These will be walnuts

There's a lone walnut tree out in the vineyard from which we have, in the past, gathered walnuts. The tree has on-years (lots of nuts) and off-years (not so many). Last year was an on-year, but one of our neighbors got out there before we did and gathered up much of what was on the ground. But, he told me, the 2009 nuts were very small; not really worth the trouble.

Walnuts and a worm. Well, technically, a caterpillar.

Still, once in a while, we get some and use them. I took this picture earlier in the week just to show you what the immature walnuts look like. After looking at the photo on the computer, I noticed the little inch worm on the upper left and the tiny line of silk he was spinning. He's a bit out of focus, but I thought it was cool that I hadn't even noticed him when I snapped the pic.