Garden Treats and Treasures

One of the many things I love about my garden is how it surprises me with treats - such as the few remaining Fall Gold raspberries which I enjoyed today.  And the wild strawberries which are still bearing fruit.  And then this cheerful Michaelmas Daisy which sprung out of our outdoor chess board :

It was perfect gardening weather today, so I spent about 2 hours in the garden, cutting down old flower stalks, and pulling weeds.  I was surprised to find a persimmon (the larger one in the photo below) lying face down in the lawn.  The lawn was cut a few weeks ago, so it had been dropped there since.  I suspect it is from the neighbour's persimmon tree, since although I also have one, it is not doing well, and has not borne any fruit yet.  I'm sure it was carried into my yard by a squirrel, and dropped on its way to find a hiding place for its little treasure.

The second persimmon was even more of a surprise.  I was flattening some mounds left by the mole in the lower yard.  It has been making a complete mess of the yard all summer, and I've been shoveling and carrying away the mounds of dirt and rocks (wondering how it could possibly push up SO much material, and what will happen to our yard when those tunnels and holes collapse).  Today, I decided just to flatten them, and scatter some grass seed on the soil.  One of the mounds contained the persimmon, nicely buried inside, like buried treasure.  Squirrels, for sure.  This time, it reached its hiding place.