop thinking about it.

Today was trash day so I got up to do assorted things before the trash truck hit our street - clean the dogs yard, empty trash cans, take out newspapers, etc. It gives me once a week where everything is more or less cleaned out.

After doing that, I decided to work some more in the back garden so that I could put more stuff into the leaf bin. This is always a very relaxing chore for me - sunshine, the dogs laying on the patio and lots of greenery around me. Even though I am working, I enjoy it and feel a sense of accomplishment and ease. So this morning, I was busily trimming the climbing rose, cutting the suckers off of the Maple Tree, fighting my endless battle with the Morning Glory Ivy that has infested the neighborhood, pulling up weeds, whatever got into my eye. I filled my trash can and headed out to the front yard to dump it into my leaf bin. There was my neighbor standing there. I must say that this neighbor hates plants. She concreted in her backyard and talked the city into removing the city tree from her front yard and not planting another one (too many leaves). The woman has a gardener so she doesn't even have to do that herself. She just hates plants. She has had cancer too but I guess no one ever told her about the healing power of plants.

Back to my story. There she was standing there. Do you need help?, she asked. I said no thank you in the politest manner I could conjure up. She stood there as I raised the can and dumped it into the bin. Are you going to cut the Wisteria?, she asked. I said no and she said but it is so tall. This plant is in my yard a good 6 feet from her fence or her property line and none of her busines. Then she asked if she could come in my backyard and see if I had anything planted along the fence. I said no. Just No. She was really stepping over the line by then. Then she asked me if I was okay? I said yes. All this time, I am trying to get into the quiet, peaceful, privacy of my yard but she has her hand in the hinge of the gate and I will pinch it if I close the gate. She doesn't move. Then she comments on how nicely Smokey has been laying there while we were talking. This is his normal style. He is a good dog. Then, she asks me if I had any problems? and I said no. Do you? I asked. Shocked, she said no. She said that she heard some whining like a dog and scratching and thought I had passed out or fallen in the house and so she went to get our neighbor, Don (Who is a very nice guy) to come over and look. As I reread this, it all seems petty and like she means well. I am just not explaining it very well. She goes on and on and it is really not kind, concern for me. It is nosy, pushiness because she is always there. I can't even relax in my own house. It is one thing if is a friend always there - fun, fun but a nosy neighbor - ugh. And she is always complaining about something with MY house. Complaints about her life, her house, etc. I could stand but leave my house alone lady!

Back to the story. At that point, I had had enough. I told her that I appreciated her concern but that I am okay and that she is invading my privacy and needs to ease up and leave me alone. I said that it is my house and I don't appreciate people coming to check up on me, look in my windows, etc. Please note that I do not mind my family and friends checking to see if I am okay and Helen, the neighbor on the other side, has a key to my house in case anything happens. I just need this nosy woman, F, to leave me alone and stop snooping around my house. My life is my own business and not hers.

Even after I asked her to leave me alone, she wouldn't leave. She looked at me and said you are red. Did the doctor say you can go in the sun? I said yes and that I really needed to leave and go relax and she said yes, you should stop gardening and go rest. What I really wanted to say was that she was really stressing me out and taking the joy out of my gardening. Instead, I asked her to move her hand so that I could close the gate and not pinch her fingers. Then I closed the gate and went back to my gardening. I tried to relax and get her out of my head but just couldn't so I thought I would write this to purge her from my mind. I am afraid to go out in my own yard or do anything because she is always there. I can't even enjoy the privacy of my backyard because I can see her looking between the slats of the fence to see what I am doing and then she starts talking over the fence to tell me what needs to be done. I am a big girl and not in need of another mother. The one I have is just fine thank you. I have paid special attention to making sure that no plants hang over her side of the fence or get near it so she really has no reason to be involved in my life. She just needs to get her own life. I told her nicely today to leave me alone. The next time, I am not sure if I can be so nice.

So now, I will be off to a shower and see if I can wash these bad thoughts away. Anybody out there got any suggestions as to what I can do with this neighbor?