After another round of research into the formatting of paperback books, I developed a wonder...

What's your rule on orphans and widows? 
Do you follow the "two line" rule?
Do you balance the pages?
Does "make it look good" override old-school rules?

TYIA

R.C.

I was given strawberry runners and (stupid me) I planted them. The strawberries were large and sweet and my hens loved them. I never ate any, after tasting one.
The strawberries attracted leeches and slugs, and a small lizard.
Next thing they had runners and the runners had runners. They took up an entire side garden. I tried pulling out most of them. More grew so I poisoned them. Three months later I now notice two or three trying to grow again, so will also poison them when the rain stops.
I believe strawberries are a noxious weed. :-)

When they're about the size shown in the photo, they don't have any taste.  (I've eaten several of them, so I have a pretty good sample set.)

So, black nightshade berries you'll taste but spit out rather than eat, but wild growing berries in bright red poison warning colors you'll eat because they look like little strawberries? 

Well, I'll just warn you that if you get one of those "I've been hired to kill you" eMails, I think you best not eat anything resembling strawberries for 72 hours.  Just saying . . .

I am not convinced those are the true wild strawberries, the fraises du bois that I picked as a child and that taste absolutely lovely. There's another item that looks very like them but actually is larger. Kind of darker and furry, too. I will talk to my family plant expert tomorrow and get that name. I know he has eaten the lookalikes and said they're flavorless. Also harmless.

Here are some photos taken on the afternoon of April 14th.

Light blue Bearded Iris:





Yellow Bearded Iris:








Holly flowers:   





As I've mentioned before, the holly is a particular favorite of mine due to the flowers' aroma.  It's also a favorite of the bees, and when the tree's in bloom, they're all over it.  I like to stand under the branches, inhale the aroma, and let the constant drone of buzzing bees lull me into a pleasant zen-like state.   


Wild strawberry:





Before anyone gets too excited about the strawberries, here are a few unfortunate facts...

When they're about the size shown in the photo, they don't have any taste.  (I've eaten several of them, so I have a pretty good sample set.)  If I give them more time to grow bigger, then the squirrels and other critters will eat them before I can pick them.  And they're growing in the shade, so they're unlikely to fully ripen anyway even if the critters weren't an issue.  So they're basically just an interesting weed.   

I have no idea how they got there, by the way.  I certainly didn't put them there.  This is only the second or third year I've noticed them.  I can only guess that some animal pooped out some seeds after eating some strawberries somewhere else.