Strawberry Fields Forever

All through spring I have been looking forward to the first strawberries of summer. B. has tended the strawberry patch by our house with care, and in early spring he inserted some new plants in the gaps. Imported strawberries may have filled the supermarket shelves for many weeks, but we have been waiting for our own. Even though we can only gather a few at a time , these strawberries are the real deal; fresh, sweet and delicious. They are perfect to eat for breakfast with our muesli and are a sure sign that summer has arrived. But wait a minute...where are they? Didn't we see small green fruits forming ages ago? They should certainly be ripe enough to pick by now. But no, all is bare. Uh oh! Something must have been pinching them . For then we spotted, lying right in the middle of the barren strawberry bed, a bunch of unripe strawberries, snapped off from its parent plant.

So! Who's The Culprit?

Searching for evidence , we have drawn a blank. The bed had been covered with a light plastic green net, and there was no obvious damage there, so that would rule out the blundering sanglier, or even the badger. The pine marten could have been devious enough, and he certainly enjoyed the birds' fat balls last winter, but we haven't seen him around here since then . A blackbird maybe? There are lots around at the moment. And then of course there is the fox, who has been barking close by. He could certainly have poked his narrow nose under the mesh to take ripe fruit. The very last suspect of all is the red squirrel. Alas the verdict is still out.

Gallery of suspects

Just to make sure that only we ourselves enjoy the remaining ripe strawberries , we replaced the inadequate plastic netting with something more robust.

But who was this checking out the strawberries just before we removed the old netting? None other than Léo, our cat. Could he have been our mystery thief?

Who.... me?