The last green peas we harvested were juicy and sweet. We ran out a month ago. Thankfully Joe received his seeds from the Digger's Club today and will be planting all sorts of delicious peas next week - including snow peas, delicious!
Unfortunately I didn't managed to get a good photo of what I hope will be the last green long-necked turtle to squirt me with its stink glands! I saw it ambling along the culvert on the side of the driveway as I was going to pick Tom up from school this afternoon. I stopped and picked it up to show Sophie and it obviously wasn't happy, so released the wicked scent straight away.
I had a sudden memory of a short period of time during my childhood when we had a pet turtle. The bathroom, where we kept it at least for a day, had exactly the same foul stench as I was shot with today. The turtle disappeared eventually - I'm sure I remember my older brother and sister telling me it was stolen by the neighbours (!), but Kate says she was told it had been taken to a nearby park to live. Apparently its fate, however accidental, wasn't as peaceful as the neighbour's garden or Hedgeley Dene, although I wouldn't want to publish an unsubstantiated rumour!
Regardless of what happened to the poor turtle, I will never forget that smell. When I was using my old friend 'Google' tonight to try and work out which turtle I'd found, I came across this article which referred to the long-neck as being a 'stinker' - 'silent but deadly' and that they have glands above each leg which squirt the foul liquid. (By the way I wasn't sure whether it was a turtle or tortoise, but the article goes on to say that 'although sometimes called a tortoise, the longneck and all other Australian turtles are indeed true turtles...') So if you see one, look but don't touch - or be prepared to pay the price!
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