Everybody Needs Good Neighbours
Photo © Rob Jones
A knock at the door …
A hand thrusts a bowl of strawberries, yoghurt and meringue into my hand and then walks off without a word.
Not a ‘spy drop,’ but a very very good neighbour who is keeping alive our unspoken agreement to share and share alike.
Am I going to complain? NO!
The bowl especially valued because the strawberries were picked in the pouring rain. Each strawberry individually selected, sliced and em-bowled (is that even a word?) for my pleasure.
It made me think of an interview I did recently with a bookshop owner in Hay-on-Wye. We were musing over why second-hand books are so cherished? Never have they been so popular. But for me, it wasn’t that they were (mainly) cheaper than those you see in the shops these days - when was it that a paperback costs £10? - but actually because:
They have been pre-loved.
They have been pre-selected. Bought, enjoyed and then handed on to someone else to enjoy.
And interestingly, I was told that they are selected a second time on the shelf. As book lovers browse, they pull books out, because they look interesting, and then place them back on the shelf but not flush. So they stick out slightly, which means the next browser will be more inclined to pull it off the shelf.
So there’s a tip in a bookshop - always look at the ones which are proud of the others.
However
Again - book shop lore - apparently if a book has been placed at eye height and faces you, as opposed to spine-on, it means very often the publishers have paid for it to be there. Books at eye level - anything on show clearly in fact - sells.
So what’s this to do with strawberries?
Nothing really. But you have to think of something while you’re enjoying the strawberries.
R
