Making the Gifts Last

When our temperatures threatened to drop significantly below freezing a few weeks ago, we stripped our pepper and fall tomato plants and brought the harvest inside to add some flavor to our winter soups and omelets.  The tomatoes obliged by ripening a few at a time.  Habanero, Jalapeno, and Gypsy peppers were beautiful in bowl or basket, and have been welcome heat!  Only a few remain, and I find myself counting them and thinking they are almost all gone.  I am keeping a gratitude journal this year.  So I will write that I am thankful for the gifts my garden has given me.  Long past the time the plants have withered and faded, the fruit they produced nourishes and delights us.  Our lives can be like that too.