Nuts for us

One of my desert dahlias is finally opening up

This has been a bumper crop for nut trees around here. It is probably why the squirrels have stopped raiding visiting us. Running and biking is now like going over marbles with all the black walnuts and hickory nuts on the shoulders and in the middle of the road. A friend from Michigan's west coast staying with me was thrilled to take a walk with me through our hickory forests picking up some of the nuts that the squirrels hadn't gotten to yet. She is trying to grow filberts which would probably not grow in our somewhat harsher climate 150 miles away. Anyway she hammered some of them open. I was surprised how good they tasted, like already toasted pecans. Pecans are in the same family but do not grow up here. We have two varieties: shag barked which have bigger  and tastier nuts and the pignut: smaller but not so tasty. I will amass more when the weather clears.

I will leave the many black walnuts alone. My mom was a fan of 'free food' and would set me to work extracting their meats out of their  tough, intricate shells. Hard work and not much pay off. My fingers would be stained black. The walnuts have a very strong flavor compared to the bland English walnuts found in stores. A little bit of black walnuts go a long way. The only nut trees we have on our property are two very small chestnuts, which have beautiful pink blossoms in the spring. I can't compete with the rodents for their nuts.

On our walk, we saw a Cooper's hawk perched less than 20 feet from us and several varieties of woodpeckers. Only the downy is visiting us now but once it's winter, the other species will return. It was fun having her over. She lives very close to lakes and dunes which one might argue are more scenic than around here. Before she came, the rising sun was back lighting the tunnel of changing trees as I ran back home. Should run with my camera.

I did have a camera when I saw the biking nun but I thought it would be rude to stop and try to photograph her. One photo I wished I took was back in Italy. One of my roommates and I were taking a walk in Castelvecchio by a convent. It was wash day and all the nuns' undergarments were hanging in full display. They seemed to favor lacy Victoria Secret clones. Who would have thought? No clothes dryers in Italy. With all that dry, hot air, they don't find them necessary. We were provided drying racks in the back courtyard to dry our clothes. Unlike the nuns, my roommates and I, 4 ladies over 40, were not fans of displaying our private things for all to see (and make fun of) so we kept a rack in our room. Washing itself was a chore. For all of us students, there was just one temperamental washer which was not fully automatic. You had to be around to press buttons to start the next cycle.

I am waiting impatiently for the rain to lessened somewhat so I could at least run in our subdivision. Running on the dirt roads is out as the clay parts of them will be saturated. There is plenty I should be doing such as figuring out health insurance plans. We will go on Medicare next year and the instructions are not very clear. It seems like with the Medicare gap plans, our total costs will be way more than it was before Medicare. We have called them to explain but have not found anyone knowledgeable.