Why does this lady blog?

The lady in question is called Jennifer Raffle, who comes from Manchester in the UK, although now I think she lives in Altrincham in Cheshire. She has a husband and two sons and in her About section tells us:

"I decided to start my blog in July 2009 after leaving my investment management job to set up my own consulting business helping small technology companies run their finances more smoothly.  This was meant to leave me with more time to pursue other interests but I’m still waiting for that to happen!

I enjoy shopping for, preparing and eating food and always need to know where my next meal is coming from.  This is a picture of me in my usual guise."

And that's it. It's all we know. Every now and then in her posts there were some words about the family vibe, and there is the occasional comment about the world in general - Queen Elizabeth's death, for example, pasta sauces ... but generally speaking not much.

I suppose the question is, do we need to know? It's a food blog after all and there are countless food blogs - most of the really successful ones in fact, who don't tell you a great deal about the writers themselves - unless they are so successful that somebody interviews them. I searched for Jennifer Raffle and eventually found that she has her own small business providing financial advice to small technology companies - like she said. Well I think that's it. She also no longer writes the blog. The last post was written in September 2023, but the posting became more and more occasional after November 2013. One hopes that this means that her business is a great success.

I don't think I really mind not knowing much about her life, but I am interested in why she began and why she stopped. Her words, imply a need for a non worklike outlet, but 'time to pursue other interests' doesn't really tell us much.

And neither does the title of her blog The Rhubarb Fool - nowhere is there an explanation of the title. One assumes she loves rhubarb and she certainly dedicates some pages to what you can do with versatile rhubarb, from drinks, through preserves and sweet things to savoury things. But there is no explanation of why rhubarb. And surely she doesn't think she is a fool? Or is she saying she is a fool for rhubarb?

"Here is a picture of what I suppose I’ll have to call my signature dish from now on – rhubarb fool."

she says in her About section and you can find the recipe in her Rhubarb Sweets section, which she says she updates every now and then when she finds something new. Interestingly her recipe has pomegranates on top to make it look inviting. And she makes hers with custard.

She began her blog way back in July 2009 but even there - in that very first post - there is no recognition of this being the beginning of something really new in her life. It is however, the first of a longer series than the one on rhubarb about Breakfasts of the World. She used a flags of the world poster belonging to one of her sons as her guide, working her way through in A-Z fashion. This is her Afghan breakfast - which consisted of apricots and yoghurt, with Roht - an Afghan kind of flatbread, for which a recipe is provided.

In her introduction to the recipe she does say:

"Earlier this summer we (me, husband Tim and sons George and Arthur) hit upon the idea of eating our way through breakfasts of the world beginning with A for Afghanistan and working our way through all 100 and odd countries on George’s flag poster right through to Z for Zambia."

So maybe this was the initial focus for the blog. She got as far as Chad in September 2016. And unlike me in my trip around the world, she actually made something from each country and ate it. I have been very bad with my world tour and have not made a single thing.

I'm not sure now why I added this particular blog to my list. I imagine I must have come across one of her recipes which added something to whatever I was writing about at the time. And I was intrigued by the title.

It's a Wordpress blog - a simple style that you will find all over the blogosphere, and one that I dismissed early on in the piece, because, for me anyway it was clunkier to use. But at some point she must have been aiming for some kind of commercial return because there are a few ads sprinkled around. And in 2010 she tells us that the blog has been visited 12,00 times in that year which is rather more than my 695 in the last 30 days - well actually maybe not. But that is not a meaningful figure. If I have 12 views of a particular post I feel that I have hit the jackpot. I suppose that the 695 figure, might mean around 20 a day if I'm posting regularly, but most of those 'views' would be random and people who don't stay and actually read - and they certainly don't show on the 'views' note on each post. Or else it's computer generated views. I am hugely flattered that some of you actually take the time to read my ramblings. But I don't care particularly about numbers as this is a personal blog for my own entertainment, and maybe it was for her:

"You have to believe most bloggers have few if any actual readers. The writers are in it for other reasons. Blogging is like work, but without co-workers thwarting you at every turn. All you get is the pleasure of a completed task." Scott Adams

So true and maybe that's why Jennifer Raffle was doing it too. She stuck at it for a long time - 2009-2023 - fourteen years. Maybe her business really took off and she just didn't have time.

YEARS GONE BY

April 8

2025 - Chaat

2024 - Variations - granola

2023 - Shreds

2022 - Cooking made us brainy

2021 - Missing

2020 - Missing

2019 - Nothing

2018 - A point of difference

2017 - Rainbow trout - lovely name, lovely fish