Faith, Folklore, and Friends

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.

Morning Glories may be the flower I have known and loved the longest. My maternal grandmother, Mrs. Georgia Gean, was a great lover of morning glories. She lived in a little four-room house that had been converted from an old church/school house. The front porch, with boards for the floor and tin on the roof, was built across the front of the house, which faced directly west. Grandma had dug up beds running parallel with the porch, on each side of the front door. Each spring, she would plant these beds with morning glory seed she ordered from a seed catalog. Long before the little plants were ready to send out tendrils, she built a trellis for them to climb on. Grandma knew what days in early spring would yield the highest sap, and that is when we would go to collect young hickory trees. Gathering her grandchildren and her chopping ax, she would head to the woods to cut down hickory saplings that were bursting with sap. We would haul them home under our arms, even the sma...

Rose-breasted grosbeaks migrate through our area from about the middle of April until early May.  They seemed a little later this year. I watched the feeders for days before they showed up.  It was worth the wait. I have been trying, without success, to get some photos since they have been here.  This morning, I managed to get a few by staying inside and not disturbing them.  These shots were taken through two panes of glass, so please forgive me if they seem a little fuzzy.  They hide in the scaly-bark hickory tree just off the deck. This handsome fellow seems to really enjoy the woodpecker suet. I'm really glad I was able to get these shots before they take off for the northeast.  Y'all can come back anytime!

It's a good year for hickory nuts. Hickory trees are a hardwood that has been used for fences, furniture, and switches. Someone cooking 'way back yonder' discovered food had a different taste when it was cooked over hickory sticks or coals. Once used as food by native Americans and settlers, the nuts are most highly valued by squirrels now. When I went squirrel-hunting with my daddy as a child, we would look for hickory trees, knowing that would be where we would find the most squirrels. Daddy liked to go real early, when most animals and little girls were still sleeping, so my trips with him were few and sporadic. Our house has a huge scalybark hickory tree just off the deck in the back. This majestic tree provides shade for the house and yard. It is home to countless birds and insects. This time of year, when the mature nuts are falling, the hickory tree and the ground under it teems with squirrels gathering for winter. If my daddy was still living and wanted to ...