Abundance.
The Black Walnut trees, here on the property, have now lost all of their leaves. Their crop of black walnuts have all fallen from the trees, or been removed by the squirrels. I lightly raked up the laver of leaves from the lawn, revealing the last of the fruit, strewn enmasse across the ground.
This year, we have an abundance of black walnuts from the trees here, as well as an above normal crop in the whole of the northeast states. This abundance is not limited to the Black Walnut trees. The crop of acorns from the Oaks across the same area are equally in abundance.
Such an abundance that I’ve been blessed with harvesting off the ground and processing for my own use, close to 500 nuts. An amount that is equal to three and one half (5 gallon) buckets of walnuts in their husks.
This year’s abundance also allowed met to share the better part of two full buckets of fruit with whoever wanted them, placed in a box by the street, labeled simply “Free Black Walnuts”. These were gone by the next day.
The squirrels have been harvesting these nuts, mostly from the trees, for close to 8 weeks now. Three of these guys worked mornings only initially. They then began working all day long, peeling off the husks and stashing their prizes, often buried somewhere in my and other yards. Once the crop in the trees had been depleted, the task of harvesting off the ground began.
I’m sure that next year, or the following year, I’ll be mowing tiny Black Walnut trees, carefully planted and subsequently forgotten, in my lawn. As well, I expect a fresh crop of these trees to be popping up in many areas that I’d rather they didn’t. As much as I hate destroying what the Earth has provided, I know that I will be faced with removing the trees sprouted from this year’s carefully, squirrel planted potential Black Walnut forest grove.
My leaf raking revealed the remaining of the black walnut crop spread across the lawn. I’d guess that what is on the ground still, is the equivalent of another five or six buckets (likely more).
It is my intention is to leave these for the squirrels, until such a time as it seems that they’ve moved on from this year’s harvest. At present, there has been up to 5 gray squirrels out there harvesting this year’s crop, on any day, rain, shine, cold and wind. This morning, I noticed a rather energetic red squirrel had joined the group. Once Squirrel seems to have moved on, I will gather the remaining nuts on the ground into one heap, and bury them, returning them to Gaia in a form that will not become the tree or food for which they are intended. This returning to the earth will be with the gratitude for such abundance.
In my heart, I bear witness to such an episode of abundance, additionally represented by the piles of chewed up husks scattered across this property (on the deck, driveway, the stoop off the rear house entry and all about the wooden garden chair) and my mind’s pictures of Squirrel, perched at work in each of these places, as well as the trees, tails wrapped up against their backs against the dawn’s breeze in the short time before the rising Sun blessed them with It’s warmth.
Peter