This morning I was out early to pick peas. This time the kind you eat. Not the kind you inhale. There were more than I was expecting... I'll have a green thumbnail before the day is out shelling these for dinner. And because the light was so very nice this morning on the front porch bench: I thought I would take a few portraits. "Plants bearing seed after their kind." I took a walkaround in the garden taking pictures of various and sundry flowers. Daliah with some kind of fly: And of course... Oh my: I turned around from this flower and spied one I thought I might try to get a picture of. But when I squatted down to get a better look I noticed something in the background.... ONLY after I had looked at it through the camera lens. You will see why it's not a very good photo, I was startled. Oh dear... Yeah. I must in the spirit of full disclosure let you know that this Black Widow, is no longer with us. There was a certain encounter with a shovel right after this was taken. I do not care to share my space with it. Most other spiders I will tolerate in the garden. But not these. Not these. I continued my tour and thought I would take a picture of the Fava bean pods to show you what they are like. Some of them are almost ready to pick. I like them to get a fairly good size. I'll show you why when I'm ready to cook them. And finally, here's something I have been keeping a secret, just in case it didn't turn out well. We've had enough harsh realities lately. This is the waterbox Mr. P built inside the garden with valves and connections for my hoses. It has a leak. Not a big leak, but a persistent one. And the excess water seeps out into the surrounding area, but not enough to make it truly muddy. There's a lot of spearmint growing there that is delighted with all the water and the roots work their way into the box. Every now and again I pull a couple handfuls out. I saw a toad in there a few days ago! Anyway, there's about 8 or 9 inches of clear water in there all the time. This gave me an idea. I went to Wal-Mart and bought two fish. I don't even know what they are. Not goldfish. One is orange: And the other one is white and black and orange: They love to hang out right in the middle of the spearmint roots. And for once in my life, I am NOT going to give them names. I'm not. When I first had the idea of fish, I made a point to go look at what they had at Wal-Mart. And when I saw these that reminded me of Koi, I decided to do it. My son E. has a REAL Koi pond as you may recall... I really like them. But I'm not at all prepared to commit to a full blown Koi pond. I'm having fun with my miniature version though. I will be on the lookout for someone around here who DOES have a real pond, because when winter comes, I'll have to find my fish a good place to ride out the cold weather. The local feed store sells pond supplies, they will be able to hook me up with someone I'm sure. In the meantime. . . I have a little 'lazy girl' fish pond. Complete with toad. He's very shy. I'll try to get a picture of him. Let the summer games begin.