Peas in a pod.

Bigger, easier, more, faster, cheaper ... why are we seduced by these words? Does size matter or the speed with which we reach a goal?

I was podding some peas for dinner last night and whilst I did my mind turned to thoughts on the above subject.  It would have been so much quicker and easier to open a packet of frozen peas but would that necessarily have been better?  Whilst podding the peas I was transported back to sunny childhood days when I would sit with my mother on the step and "help" her to prepare peas for a meal.  I am not sure quite how many peas I actually contributed to the colander back then as many went straight into my mouth but the sound of the pods popping ( who remembers that jingle "Sweet as the moment when the pod went pop"?) last night took me right back to those happy days.  Though it took longer to produce the required amount of peas I had time to think something I would not have done had I opened a packet.

Image from Google

Then my mind wandered off to other things such as why is bigger often presumed to be better?  Bigger houses, cars, bigger carrots, bank balances and bigger portions of food.  Maybe you saw that programme on TV last week "The men who made you Fat"?  In which the thinking was that the man who introduced bigger portions of popcorn at the cinema in the USA and who was followed by others who provided "extra value" by offering super sized portions for less than double the price were tapping into the psychology which says that we will always enjoy getting a bargain, even though the smaller size was sufficient, and having bought it we will eat it.  This is apparently one of the reasons there are so many obese people in the world so obviously not a good thing unless you happen to be the executives at the top of the enterprises offering these huge portions.  Are larger vegetables better than small ones?  What about taste?  Is a bigger car better than a small one?  What about fuel consumption? As I was researching for images for this paragraph I came across this article  on why container ships may need to downsize which I found interesting - click on the link if you want to read it too.  Bigger is obviously not always better.

Cow parsley at the Chalice Gardens

Similarly is there more to life than increasing its speed?  Is the fastest way to get somewhere necessarily the best?  I am lucky enough to have a choice when travelling to some place I wish to visit.  I can use the car or I can use my bus pass for local trips and I can use the train instead of flying if I want to go to Europe (long haul might be difficult but that is a whole other story which I won't go into here!).  Now it isn't always possible to go by public transport and without the bus pass it would be expensive but for me a bus ride is so much more enjoyable than taking the car.

Chalice Gardens - spring

  I recently went to visit the Chalice Gardens at Gastonbury - a 35 minute drive in the car or over an hour on the bus.  I took the bus.  I was able to see over the hedgetops and to notice the countryside as we passed, the banks were clothed with cow parsley and the fields gilded with yellow buttercups.  The horse chestnut trees were decorated with blossom like so many pink or cream coloured candles.  The route went through villages I had never seen before where cottages with thatched roofs hugged close to the road their gardens filled with flowers - thatchers were working on one house (not often one sees that on the main road). Then again on my bus ride to London last week I was aware of sheets of moon daisies spread on the wide verges like washing laid out to dry, hedges clotted with creamy elder blossom and plenty of pale pink dog roses, the soft greenery of spring giving way to the darker, denser green of summer and somewhere along the route we passed a field of poppies looking like a great Oriental carpet spread over the field - an amazing sight I would not have seen had I been speeding along the A303 in a car.

Steps at Chalice Gardens

It is easy for me to say these things - I am not a working mother with a family to feed and only 24 hours in each day but I do wonder whether we are not missing the point sometimes?

Now for something completely different:  In our garden we have a seat just outside the back door where we sit with our cups of tea - weather permitting - or sometimes I just sit whilst waiting for the potatoes to boil or whatever.  Our garden is on a slope and there is a retaining wall, alongside some steps next to the seat, which has a couple of pipes inserted at the bottom presumably for drainage.  Sitting with my cup of tea I have noticed bees (I got my binoculars out to check what they looked like and they seem to be the furry kind - see how little I know about bees?!) going in and out of the right hand pipe (if you click on the photo to enlarge it you can clearly see the hole).  Indeed during the course of drinking one cup of tea there must have been dozens of them coming and going reminding me of planes circling above Heathrow and coming in to land (another blog post there perhaps?!).  I wonder what they are doing in there.  The pipe can't be that long and I am guessing it goes into the damp earth at the back of the brickwork so why would they be attracted to it especially this summer when it has been so wet - it must be horribly damp in there.  Any ideas?

 

Yesterday there was an Air Day at nearby Yeovilton and we saw these planes over our garden - the previous evening they had been practising and the sky was clearer but I didn't have my camera to hand! You will see them more clearly if you click on the photo.I am not sure if they are the Red Arrows perhaps.

If you are still with me - thanks for listening to me going on and on - it seems that I either have too much to say or can't think of anything at all - sorry!  Thank you too for all your lovely comments on my previous posts and to those of you who have decided to follow my blog - welcome.