ABSTRACT THURSDAY - GROWTH - PISUM SATIVUM ‘SHIRAZ

It was a very hot and sticky night here in Swindon and when I woke at 5.59 I wasn’t really surprised to see that Mr. HCB was already up.  When I went downstairs, he said that he had been up since just after 5.30 but had thought it was an hour later!

When the sun is out, it is always very hot in our garden between about 10 in the morning and 4 in the afternoon, so it was a pleasure to be out there just before 7 and wandering amongst the vegetables.

Mr. HCB had told me about his Pisum Sativum “Shiraz” peas, commonly known as Mangetout Shiraz peas, with their beautiful purple flowers (my favourite colour) so I thought I would try and capture them for the Abstract Thursday challenge today.  I have played around with the photograph using the Prisma App on my iPhone, but have also put a copy of the original in as an extra, so that you can see how beautiful the flowers are. 

According to the packet “The purple colour is rich in healthy anthocyanin (antioxidant) pigment.  Mangetout peas and their pods are high in potassium and a good source of vitamins A, C, B1 and folic acid and contain soluble fibre, useful in removing harmful cholesterol.”  

They certainly look healthy growing in the garden, and it sounds as if they will do us good, either raw in our salads, with our homegrown lettuce, tomatoes and cucumber, or as an exotic addition to our stir fries together with our yellow courgettes, asparagus peas and climbing French runner beans - I love the summer and am so pleased that Mr. HCB is following in his father’s footsteps and growing lots of fresh vegetables.  

"If you tickle the earth 
     with a hoe…..
          she laughs with
               a harvest."
Douglas William Jerrold