Garden Gems

Tomatoes are Red

Peppers are Green

I like to eat them straight from the bush

It’s a good thing I wasn’t seen!

     Well as the old saying goes “good things never last forever.” I love me some good juicy ripe tomatoes.  Just thinking about them I am drooling all over the keyboard.  It all started this spring.  Beth’s tomatoes were starting to get ripe and I was biding my time until they were that perfect crimson.  When the first one turned I knew it was time to strike.  Beth always lets us out to relieve ourselves before the sun is even over the hills in the morning.  I decided to use the dim light and her “before coffee” state to my advantage. I went straight to the bush, grabbed the beautiful fruit and proceeded to inhale it before anyone was to the wiser.

     Well when Beth went to the garden as she does every morning to pick and water before she leaves for the day she found the precious fruit missing.  Oh dog, was she upset.  She started to curse at the deer, bunnies and anything else that she thought might have been the villain to steal her first tomato of the season. Me being her faithful companion I sat at her feet with the most pitiful non guilty look I could muster.  It worked!

     I continued this pattern for several weeks, filling my belly until I was fat with the wonderful garden rubies.  Until one fateful morning Beth, the creature of habit which I love so much, changed her morning pattern. Ryan had the coffee made for her that morning and she had cup in hand and was wide awake as we walked down the hall to be let out. She followed us out to enjoy the first rays of the morning sun.  I am a creature of weakness I must admit.  Like I am a ball junky, I too am a tomatoaholic.  I couldn’t help it, I tried to wait until I thought Beth was distracted by the cluckers that roam in our yard but I missed judged her.

     Right as I get my mouth around the wonderful juicy round red fruit, I hear my name. Not the loving Bubbers that she often calls me when fawning over my cuteness, but the Om-Ar in the stern, I love you but you are in big trouble mister voice that I have come to know too well in our 10 years together. I was caught red lipped in this case. Beth has never been one to raise a hand to me.  Instead she uses other tactics of punishment.  Sometime I think a swat on the rump would be better than the, silent treatment and disappoint looks.  She gave me a talking to and the NO! that always follows her pointing at the object in which she clearly thinks I should have known better than to touch in the first place.

     Well I did steal any more tomatoes.  Which made Beth happy, and to my surprise after a few weeks she even gave me a few that had fallen on the ground or were a little over ripe.  I guess the lesson you can learn from this is sometimes, if you just ask for something rather than taking it without permission, you may get not only what you want but enjoy it even more.  When I am given the tomatoes I have the time to lay in the cool grass and eat them at my leisure, rather than eating them so fast that I can barely taste their sweetness.