Have you been out today?

When we moved into our flat in September 2002 there were a couple of pots outside, abandoned by the former occupants, with unidentified vegetation growing in them. One of these turned out to be a strawberry plant as we discovered last summer when it produced a bountiful crop of maybe three strawberries which, as far as I remember, we failed to pick in time and they went mouldy on the plant. This year we had four strawberries from it which we picked and ate and they were the finest, tastiest strawberries I've ever had. But now - oh the excitement - the plant is sending out runner thingummies in an attempt to reproduce itself (vague memories of O level biology and my grandad's garden told me this is how they do it) so I'm trying (following some advice on Gardeners' Question Time for heaven's sake) to propagate some new plants in separate pots. Two so far, hopefully more to come. Then, if all goes well, these get separated from the parent plant in about 4 weeks and have to go it alone from there on. Then they should start to bear fruit in a couple of years and have their own offspring a couple of years after that. And so on. All terribly exciting.

Anyway, I'd better get back to the pirates.