broad beans, and a peacock for robyn

Here he is, in all his glory.

I took this at the local city farm, months and months ago now. I was saving it for a post about our newly decorated bedroom (because I painted it ‘peacock blue’) but I never quite finished the decorating, and the light was never quite right for a decent photograph, so he’s languished in a folder for all that time.

Anyway, what I really wanted to talk about was broad beans.

I don’t know what wonderful force chooses which crops will grow in my garden and which will wither and be eaten. It changes every year, which feels quite magical, and keeps me growing for the sheer surprise of it.

This year it’s the turn of the broad bean. For some unknown reason, all of my broad bean plants survived, when they haven’t in previous years, and when all the courgettes, squashes and salads got eaten.

Today I picked the first pods.

I shelled them and set them in a bowl ready to add to my tea. Peter ate them all, raw, straight from the bowl. I love it when my gardening is appreciated.

The other exciting thing around here this week is my new camera. Oh, how much I love it!

If you’re interested, it’s a Canon Ixus 130. I had a Canon Ixus 40 for years and loved it. Then I dropped it in the sea. So I bought another one – and dropped that in the sea several years later. So a bought a Fuji FinePix 250 in the supermarket, rather than face a sunny-day-on-holiday-without-camera disaster, but I’ve never really liked it. Finally, finally, I treated myself to a decent replacement.

And to make it even sweeter, we found it on Gumtree, 3 miles away from home, for just £49 – not quite new, but in the box with not a scratch on it.

Happy days.

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