Missing and Longing

I know we have been absent here on the blog but we just like many others succumbed to a busy holiday season. We enjoyed lots of special family time, birthdays, and most importantly celebrating Christ's birth. I had planned to begin blogging again by sharing our family's favorite black bean burger recipe-- but while I was searching for those pictures I kept stumbling across garden images. I have to be honest here, we are all aching to get back into the yard to garden. The produce we grew last year is still blessing us at meals, but I think that's just fueling the anticipation. We all keep peeking out windows and longing for the day when we can turn up the soil and put our first seeds in. I did find this pictures of some gardens we were able to visit last summer that I had hoped to share back then, but why not now on the eve before we are about to get some snow?

This is my parents back yard garden. My father was raised by an Italian immigrant who gardened along with many of their neighbors. I can remember helping in my grandfather and dad's garden. My dad's has always been what I call a salad garden-- lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and eggplant and squash. We are hoping to help get him going with peas and beans this summer and maybe some radishes. He has been adding compost and grass clippings to it for years and the soil is very productive.

While we were visiting my parents, they were watching a friends garden. Actually, it's way more than that. Their friend is a professor at a college and has turned some of the land there into rented plots for people to garden. All the gardens must be organic and pesticide free and it is amazing-- they are growing some really productive plants!

We helped harvest peas (which are now being enjoyed by us through out the winter) and some basil (our basil last year was a dwarf variety and not great for saving).

We love visiting Longwood Gardens and their vegetable garden is drool worthy! They have numerous gardens and this year it was neat to be able to identify the plants and see how we could incoporate some of their trellis methods (last year many of ours collapsed under the weight of the plants).

Finally, here are some from our own yard... ah how we miss you!

As we wait, the garden once again reminds me of a biblical lesson to wait upon the Lord and wait for Him. Do I anticipate Him? Long for him? Love how the garden reveals truths that God has for me. Isaiah 40:31 "But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint."