Peas And Bees On Early Voting Day

This was the day to do something outdoors.

October in South Florida is our Secret Season.  The weather Up North isn't yet awful enough that people have decided to escape. 

Our weather has decided it is time to be "Nice Out".  The highs have dropped to the low 80s.  The rains are here, but moderate.  Hurricane activity is fading away.  This year it was abrupt since the last one churned up the ocean enough to make it pleasant and cool on land.

In other words, I live where you vacation.

When I heard about London suffering through a heat wave where people were being told to limit outdoor activity, I realized that their weather was a normal South Florida summer day.  Low 90s and sun.  A bit much to be out and about, but you can deal with it.  That would be a cool Philadelphia summer day for example.

But now?  Windows open, roofs off cars, locals enjoying it.  If you're up before sunrise you may even see a stray jacket or two.

Yeah, that nice out.

So what did I decide to do on that Tuesday Morning?  Stand on line.  I went to our City Hall and went to vote.  It took about fifteen minutes since there was a line of around 20 people. 

But when that was all done?  What to do?   How about walk the town?

Beautiful day for it and I did not want to head home just yet.  I planned on hitting the thrift shops and looking at books and jeans and other odds and ends that a normal life would need.   Why not?  It would be a two mile walk total, only 3 Ks.  Sunny but not oppressive with a nice breeze off the ocean.

That's why you live here.   Sunny With A Nice Breeze Off The Ocean.  Even in February it can be like that.

I left the first thrift store and walked past our wee little triangular park.  It's too small to put a shop or a house on it, so they put shrubs in and a few benches and it's a place to picnic.  It is also a place I walk the dog past before the sun comes up two hours later practically every day.

In all our Wet Season rains, the shrubs there are growing crazily.  In fact I would not mind getting some cuttings from those plants and propagating it.  It would make a great hedge in the yard.

But some of it is as high as seven feet.  If I can't see over it, it's tall.  Chock full of orange and yellow flowers.  The bees love it. 

Mind you, even as tall as I am, I'm not fond of bees.  Go make your honey but leave your stingers away from me.

Luckily they did.  They may not be Africanized Killer Bees since they left me to my own curiosity.

But among all those multicolored flowers were some "weeds".

Now, I'm not a farmer but this struck me as odd.  Sweet Pea Flowers among the hedges.  In fact if they are allowed to grow, I'm sure you could get a small harvest of the things.

There they were, pure yellow, intertwined among the hedge, and growing some ripe pea pods.

Made the bees happy I am sure.

It also struck me as amusing as to the incongruousness of having a Pea farm in a park in an urban area coated with hundreds of bees.

That's all part of being here, I suppose.  Drop a seed and it will grow.  Ignore it long enough and you have a farm full of misplaced invasives.

Sometimes it all works out for the best.