Dear Emma,I was just thinking  that you might like to know  the  runner beans are over ! We have had so many pickings of beans everyday this summer,from just a few plants. For weeks on end, they have been a delight, but today I  decided that they must be all spent, finished. Pickings have been a bit thin, the last day or two and there are no flowers left on  them, except for one  plant, and it is getting a bit cold now anyway, even the bees don’t seem to be about, so it really is about time to pull ’em all up ……

Or so I thought! One last  quick look through and under the  still thick green growth (in places) I disturbed  a massive bumble bee, who angrily took flight closely brushing my ear.  And there I discovered a perfect bunch of long beans hiding close to the fence and another lot! a whole picking! which had crawled  unnoticed, somehow, into some ferns. There I discovered a nasturtium which has only just decided to flower. I also discovered  a mass  of little beans, looking quite happy,  on every one of the ‘spent’  tired looking plants (that were nearly pulled up) and which have been delivering so famously this summer. More beans that will be up and  ready in a couple of days time. Their time  aint up yet,  then! 

love Rosie