Thursday 5 July 2012

Dept of weird coincidences and medicinal plants

Here at the department of Weird Coincidences, I can report the following: my battery-powered watch stopped at exactly midnight over last weekend Sat June 30th/Sun July 1st. When I woke up, I looked at the face, and stared at it for some time before realising why there only appeared to be one hand on the dial where once there had been two.  I took the watch in to the jewellers here in Moffat for a new battery the other morning, left it in the shop and went off to the greengrocer and the newsagent. I came back into the shop, the watch was ready so I paid for the new battery and put the watch on. 'Hold on', I said, seeing that the hands were still both on the 12... 'It's exactly midday' said the assistant. Spooky or what?

I do not want to disappoint my fellow Trustees at Moffat Book Events, so here is an item about rhubarb, just as you predicted:


See within for more about rhubarb and other Russian stuff
It’s the ‘love it or loathe it’ staple of the British diet in the form of tarts, crumbles and fools;  what actors in crowd scenes say to each other, and the protagonist of a popular children’s animated film and book series: rhubarb shelters  an unexpected wealth of  Scottish-Russian cultural history.  This medicinal herb was introduced from Russia to our shores by Dr James Mounsey, born at Skipmire, Dumfriesshire in 1710. Mounsey was one of a series of Scottish doctors who served the Russian Tsars for a period of 150 years 1704-1854  as their personal or court physicians. After a very eventful career, Mounsey retired to Rammerscales , a fine mansion he had built himself near Lochmaben, D&G. 
The House that rhubarb built

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