With blue skies above and a day full of magnificent sky art above .. I finally finished all my indoor stuff and raced outside!!!

The Spanish Musica vines are now officially beyond my reach.  Any beans growing higher than this will be dried for next years plants.   I’m going to have lots of seed for that!   Have to be careful as there are tiny little beans growing just beyond these two that I’m plucking from the vine and as each bean is so precious I don’t want to ruin any of them.

I’ve only grown beans for a few years and am always learning from them.  Each type, it seems, flowers in a different manner.   The S. Musica has the “one bean a day” approach.  That is .. there are two flowers at the join of the vine, one matures first and grows a tiny little bean .. the second one waits a day or so before the bean starts.

See … the bean on the right is smaller than the one on the right (which I picked and ate!)  Beans are fun to pick .. it is fun to hunt through the  vines to find them!  I like to pick them when they are mid-size .. but  .. sometimes it is challenging to find them all and quite often seem to find the larger ones tucked away out of sight.  Could they be hiding from me?  I wonder …

My favourite bean!!!  So crunchy and delicious.  The vine is covered in flowers so there will be lots to eat and many seeds to dry for next year.  Always, for gardeners, there is next year.  We love the heck out of this year .. but there are always plans to do things a little differently, perhaps.

Trying to bring a bit of elegance into the veggie garden .. I put this tri-screen next to the bush beans & squash plants and am training the squash vine to grow up and around the frame.  Soon the frame will be hidden and the squash will be soaking up the sun all day long.

And day three of the clematis vine shows the rapid growth of this vine!  Yesterday I posted 2 photos taken a day apart and was amazed at the swift growth overnight.  I continue to be amazed.  The vine now is reaching for support and soon will be covering the arbour again in all of its splendour!

Having been admired for weeks by me and much visited by the bees, the sunflower is now morphing into a feeding station for the birds.  The transition to forming seeds has begun.

An interesting thing happened just as I clicked this photo.  As I was standing up, I caught my boot in a burlap bag (I use coffee burlap bags on the pathways, to protect the earth from being trampled on).   Somehow I caught the tip of my boot under a layer of a bag and found myself floundering, arms akimbo, mind going ” ????” as I scrambled to grab hold of something.  You know the crazy feeling.  At the same time I didn’t want anything to happen to my precious camera .. so as I (gracefully??) fell to the ground I somehow found a way to gently place my camera on a soft surface.   What a weird experience.   And I vowed to pay attention where I place my feet when traipsing along.  Humbling and a reminder to be focused!

While standing in the shade of the bean vines, happily listening to the loving music of Adam Sutherland’s music (Squall) I noticed this vigorous squash growing amongst the vines.  Quelle surprise and a nice one at that!  Where did that one come from?  The fun of gardening.  Adding to the fun are the self-seeding plants from compost spread around the yard.  Kale and tomatoes are growing everywhere – what fun!

More quiet time … again .. standing by the pots of Scarlet Red Runner beans, background noise quiet for a time … I listened to the rustle of the leaves as a gentle breeze swept through the yard ..  the sun shone down and I just basked in the peace and joy of watching the magic of nature.   No matter what technology exists .. this is really where its at.

On to another flower .. gonna be a busy day for this little bee ..

A buzzing i will go .. a buzzing I will go .. hi ho the Derry-O .. a buzzing I will go ….

JaneE sleeping .. smiling ..  happy dreams …I wonder if she is dreaming that I’ll be getting more kitty treats for her?   Cause I did do that later on!!

Later on, I looked at the little sunflower growing in the midst of another bean patch and liked how the sun shone through the petals ..

It’s been such a hot summer here and there are so many projects yet unfinished in the yard.  I get lost in the rhythm of watching the plants grow, listening to the birds .. and then end up (as always) getting involved in a project that I had no idea I would be doing.  The one I found myself doing yesterday was beside the house.

A few years ago I’d restructured the back of the yard (photos taken when I started blogging).   Intensive work and I’d sieved the soil from half of the yard – with the result that I ended up with quite a large quantity of stones and pebbles.

These I used along the side of the house … where bluebells and morning glory were ruling that space.  I dug up everything, put down a few layers of  landscape fabric and “artfully” added all these stones and everything looked nice and tidy.

A few years later and the accumulation of falling leaves, rose petals and assorted garden debris took its toll and what was once pretty was looking sad and abandoned.  So yesterday I began the task of changing all that.

I began removing the stones, clearing away the plant debris, repositioning the landscape fabric and replacing the stones .. and what a world of difference.  I’ll take some pics of the before and after, just to give myself a pat on the back!  Once this project is done, I have a feeling my enthusiasm to proceed on my other unfinished projects will return.

With music playing softly in background, mug of Yorkshire Tea nearby on a tree stump, aware that JaneE was sleeping away on the back stairs .. I let myself enjoy the meditational activity of the stones and the transformation of this area.

Later on .. on my trek to Michaels .. I found the perfect wine glass!!  🙂  I didn’t buy it but it was fun to imagine!

Another fun day  …oh . and the skies were still beautiful as I walked along ..

🙂