As we drew the curtains this morning and heard the rain bounce on the flat roof of our kitchen extension we knew that it was 'the other northern day'. The best kind of northern day is bright and breezy with the sun shining through clouds, or even, unusually, when there are no clouds at all, but an unbroken expanse of blue sky.
However, I must not grumble, because mixed weather patterns give us the best possible conditions for runner beans.
We grew these beans for some years on our allotment in the south and during really dry periods they suffered. My husband, along with many others, would pour cans and cans of water over them, from the top down, while the water tanks on our allotment emptied and the tiny water snails, larvae and other insect life sunk to their sludgy bottoms.
Now that up here rain falls from the sky on a regular basis we need not go down the hill and up again to secure our harvest, we merely step outside the back door and in these damp conditions patrol the back lawn for snails of the land variety and cast them into the park.
Our beans grow and swell, putting on a spectacular display of orange flowers, and our ever diligent bumble bees continue their pollinating task.
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