I am distracted by Broad Beans! I am easily distracted in any case, by the garden in general, but this time it is Broad Beans that are preventing me from getting on with the next sketch for the calendar. There are rather a lot of them and they need to be got out of the garden and into the freezer before they all rot, which will be about now, given the weather…
So, having spent a couple of hours picking and shelling a goodly load of them this evening, I headed back out to the bottom of the garden with a heap of empty pods for the compost heap, and this is what I saw:
A near-vertical rainbow, just with the last light of the setting sun on the low hill beyond the garden. I can’t describe how bizarre and beautiful it looked for just a moment, and sadly the photo doesn’t do it justice, but there, I’ve done my best to capture it.
Meet the Broad Beans:
The veg patch is also full of self-sown borage and a few opium poppies, both of which the bees seem very keen on. Sometime soon, when the broad beans have gone, the runner beans behind them might get some sunlight and actually grow. (mental note for next year: Broad beans grow taller than I remember!)
So now you know why I am getting on quite slowly with the drawings…
Art by Nancy Farmer 
Congratulations for getting anything to grow. This has been the most disappointing summer I’ve had for garden produce. But then, it’s grim up North 😉
It’s pretty bloody grim down South too at the moment! Yeah, the broad beans have done ok, but the first lot went in in early December, the last lot probably March, so on average they had quite kind weather. I don’t usually do broad beans, just a lucky decision last year – can recommend them if you get them in early – plus, it’s then very pleasing to have a veg patch all up and growing before spring has even thought about arriving 🙂