I'm looking over...

[pyat]

My lawn has been replaced with clover. Perhaps I'm a bad homeowner, but I prefer it to grass.


Father's Day breakfast this morning, at Cora's Restaurant in Ancaster.

We went to the bigboxbookstore after, and took turns shopping and watching the girls. While searching for a replacement copy of Orwell's Keep the Aspidistra Flying (mine was eaten by a dog), a mother and her teenage daughter and a store employee wandered into the O's. The daughter, who was about 14 and looked very spunky, was looking for George Orwell books. The employee handed her Animal Farm.

"I've read that one already," she said. He found Nineteen Eighty-Four. "That's the only other one we have," he said. I noted that there was a copy of Burmese Days on the next shelf, and moved on. The store employee then spotted a collection of all Orwell's novels, and the girl said she wanted that, or Ninteen Eighty-Four.

"Nooooo, I don't think you'd like it," said the mother.
"I liked Animal Farm," said the girl.
"No, I mean you'd find the ideas too complicated," her mother replied.
"I've tackled some pretty complicated books," said the girl.
"No, I don't mean hard words. I mean the political ideas are too complicated. It's from another era, really," said the mother.

I did really want to say something like, "Hey, I read Nineteen Eighty-Four when I was eleven, and understood enough of it to make it worthwhile. And who are you to disapprove of someone trying to read something complicated, or outdated?"

But I didn't, and instead went to look for some G.K. Chesterton books they didn't have in stock.

Comments

[pyat.livejournal.com]

1) The guy next door grumbles about it. I think it smells nice and needs less mowing. On that farflung day when we finally get a new house with a lawn we're not sharing, I'd definitely want clover. I love the smell of it, after rain.

2) I went from not know it existed, to wanting to have every breakfast there, in a space of three weeks.

3) I suppose I might think differently if it were a different book, or an author I didn't like so much. And obviously the mom would know her better than a random stranger. Though, a 14 year old who cared enough about a specific author she'd already read probably doesn't need that much in the way of parental guidance.

[sassy-fae.livejournal.com]

Pfft, you don't share a lawn with the guy anymore than I share a lawn with my neighbours. You've even got a garden splitting your lawn from his. What would do it for him, a fence?

You can buy clover seed, too *grins* I wonder what D would think if Erin and I spent a few days out there rooting up the grass and sowing clover!

Cats has a patch that we're going to dig up for more garden: It's mostly clove and white violets, we could provide you with sod of your own ;)