A streak
October 7th
There is an old and well-spread walnut tree in my garden. It was planted more than 30 years ago by my grandfather, but whose idea it was to actually get a walnut tree for the garden is lost in the shrouds of memory. The tree is spectacular — it shadows an area within a radius of 4 meters from the trunk beneath its branches and leaves. In the summer, it is my favorite place to sit under those leaves — even on the hottest day, the temperature there is a little lower than nearby. Also, I never need to mow the grass there — it simply doesn't grow above an inch because of the deep shadow casts by that tree. The leaves are big and thick and pain in the ass to rake them all in the fall. There is a nest near the top that is only visible when the leaves are gone, but I still haven't figured out if and what kind of birds lives there.
And it produces walnuts. Quite edible, with a slightly bitter taste, but still perfectly fine. Once in the middle of September the walnuts start to fall from the tree, and it becomes back-breaking work to collect them — literately I just bend over and move step by step and then to the side and back to survey all the area underneath the tree to collect the nuts. Then, once some quantity is collected, drying starts — the walnuts need to be spread on a surface in the sun for at least a week to lose the green covering that covers the actual gray shell. After the first part is dried out, it can be stored in plastic bags for future use. And at the same time, several other sets of walnuts in various stages of drying are being worked on. Usually, I can collect about 20 kilos of walnuts just from that single tree. This year, the crop is even better, I have already over 20 kilos with more being dried and some walnuts still in the tree.
No matter how much of the walnuts are collected, they will be all gone by the end of January. And neither I nor anybody from my family will eat them. They all are for feeding squirrels and woodpeckers that since forever come to an old pear tree, which is near to the walnut tree, where every day (and sometimes twice a day) a handful of those walnuts is placed for their eating pleasure. It has been going on for generations already, and I will preserve this family tradition for as long as I can. Local squirrels and woodpeckers will not be disappointed in the winter, and when my hoard of walnuts is gone, then I will buy more to last for the rest of the winter.
And today, I took a photo of my dog and my cat (I know that my cat is an oxymoron, cats have no owners) sitting on both sides of the blanket where the almost-ready walnuts were getting final touches from the sun and with various boxes with walnuts in different stages of drying. It looked like they are guarding the fatty and protein-rich treasure for some other animals to enjoy in the winter. That brought a smile to my face. I send a photo to my mom — and she told me that she had a laugh when she saw it. I send that photo to my siblings and got smiley faces in return, so I assume they were smiling when they saw it. So that is a two-day streak for me when a small and quite insignificant thing brought a smile to my face and happy and warm thoughts that drowned out the hum of unpleasant news around me.
Lets keep the streak going!
