Sparrowgrass postscript

Yum, yum!

Sparrowgrass!

I discovered the pleasures of asparagus* some eight years ago, when I was on holiday in Dresden. I'd never really thought much about asparagus before, and certainly hadn't registered its coming into season as a noteworthy cultural event. But everywhere I went in Dresden, restaurants were advertising special 'Spargel' menus to take advantage of the new crop. (I even had to look up 'Spargel' in my German dictionary.)

Now I am a confirmed asparagus eater, and look forward to its arrival in the greengrocer's every year. I bought my first asparagus of the season last weekend, but ate it all before I thought to blog about it. (Half the bunch was eaten with bacon and white crusty bread for lunch; the other half formed the basis of an asparagus risotto at dinner.)

The asparagus pictured here is my second bunch of the season, purchased at Warwick market yesterday morning -- along with some Cotswold bacon and locally-baked bread. The asparagus season doesn't last long, so I'm enjoying it while I can.

*Formerly known as 'sperage' or 'sparrowgrass'. OED:
1865 ‘C. BEDE’ Rook's Gard., etc. 96, I have heard the word sparrowgrass from the lips of a real Lady -- but then she was in her seventies.

My Weekend (1): London

It's been a busy weekend by my standards. Dinner with friends on Friday evening. Then on Saturday, a trip to London to see the Van Dyck exhibition at Tate Britain.

I was on the Tube and about to change at Oxford Circus when I heard an announcement that the Victoria Line -- the only Tube connection to Pimlico, for the Tate -- was closed. After a few bemused minutes, it dawned on me that it would probably be easiest just to walk the last bit of the journey, from Embankment to Millbank.

I love walking in London, and conditions were perfect on Saturday morning. This is the first of thirty photographs I took after emerging from Embankment; and I found it quite difficult to choose just one for the blog since the whole riverscape was so photogenic and glowing with Spring. It shows the side of the Hungerford Bridge, the underside of the eastern Golden Jubilee Bridge, and a glimpse of the south bank.

The Van Dyck exhibition was fascinating. I'd seen another big exhibition of his works, at the Royal Academy in 1999 (can it really be 10 years ago!), and this one wasn't quite as much of a revelation as it otherwise might have been. The most interesting rooms, for me, were the first two, where Van Dyck's paintings of Charles I and his courtiers were hung alongside the work of his predecessors, such as Mytens and Jansson. It's no criticism of Mytens and Jansson to say one can see why Van Dyck got his job at court.