A fauna vs flora sort of day

These pictures are of embryonic fruit which will never reach adulthood. Rebecca has planted many such edibles in our garden –trees, bushes, and creeping things like strawberries. Throughout the years, these are inevitably consumed by voracious beasts of prey, and we never taste a one. The birds eat every cherry from our huge cherry tree. I don’t think any of us has gotten a single cherry. Last year the squirrels took a bite out of each apricot – and then decided they were not yet ripe, and so left the mutilated cots for us. However, who wants to eat an apricot that has had squirrel lips on it! The quinces met the same fate—squirrel lips. I believe that Rebecca ignored the lip marks and made jam of some quinces anyway, on the premise that squirrel lip molecules would be done away with during the intense cooking process required by jam. The only ones we ever even taste at all are the strawberries, and they are quite yummy. However, last year when Rebecca was gardening, she took Margaret out with her, and put her on a long lead so that she could frolic in the garden while Rebecca worked. When Rebecca turned around to see what Margaret was up to, the little glutton had eaten up the entire strawberry crop. Single pawed! This year I will be vigilant, but Margaret knows they are there, and strains to get at them every time we go out. She usually out-maneuvers me whenever she is really intent on something, and I fear that she is intent on strawberries.