DO you know your neighbours? If you are anything like me, you might know them well enough to wave from a distance, but often little more than that.

However, some have been just that bit too friendly and others argumentative, sending menacing notes about leaves falling over their side of the fence or else complaining repeatedly when our dog barked (it was a tiny Pomeranian whose yap once or twice a day was barely audible).

Some neighbours kept to themselves, but received fairly regular visits from the constabulary. Another neighbour once took aim at our house with a high-powered slingshot, eventually breaking a back window. His motives weren’t clear. We thought he was just plain crazy.

When I was a kid, we knew most of the people in our street, some more closely than others, but there was a sense of community that doesn’t seem to be in our suburbs now.

People appear more and more contained in their own little cocoons. Children, those great icebreakers of the past, now often stick to their own backyards or to the comfort of their couch and computer games. People don’t seem to spend as much time on weekends gardening and exchanging fertiliser tips over the fence.

Instead of talking to their neighbours, many folk are more likely to be picking fights on Twitter and Facebook with people they don’t know.

But good neighbours are worth their weight in gold. Over the years, wonderful neighbours have helped us move, minded the children in an emergency, caught the dog when he got out of our backyard, played Easter Bunny and deposited chocolate at the door, knitted scarves when the kids took up ice skating and been happy to have a bit of a chat when the sun is shining and the pace of life allows.

For older people it is important to keep an eye out. My mum had an arrangement with a neighbour to look for her kitchen blinds being up every morning to know she was up.

Perhaps it would be a good thing to slow down and say hello to the folk next door. They may or may not reciprocate, but you might just spark up a lasting friendship or at least an acquaintance that will make life just that bit better.