I have to tell you, I love this time of year. There is nothing more fun than, first thing in the morning, heading outside with the Katester to the side of the garage, where the volunteer raspberries are ripening in their thorniest goodness, and grabbing a sweet snack straight off the stalk.

She, clearly, loves the things. I have to practically sand-blast her face to get the purple stains off, yet she cheerfully goes back for more at the next opportunity. We’re getting quite a harvest this year considering these plants aren’t particularly maintained (I am diverting the water from the air conditioner unit into buckets and carting it up to give the berries a little extra plumpness), and she’s hitting them two or three times a day to enjoy. Yesterday, we saw a baby praying mantis, no more than an inch-and-half high sitting on one of the leaves…between that little guy and a few spiders scattered among the thorns, the plants are well-protected from any nasty little bugs that might want to eat our fruit.

They only last a few weeks, of course, and then it’ll be time to cut out the old plants and look forward to next year. But while the plants are bearing, you can bet we’re enjoying every morning and taking none of them for granted…