Faith, Folklore, and Friends

I have written before about my love/hate relationship with our shag-bark hickory tree, here  and  here. The tree provides a home for squirrels and birds and countless insects and smaller organisms. It is the only tree we have that is tall enough to shade the house from the afternoon sun.  It is so pretty, and there is no way we would ever cut it. Every other year, it has a bumper crop of nuts, many of which fall on the deck.  Usually, when they fall, the hull breaks into four pieces, expelling the nut.  We try to keep them off the deck (stepping on them could cause a fall) and have already picked up bags and bags of them. It has become a daily ritual, picking up the hickory nuts. There is still about a million of them on the tree. Our dog, Sherlock, gets excited when we start picking them up, and he eats them.  Yes, that's what I said, he eats them.  He breaks the hickory nut in his jaw, spits it out, and eats the good part. Hub is am...

Autumn is not just pretty leaves and pumpkins. We had a perfect weather weekend here in North Alabama: sunny, cool, and a nice breeze.  On Saturday, we could have gone to the Bell Buckle, Tennessee, arts festival or the Kentuck arts festival.  I could have gone to a meeting on Saturday or attended a fall festival on Sunday afternoon. We did none of these things.  We worked in the yard, cleaning the detritus of summer and getting rid of things we won't need for the coming winter.  Seasons are the stuff of life, the ever changing cycle that never stops, and no matter how hard it is to let go,  we have to accept it and move on. When I am grieving, angry, frustrated, sad, and/or overwhelmed, I find   the best therapy is doing physical work outside.  I can better deal with things when I'm breathing fresh air and working in silence. Many years ago, a therapist told me the best thing for emotional management was getting a plastic bat and hi...

I have written before about the hickory tree just off our deck in the back.  This year, it has billions of hickory nuts.  This is what was on the deck after Monday's storms. We have already removed many, many hickory nuts from the deck, and it looks like there are many more on the tree. We sat inside Monday night and listened to the thunder, the pouring rain, the howling wind, and hickory nuts crashing on the deck.  It sounded like a battle going on for a while. I wish they were as good as pecans in pies.  I would have enough to make a pie for everybody I know.  The squirrels love them, and my dog, Sherlock, eats them when he is bored.   Come on over and sit a spell.  If it is storming, we will stay inside.