The Fruit of Our Labor

I thought I was the only one who got ecstatic at the first sign of life in the garden, then my friend called yesterday to tell me her big news: she got her first strawberry! "We got our first tomato!" I exclaimed.

Hallllleeeluuuja!!

We've had a couple of false starts. You see, we have many pesky blackbirds in our neighborhood - in fact so many that there's a restaurant down the street aptly named Blackbird Bistro - and trying to keep them from pillaging our garden is no small feat. They are smart, those birds. We turned our backs once - briefly - and found that one had taken flight with half a salmon burger in it's mouth.

So the fact that finally one of our tomatoes had survived the birds was cause for celebration! Our itty bitty tomato (above) was no larger than a button, but what it lacked in size it made up for in flavor.

"Haaaa!!!" I screamed at the birds, holding my precious little tomato up at them, "You missed one!" I then realized that I am far too young to be referred to as the "crazy lady who yells at birds" and quietly slinked back into the house to enjoy the fruit of our labor.