The lucky cow

There are some stories from childhood that stay with you forever.  You don't know why these particular stories stuck and not the countless others your obliging parents read to you, but they did.  For me, there's the one about the robin and Jesus (Selma Lagerloff) and there's the one about the cow and her glasses.

Dear lucky readers, you are in for a treat.

Once upon a time, there was a cow.  The cow was wonderful in many ways but let's face it, she was an astonishingly picky eater.  And stubborn.  And this otherwise lovable cow decided she could only eat four-leaf clovers.

Trouble was, there weren't a lot of four-leaf clovers in the field where she lived, and so she slowly began to starve.  (Gosh, this was a children's story?!)  Her friends the duck, the goat and the rabbit (OK, I don't really remember what species her friends were, but just go with it) tried to convince her that she needed to eat the regular old grass and stop being such a drama queen but she stuck to her guns and just kept on looking for those four-leaf clovers.

So one day, her friends come up with an ingenious plan.  They convince our heroine, the cow, that there are actually lots of four-leaf clovers in her field but that she actually hasn't been able to see them because she forgot to get a check-up at the optician.  Fortunately, they've already picked out some glasses for her which should do the trick.  And lo and behold, the glasses are perfect!  There are four-leaf clovers everywhere!  The cow can't believe she has been so blind this whole time!

Little does she know, of course, that the four-leaf clovers she now sees have in fact been painted on her glasses by her friends.

The end.

This is a story about perspective.  And friendship.  And the importance of regular medical examination and fashionable corrective eyewear.

And it's a story about Miss Res.  And Switzerland.  And just diving in and having a grand old time because, well, this is my field for now and I don't want to go hungry.