Here We Are Now, Blanch and Drain Us (A Post About Beans)

I have one word for you today.

BEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNSSSSS!

You guys, I have beanie babies!

Beans.

OMG OMG.  I had mostly given up on my four plants producing any beans this year, although I continued to water, prune, and generally love on them. After a mild, wet start to summer, July and the first part of August were super-hot and dry. I was able to keep Eenie, Minie, Moe, and Larry (RIP, Meenie) alive...just. But they weren't producing much in the way of blossoms, and when they did, they quickly withered under the Texas sun.

I grimly soldiered on, as one does with a child when you've decided they're a hopeless case but you're still their mom, so...

Even bad seeds deserve a chance, amiright?

By the way, that simile has nothing to do with my Precocious Daughter or my mothering skills. If anything, she's much more successful at being my kid than I am at being her mom. But, uh, some parents have that problem.

If "Children of the Corn" took place in Manhattan.

Where was I? Oh, yes, beans.

So Mother Nature gifted us with cooler, wetter weather over the last few weeks. And I noticed my bean plants were blossoming once more.

And then, one day...a miracle.

As I said earlier, BEEEEAAAANNNNSSSS!

I have beans. I have more beans each day, and the plants continue to produce blossoms. The largest beans are not quite an inch long, and most are smaller than that, but still.

I have so many beans.

Also, every time I think that, I start to sing David Bowie's "Time" in my head ("I had so many dreams, I had so many breakthroughs...") and it gets stuck there all day. Wherever he is, I'd like to think he's OK with that.

Now that we're at the back door of summer, I'm hopeful that I'll have a decent crop of beans to harvest in a few weeks. I'm going to cook them with lemon butter and slivered almonds and maybe a hint of ginger. Nothing but the best for my babies. Whom I will then devour.

The Circle of Bean.

I'm so happy, Drunkards. Because beans.

Click on "Beans" under "Mostly What I'm Ranting About" if you've missed any of the saga. Then let me what's made you happy this summer.

I like happy stories.

And beans.