Blogspot templates can be pleasing to the eye, despite the ad sitting right on top of the page. Color co-ordination sometimes makes a page more boring than anything else, but in the case of Life Under the Pear Tree(green, of course) it’s charming. Actually it’s more about pears than pear trees, seeing that there’s a quote about pears and a picture of a pear. But then again, ‘Life Under the Pear’ wouldn’t really work. Perhaps ‘Life On the Pear’? Hmm.
Life Under the Pear Tree is written by a girl who calls herself Phenol, aged fifteen. Like pears(you had to have seen this coming), her blog is refreshing. Phenol is an articulate writer, recording actual happenings with perfect clarity and expressing abstract thoughts in her own special, sometimes zany way. Also like a full-figured pear, her entries are long and filled with details. Fencing is featured frequently, as is her habit of self-analysis. Phenol’s success is that she writes in a lively, imaginative way, injecting humor in all the right places. There’s the usual teenage angst, but over here it’s in a prettier package.
As mentioned, the page goes by a basic Blogspot template. Everything is green, on a white background. It all comes off as rather fresh and innocent.
Life Under the Pear Tree also has an extra feature that can either be a pleasant surprise halfway through the blog, or further indication that it is a teen blog that you’re reading. When you click anywhere on the page, tiny pears in different shades of green sprinkle out of your cursor. They remind me of a fountain emitting tear-shaped pears. Either that, or a fountain of pear-shaped tears.
To sum it up, Life Under the Pear Tree is a model of squeaky clean teen blogs – delightfully interesting, void of subversive or negative elements(no comments on Bush or any wars, no mention of drugs, no word about sex), and self-indulgent in a charming way. Like a pear, it’s healthy. Even if you’re not a teenager, this is a blog worth checking out, because the voice telling the story is clear instead of muddled by confusion. If you’re a crabby old person who shakes his/her head and asks “What is the world coming to these days?” when you read about how fourteen-year-old Mike wants to slit his wrist, head over right now and get your dose of hope. Don’t miss the hilarious entry about learning how to drive.
Life Under the Pear Tree