The first sweetpeas

and also my contribution for the weekly theme which this week is Lighting Experiment.
This is the first vase of sweetpeas this summer and the battle has commenced. My beloved mother in law told me you had to cut them as soon as the flowers appeared in order to get as many blooms as possible on the plants, but her son (my husband!) hates to see the bare sweetpeas plants so we try to find a happy medium every year. For me the summer proper starts with the first vase of these lovelies. They look specially nice with the purple lupins in the background through the window.