I opened the back door, and on the steps, was a bag of peas. Not since the Old Farmer had given up gardening had I found vegetables on placed there. When there were extra vegetables but not enough to make canning them worth while it was everyone's custom to leave them on someones doorstep.
And shortly thereafter, I was shelling peas. I have always preferred edible pod peas, you can eat them when they are new and tender flat little pods or if you want you can let them mature and shells. Shelling peas is one of those repetative joys, where you can free your mind to day dream, or think serious thought, or just watch the clouds sail and the birds courting. it can get downright tedious, but watching the bucket fill up with pods that would become compost for next years garden, and the bowl fill with luscious fresh peas is rewarding, my thoughts wandered forward to how these would taste on the Thanksgiving table.
And further back to hot summer evenings shelling peas we had picked earlier, while sitting on the front porch watching the sun go down, and looking for the first fireflys . I wonder if I ever thought this far forward.