Carolyn Holm

Dear Poppy,
Someone is stealing the Cape Gooseberries! I’ve been finding the empty hulls by the garden table. Do you know who is doing this?
Love, Carolyn

Dear Mom,
The squirrels? Probably the squirrels!!!!!!!!
XOXO Poppy

Dear Poppy,
I’ll bet you are right. They are little rascals. This year they’ve started something new, – I think they’re the ones eating our camellia buds. But I found a gooseberry hull on the birdbath. Can the squirrels get up on that?
Love, Carolyn

Dear Mom,
The blue jays! It’s probably our two blue jays!!!!!!!!!
XOXO Poppy

Dear Poppy,
I didn’t think of them. I’ll bet you’re right. They’ve been getting peanuts from Bob across the street, and then coming over here to bury them in our garden. They’ve been very busy stashing peanuts all over the place. And while they’re doing that, they probably notice the gooseberries are getting ripe.
Love, Carolyn

Dear Mom,
Or the crows!!
XOXO Poppy

Dear Poppy,
I haven’t seen the crows in the garden lately.
Love, Carolyn

Dear Mom,
Humans!!!!! It’s probably humans! They already steal our lemons, probably the gooseberries too!!!!
XOXO Poppy

Dear Poppy,
People do walk off with my lemons. That’s the problem with having a Meyer Lemon tree right next to the sidewalk. But I don’t think anyone is coming into our garden to get at the gooseberries.
Love, Carolyn

Dear Mom,
I know, the deer! There were three of them on the lawn this morning!!!!!
XOXO Poppy

Dear Poppy,
Ah, the mama deer with her two yearlings. She’s the one who chomped all the flower buds off my hydrangea last year. So annoying. Fortunately our fence is high enough to keep the deer out of the main garden, or they would totally clean us out of our roses and vegetables. So, no, I don’t think they are eating the gooseberries.
Love, Carolyn

Dear Mom,
A raccoon!!!!!
XOXO Poppy

Dear Poppy,
That’s a possibility! Or a possum. 
Love, Carolyn

Dear Mom, 
Or the meadow mice!!! Or the rat!!! Or who knows, maybe Louie the neighborhood cat!!!!!!!!
XOXO Poppy

Dear Poppy,
We’re not exactly narrowing things down, are we? But I doubt the cat is here looking for gooseberries. He likes our catnip plant.
Love, Carolyn

Dear Mom,
He totally wiped out that catnip plant.
XOXO Poppy

Dear Poppy,
He did. Meanwhile I’m going to tie the gooseberry branches up in a tomato cage to make it more difficult for little critters to reach. Let’s hope that this slows the theft. I want to have some fruit to make jam! 
Love, Carolyn

Dear Mom,
Hey, it’s probably all of these critters ransacking our garden.
XOXO Poppy

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