Tomatoes in Feb.

Last Sept. when I was taking out all of the brown dead vines left over from my summer garden, I noticed one tiny green leaf coming from a brown stem. I decided to leave it and see what would happen. By the end of Oct. a green vine had grown but others told me that it would probably never bear fruit. In Nov. I started seeing some blossoms and tiny green tomatoes. I thought that our cold weather would kill it, but more and more little green tomatoes appeared. In Dec. I noticed that some of the tomatoes were starting to grow larger, but they stayed green all through Jan. I was afraid that they would not rippen in the cool weather. In Feb. I became intrigued with my little plant. I saw that some of the tomatoes were slowly starting to turn red. I started going out every day to watch and encourage them. Finally, yesterday, the last day of Feb, I picked a bag full of tomatoes. We had bacon and tomato sandwiches and sliced tomato salad for dinner.

Now there must be a parable or moral here somewhere. Maybe it is that we should never give up even when things look grim and it takes longer to get our wishes than we think it should....or...maybe it is that even the scroungy can produce good fruit if they are cared for and given time.....or....you fill in the blank.

However, my little plant makes me smile and count my blessings. Even though I am sad to live so far away from 3 of my 4 children, I am happy that I live in a place that I can pick fresh tomatoes off of my vine in Feb. I am also glad that we have email, digital cameras and blog spots to help us keep in touch. Life is full of nice little blessings. Tomatoes in Feb. is one of them. Love to all, Grammy