My Favorite Time of Year - Guest Post by Dr. Ruby

Hi there!  Grammy said that even though she had a post planned about baby birds,  I can do a post all by myself first!  Yay, yay, yay!!!  Because I want to tell you why this is my favorite time of the year!  I bet you can't guess.  No?  Okay, here's why...

Grammy grows these special plants every year.  She started growing them a long time ago for the hummingbirds but now she grows them for me!  Because I like to eat the beans.  Yep, they are delicious!

Grammy took some pictures this morning so I could show you!  

First, this is what the plant looks like:

Grammy apologizes for the clashing red flowers, but the hummingbirds like them!

They are called Scarlet Runner Beans.  If you want to see more pictures of the flowers, with the 'other' Rubies (Ruby-throated Hummingbirds) you can click here.  I, myself, don't care about that, but you might. 

Although, I guess the flowers are good, because without them, there wouldn't be any delicious beans for me!

Grammy and I went for a walk this morning and when we came back I headed right for the porch swing.

Grammy said, "Wait a minute, Ruby!"  So I stopped, "What?"

She said I was too wet to go on the swing, but she had a surprise for me.  She pointed out a bean that was ready-to-pick and right at my height!  You can see it in the photo, right in front of the middle geranium flower.

Then,  I was so quick, I already picked half of it by the time she got her camera ready!

Yum, yum, yum!  They are chewy and tasty!  In this picture, I'm chewing half of it and you can see the other half is still on the vine.  Don't worry, it won't go to waste!

It takes a little tugging but I got it off...

 
And it's worth it!

I looked for more, but I'll have to wait for them to grow a little bigger.

Although Grammy picked one that was too high for me to reach and said I could have it for a snack later.  She's nice that way.

 There are lots more coming....because Grammy plants them in a bunch of places -- for me, and the hummingbirds as I said.  The hummingbirds only eat the nectar from the flowers so I guess that is okay.  I would love to eat lots more beans, but Grammy says it wouldn't be good for me to eat too many-- plus she has to let some keep growing to have seeds for next year.  I think that is a good idea!