The junior gardener was a no show today, so I had to harvest my own beans.  They were huge!!  They are perfect for making dilly beans.  For those of you who are not from our neck of the woods, dilly beans are beans made like pickles and preserved in a brine bath with dill.  Typically, they are very large beans all cut to the same size and tall enough to fill the jar from bottom to top.  I still left plenty of beans on the plants for master Josh to have some to harvest when he comes to visit next week.  What I think is the coolest part is that I have these dinky little plants in these dinky little containers producing monster beans week after week.  So, this is an important lesson for everyone.  You don't need to have a gigantic yard and work in your garden every day for it to produce great things for you and give you an enormous sense of pride and accomplishment.    This reinforces my desire to make that little sign I've been wanting to make "What happens in the Garden comes to the Table."  I saw one that said "What happens on the patio stays on the patio" and I thought it was dumb.  I think that is one of the most over used and abused sayings there is and doesn't even make sense in most cases.  
I noticed just before I left for Charlotte that we have 2 more Bird of Paradise flowers.  I'm trying to be patient and let the seed pods develop.  We'll see if I can catch them after they turn brown but before they release the seeds.  This is rather tricky business when you work a full time job and get wrapped in you work and forget about the gardening stuff from time to time.  In other words, live a normal life.  :)  I try to visit my plants but I don't always see all of them and the Birds of Paradise are in the back of the house where I hate to visit.  Usually I try to visit them only once or twice a week and sometimes even less than that.  Why?  Ants.  I hate ants in Florida and I'm always afraid I'm going to find them during my walks back there.  Just the same, we're keeping our eyes on them and trying to nab those seed pods and the precious seeds they hold.