Every year, I dread autumn, which hasn't diminished in recent years; quite the opposite. I'm finding it increasingly difficult to cope with the ever-shortening days and the ever-lengthening evenings and nights. Astronomical Autumn has truly begun today. The sun is directly overhead today, and everywhere on Earth, day and night are now of equal length. Unfortunately, we're now in a period where our days are rapidly shortening. This happens most rapidly in September, and you can still feel it in October... Unfortunately, this also brings more cold, rain, and wind. And that's all manageable, but the ever-shortening days have also brought something else for me in recent years. And that is gloom. Due to a lack of daylight and the necessary vitamin D, I've been experiencing increasingly gloomy moods during these months. It's even verging on depression. Of course, I always try to stay ahead of that by going outside despite the cold, wind, and rain. At least an hour every day... Hallelujah for Skipper! He does get me outside, and I'll admit it right away, without a dog around, it would be a completely different story. Because if there's one thing I've really come to hate, it's cold and rain! I really live in the wrong country in that regard.
Now, despite everything, there are still beautiful things to be found in every season, and autumn is no exception. And one of those things is a gift from nature in the form of walnuts. When we moved here in 2015, phew, that's been a long time. (You'd think it was time to move again!), We didn't know there were walnut trees. When I saw a walnut shell in the front garden, I immediately thought, "We should take a closer look." And I asked the neighbor. That neighbor from back then had lived here for about seven years, and he was apparently a regular with the people who lived in this house before us. We assumed he'd know if there were any walnuts to be found. He said no, he'd never noticed. "Too bad," we thought, but after that, we didn't think about it again.
Until the first autumn came, and we found a cracked walnut in our backyard. That was reason enough to go exploring, and we were surprised by mountains of walnuts, just there for grabs! What a gift! I'm already crazy about walnuts, and to find them in my own side garden... it couldn't be better, could it?
The years since then haven't all been good nut years, but that's nature. It can't always be a celebration. I have to say, I have no idea if this is normal or not. Whether a walnut tree bears well every year, or whether it's normal to have a few years in between. I can actually imagine that. It must be hard work for a tree to produce those nuts, I think. But maybe that's just human thinking, and other circumstances cause us to have or not have nuts.
This year, we also thought it wouldn't be such a good nut year, but a week or so ago, Skipper suddenly brought me something. When I took it from him and thanked him profusely, I took a good look at what he'd put in my hand. When I felt it, I thought it was a stone or something, but it turned out to be a walnut. The first one of the year, and believe me... in the days that followed, we were pleasantly surprised again. Despite our initial suspicion that it wasn't a good nut year, there were mountains of walnuts hidden among the twigs and weeds around the tree. Now that our landlord also crushed his corn last year, it's much easier for us to walk around, and we can gather nuts to our heart's content again. The harvest is good this year! And the enjoyment can begin...
