Wednesday, December 06, 2017

Gray and dreary days

That's late fall and early winter here. We only have about eight and a half hours of daylight right now, and the skies are often foggy, overcast, and leaden. We do get some nice sunny days here and there, but a lot of the time it's gray.

The walnut tree out on the vineyard road. I noticed that there weren't many walnuts out there this year.

I'm certain that these dreary winter days are the origin of our holiday traditions of bringing greenery and lights into our houses. And also of cooking meals with summer fruits, squashes, and root vegetables that were put in cold storage at the end of summer. And also of eating birds, like turkeys, chickens, guinea fowl, pheasants, partridges and other game birds that abound this time of year. All those things lift our spirits, and "help to make the season bright."

7 comments:

  1. We're bracing ourselves for the coming Arctic blast expected from Friday, Walt, which is likely to be a prolonged one. I'm sure you are too. Too much Winter already! (Brrrrrrrr!)

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  2. I just finished reading the blog of someone who has a walnut tree on their property. They received a call recently from their vet who warned them to keep their dogs away from eating the fallen nuts. The decomposing husks contain an enzyme which can prove fatal to dogs, and several surgeries in the area (many walnut groves) had been treating emergency cases in order to save their patients. Keep an eye on Tasha around that tree.

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  3. That's a beautiful shot of grays.
    Speaking of walnuts, our daughter's tree was also sparse this year. She didn't give us a big bagful as she's done in past years.

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  4. Good shot of wintertime, Walt.

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  5. I think the early Christian church set things up so its calendar would align with the celebrations of the winter solstice, the return of the light. Hang on until December 21st, then it starts to get brighter.

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  6. raybeard, our forecast doesn't look so bad at this point. I'll let you know!

    sheila, thanks. I do know about the walnut issue. Callie used to love to eat walnuts. She'd crack the shell and get all the nut meat out and leave the shell behind. But it was not something she got to do often. Tasha hasn't discovered them yet.

    ellen, our friends down the road had a bumper crop this year (from which we gratefully benefited). I'll be making walnut biscotti soon!

    leon, ha!

    evelyn, :)

    emm, I always look forward to the winter solstice!

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