Sunday 8 January 2012

Rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb......


As I have reported previously on these pages, I am not a natural gardener. But having had a modicum of success with tomatoes and rocket and basil and coriander last year, I thought, hoped, that fruit and veg maybe where my green fingered talents lay. So, my gardening friend gave some plants to plant. The ruby chard started well and then sort of died. The brussel sprout has done anything but, the kale started well but has stopped and the cauliflower is all cauli and no flower. But the rhubarb has thrived. I was told the two types, the names of which I now forget, needed to winter before they could be picked and crumbled, roasted, fooled, whatever..... and low, through the dank soil they continue to poke and bloom.....


Grow my pretties......


Doctor, doctor I I've got rhubarb

Don't' worry you can get cream for that.....


Rain lashed London shone in the bright morning sunlight. Stick trees poked the high blue sky through thin chilled air. On the bus I saw a baby cocooned in his buggy, nothing but his round, hairless head poking out. He had the look of a man of 80 rather than his 18 months, I domed forehead, knowing blue-grey eyes, a down-turned mouth slow to smile a toothless grin. He peered about him with a world weary gaze. The bus stopped to let a funeral procession pass: 4 large long black cars following a hearse containing a giant, wicker eco-coffin, a coffin-shaped, man-sized, moses basket with a lid with toggles to keep it fastened....from the cradle to the grave......

Top tip: Go see The Artist........I'm not sure it's quite 'the greatest movie ever' but it's delightfully charming and very beautiful.....

19 comments:

  1. This post made me smile and gave me images to mull over. Thank-you.

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  2. What fabulous images you conjure up. Babies scare me for that very reason.
    Well done on the rhubarb. x

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  3. I tried rhubarb last year, it failed to flourish, you have encouraged me to give it more TLC and be a wee bit more patient.

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  4. Ha! Apparently someone once said of me "that's not a baby in that pram, it's an old man". I was bald till nearly two........

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  5. I was on the allotment in my t-shirt this morning, similarly contemplating rhubarb and digging up my crop of weeds. Mine is obviously thinking about growing. It hasn't poked it's sticks out yet. Yours looks very perky and springlike.

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  6. I have a rhubarb plant in my garden - its the only thing that was in when we moved here. The year I made hubby Delia's Rhubarb Crumble ice cream, he declared he would never leave me!! xxxx

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  7. Hi I'm new to your page. My saga membership was valid from October last year but so far I've declined lol anyway no rhubarb at this house but I grew tonnes of the stuff at my old place if you put a length of drain pipe over it, it'll grow quite quickly but be pale and very tender...yum

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  8. I have a whopping rhubarb by the house and I've hardly picked it. It likes neglect. Stewed rhubarb made with honey is brilliant, by the way.

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  9. Wicker coffins and rhubarb that thrives in the winter...what planet have I been on?

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  10. Rhubarb grows best when ignored.

    That image you conjured up about the bald prematurely aged infant is scary.

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  11. It must give great satisfaction growing things, I have never tried it but would like to!

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  12. Hi nice to catch up again. Rhubarb is my absolute favourite and it can be hideously expensive. getting my husband to plant some tootsweet!

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  13. Our Rhubarb won't flourish, which is a bit embarrasing as it grows like a weed in everyone elses gardens. I can hear them muttering now, "There he goes, can't even grow Rhubarb." I wouldn't mind so much, but it is the one thing the deer don't eat

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  14. My rhubarb's doing nothing much yet. If it's only recently gone in I'm afraid I'd be suggesting you don't eat much if any this year because the plant will do better in the long term if you let it get established, sorry!
    I too loved The Artist.

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  15. Am hoping that The Artist will actually come to the island in a month or two. Fingers crossed at any rate!

    Rhubarb is lovely - don't overpick it - you want to leave about 3 leaves minimum on the plant at any one time.

    This year I'm on strawberries, kerrits, beetroot, chard, cavello nero and what not. And probably more dahlias because I really fell in love with my dark dahlias that I planted last year.

    Happy 2012!

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  16. Hello Young at Heart...my first visit here...love your blog and the way you write..also love Rhubarb and Cream!

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  17. Hey you - e-mail me if you think a reading might be useful :-) Ali x

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  18. Hi YAH! See my sister Victoria got here before me (rats!). Thanks for the encouragement on the weightloss ride. So far so good. Are you really able to grow rhubarb in London in January? I'm impressed.

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  19. Mine is still covered in snow. Hopefully it'll be up by the end of April. Only one jar of stewed left in the freezer.

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