It has been a beautiful weekend for the time of year - clear blue skies and fairly warm sunshine. Spring is certainly showing it's hand in Mum's garden as the wonderful rhubarb crown is starting to sprout - intensely-red mini stalks are pushing their way up through the soil, topped by the freshest lime green leaves.
I love rhubarb, and it's particularly sweet and juicy when stewed up only minutes after being picked from the garden. I'm not sure this was the original rhubarb plant, but I know there was a large crown of rhubarb in the garden when I was a small child as I used to spend a lot of time in the summer picking the humungous leaves and using them as a sun-shade and / or umbrella for myself and my toys.
When P and I lived in Nottingham, Mum and Dad often came to visit for the day (a pretty big undertaking by train from Bristol) and in the spring would usually have a bundle of rhubarb, freshly picked from the garden that morning, wrapped in newspaper, for us. That rhubarb stewed up the next day was always especially sweet as it reminded me of home and my childhood. Delicious.
Mum and I have taken full advantage of the dry and bright weather by getting out and about and visiting as many local charity shops as we can. My haul to date has not been wonderful - an Ikea duvet cover for £3.00, Sliding Doors video for 20p (for some reason I've been really wanting to watch this film again lately), and a reasonably good book for re-sale. Mum has done slightly better as she has found a new spring-weight fleece jacket, a cardigan, and a vest. There have also been another stack of Disney videos found for DN - including the elusive 'Aladdin' - which, I think, pretty much completes the full set - they were 20p each too.
As the forecast appears to be dry again tomorrow, we're hoping to try yet another batch of charity shops - after all, you never know what you might find!!
Mmmm...rhubarb, custard. What more could a girl want?!
Posted by: Maureen | 02/24/2009 at 04:22 AM
Wish we could get at our rhubarb, but it is still covered in snow!
Posted by: Elizabeth | 02/24/2009 at 11:31 PM