TINY TUESDAY - COSSE VIOLETTE

I wandered out into the garden early this morning to look for something tiny and found this beautiful climbing French bean, Cosse Violette, with a tiny pod that was less than half an inch long.  The full grown pods are purple although they start as green and grow to about ten inches - not only are the pods attractive, but the flowers are pretty too - and they are my favourite colour.

Mr. HCB buys quite a lot of seeds from Seed Parade for two reasons;  firstly, they are much cheaper than the big seed companies and secondly, he only buys enough for his immediate needs rather than buying a huge amount of seeds.  For instance, he often buys just twenty five seeds rather than a hundred, which means that each year they are fresh.

I use these French climbing beans as a steamed or roasted vegetable, but also sliced up in a salad, and with home-grown cucumbers, tomatoes, spring onion and lettuce, what could be better?

I have been playing with my camera again and tried this macro shot on Manual - not something I usually do, but I was quite pleased with the result.  I just need more practice and although the light was good, it was quite windy, so that didn’t help at times but I’m getting there.  

We have visitors for coffee this morning and then I am being interviewed at a Local Community Radio Station this afternoon - not quite sure what that will entail, but I’m sure I will talk about Blip - and how wonderful it is!  It certainly keeps me out of mischief, and keeps my brain active, so I shall be encouraging listeners to get out there and shoot something!

“To me, photography is 
     an art of observation. 
It’s about finding something interesting 
     in an ordinary place… 
I’ve found it has little to do 
     with the things you see 
          and everything to do 
               with the way you see them.”
Elliott Erwitt