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To people of my age (blushes girlishly and declines to reveal exact figure) BB = Brigitte Bardot, but since I joined a writers' forum those letters represent another A-Z Challenger. Check out her blog about Rome. http://atozofrome.blogspot.co.uk/
BB and I share a passion for bananas, though the reason why is lost in the mists of time.
The following photographs represent the life-cycle of a banana from flower to fruit.
This is only a small tree in our community garden but the flower was half a metre long.
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Here the petals are curling back to reveal the individual hands of infant bananas.
Almost ready to ripen in the sun.
Inside a banana plantation - the plastic bags are to protect the bunches when they are cut and loaded onto lorries. Each bunch is almost more than a strong man can carry. The plants are chopped down and recycled to mulch next year's plants which are already growing alongside the parent plants.
And this is an external view - the covers are to keep humidity in and prevent sunburned plants! So next time you fly into Tenerife, you will know what those acres of beige are all about.
In our local market we buy Grade 2 fruit - the ones deemed not good enough for export. They taste fine to us - and occasionally we get more than we bargained for - Triplets!
