October 13, 2021
We have a large walnut tree, which
is situated on what is technically town property (they own to a certain
distance from the center of the road out) and stands at the northeast corner of
our house. When we moved in here in the 1990s, the tree, which was mature at
that point, had a wide “crotch” of three main branches that our kids could
reach by standing on the porch railing, turning around, and then…sitting down
upon it. They took turns using “the tree chair” as they called it. I think at
the time it was the thing they liked best about this new house of ours.
That tree-crotch is now
forever out of reach, a good six feet higher than it was when we moved in, nearly
thirty years ago. Next year, David tells me, we’re going to have to contact a
tree service to come in to cut back some of the branches, because there are
some getting dangerously close to our roof. We did this once before a few years
ago and knew at that time that we’d likely have to do it again.
The walnuts this tree produces
are highly prized by the squirrels, but to us, they’re rather annoying. You
see, being fall, the walnuts are beginning to drop from the tree, and a lot of
them hit the main roof, then the porch roof, before finally falling to either
the sidewalk or the street. The ones that end up on the street tend to explode
under the wheels of the cars that drive past. As you can imagine, it makes a
mess of the road until the street sweeper comes by—usually not long before the
first snowfall.
Some walnuts do make it to our
narrow front lawn. David ensures they are not in the way of the lawn mower by tossing
them into whichever of the front gardens is closest, so the squirrels have easy
access to the free food. They do gather them, too, because the walnuts tend to “disappear”
from the gardens. However, the squirrels also wait until there are squashed
walnuts on the road, and then run out for an easy, buffet-style on-the-spot
snack.
I feel like we play a game akin
to Russian roulette at this time of year when we walk outside under this
nut-shedding behemoth. So far, no one has been pinged on the head by any dropping
walnuts. But it’s been close a couple of times. I might resort to holding an
umbrella over my head the next time I venture forth from the protection of the
porch roof. At the moment, our cars are parked across the street, out of the
range of fire, as it were. Come the 16th they must be moved to this
side of the street. Our daughter has decided to park hers further down the
street at that time, since she does have that pretty red brand-new car and really
does not want any walnut dents on it.
Aside from the possibility of
either people or cars being hit by one of these round green missiles, the other
problem is the dogs. When they’re inside the house, napping on furniture or on people
(depending) in the late afternoon or evening, they don’t like sudden sounds. They
really don’t like it when something goes “thump” on the roof, and then
rolls. They don’t like it one bit. And they aren’t shy in letting us know this.
Trust me when I say we do not
need one more thing to make those furry little critters bark. Fortunately, in just
a couple more weeks, the season of falling walnuts should be over.
Two days ago, Monday, was Thanksgiving
Day here in Canada. We tend to celebrate our Thanksgiving the same way our
neighbors to the south do, with turkey and pumpkin pie and every other “fixin’”
you can imagine. One difference is that the day after is not the first
day of Christmas shopping. Yes, we have black Friday—when the U. S. has black Friday
in November—because some of the retailers here are based there, and also
because Canadians love good sales, too.
However, while Monday was
Thanksgiving, we did not have our Thanksgiving supper then. We are having our
family feast, in fact, tonight. With two family members who are in nursing, we
have to be mindful of their schedules. Our second daughter is preparing the turkey
as you read this, and I’m really looking forward to going to her home for
supper tonight. She’s had some renovations done over the last several months. These
were supposed to have been a surprise for us, as we were planning to have our family
Christmas supper last year on December 26, 2020. Sadly, that didn’t happen because
that was the first day of a several month’s long lockdown here in our province.
So tonight will be my first
time visiting her house since before the pandemic—and the renovations. There
won’t be a huge crowd, just family, and everyone except for the little ones has
been vaccinated.
It’s one step forward to
feeling “normal”, whatever that is. But mostly it’s a chance to spend time with
family—and there’s nothing in this world that I love more than that.
Love,
Morgan
http://www.bookstrand.com/morgan-ashbury
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