Smells of new rain

An oak branch with green acorns still attached,
Gray squirrels have been cutting acorn branches they could not otherwise reach. Harvest season has begun. (John Messeder Photo)

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Harvest season has begun in the Couple Acre Wood.

We stand still among the trees, the dog and I, and listen to hickory nuts, some whole and some in the pieces remaining from the ongoing repast of Eastern gray squirrels, clattering from the canopy like balls in a wooden pachinko machine.

Continue reading Smells of new rain

We need better notes

It is fall and time to harvest soybeans and other crops.Trees that stopped feeding themselves weeks ago finally are losing their green as they succumb to the reduced sunlight of shortening days.

Funny how many events in nature seem to be well underway long before we notice. The summer solstice, way back in June, actually marked the beginning of days becoming shorter, leading to winter – a phenomenon we humans, with our ever-so-short lifespan, are only beginning to detect three months later. Continue reading We need better notes