It's Berry Squirrely Here

A few weeks ago Itty Bitty's great-grand-ma gave her/us some strawberry plants.
They sat on the potting bench for a bit before we could decide where to put them.

We ended up putting them just beyond the steps to the deck, but before you get to
the pool so we could keep an eye on them.  I've never seen a rabbit, but you never
know.  Stranger things have crept thru here and we didn't want to "feed the animals",
as it were.  Cute or not, I had visions of jam dancing in my head and I wasn't about
to go toe to toe with a furry little creature!

You can see the little red berries peeking out.  These aren't the first fruits of this little plant.  No-sir-ree-bob.  It seemed every time I picked a ripe berry something had already taste tested it!  We think this is the culprit:

 



That's definitely NOT a rabbit! Just look at him, all stretched out ~ King of the Hill ~ we think he thinks he owns the place.  Just this morning Bob caught him sauntering across the deck with a green strawberry in his clutches.  He just gave Bob the ol' stink eye when Bob told him he couldn't do that.
Yea, right.  Who's Bob kidding?  That squirrely little rascal moseyed on across the deck and off he went.  "Let's just see what I can and can't do.", I imagined him saying.

But I did manage to beat him to these this afternoon:

I know, two scrawny little berries.  Bitter at that, the girls said.  But hey, at least King Squirrel
didn't get them!

And, no, I probably won't get enough out of those three little plants for a good batch of jam for some
 time to come.  I will surely need to add some more plants (and some kind of "King" protection).  But that's all well and good for the time being.  I was given the nudge and now I can run with it!  We will see what next year holds.

Now to concentrate on blueberries.  Ahh, the fruits of my labor, tho they be little.