WriterByNature.com

October 30, 2007 6:45 am

These heirloom apples are not much to look at, but one bite and everyone I know becomes a huge fan.

I had to go to New York City to find a farm in the Hudson Valley with russet apple trees. My favorite way to enjoy these apples is to pick them myself. This farm has picked all their russets. Next year I’ll find out when they pick and ask if I can join in.

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October 26, 2007 5:53 am

I’ve been writing a lot of what Anne LaMott calls “crappy first drafts.” This writer’s challenge gives me some comfort. I would like to feel that what I am writing will become publishable. Maybe I’m too hard on myself.

I’m in a dark mood.

I struggle with the physical aspects of rage. Why am I raging? Everything I love and care about is being destroyed and I feel powerless to change. (more…)

October 23, 2007 1:52 pm

Sunday’s COMA walk was an opportunity to learn new edible mushrooms.

This is a blewit (Clitocybe nuda), considered as choice as a morel.

When Lisa, one of our experienced mycologists spotted them, she told us to look for others. I listened, separating the long grass growing pondside, to find these two. Lisa’s eyes rewarded her with at least six of these violet-colored beauties.

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October 22, 2007 7:14 am

Nothing intrigues a child more than a simple machine.

After cleaning all the black walnuts we’d harvested a month earlier, I was back to share my walnut cracker with Bird Lady and her grandchildren. (more…)

October 17, 2007 7:55 am

I like this time of year. I want to feel good about the beauty around me. But I cannot ignore the impact of the extreme drought conditions on my favorite trails.

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October 15, 2007 6:17 am

I met my dear friend Bird Lady at her daughter, Melissa’s house. Black walnut trees have filled their yard with a bountiful harvest.

It’s a whole lot more fun to clean walnuts with people than by myself. It’s more scrubbing using a hose than a pressure washer, but the time goes faster when it’s a game.

So off we went, three adults, one 5-year-old and one 4-year-old, to fill buckets with walnuts. It’s sort of like an Easter egg hunt, with cheer and a joyous plop every time a walnut lands in a bucket. (more…)

October 11, 2007 5:30 am

My buddy George Johanson is masterful at what I call, “walnut diplomacy.” I met him when he walked up to me and handed me a walnut. Then he cracked open another walnut.

After he gifted me a walnut cracker, I decided the only way to honor it is to harvest walnuts. I’ve cleaned almost 600 of them to date.

George turned up at our last COMA walk with chestnuts. Typically forthcoming, George would not say where he got the chestnuts, only that they were a gift. He was willing to share butternuts with me – I took them. I had to beg for the chestnuts, but I got about six.

They’re tiny. I never saw a native American Chestnut, so I don’t know if that is their real size.

The slight bloom on the nut in this photo is because I put it in the freezer. Worms eat thin-shelled nuts like these and white acorns; the freezer is a perfect place to store the nuts, preventing the worms from hatching. (more…)

October 8, 2007 10:12 am

I love wild apples. These were probably planted and then left to go wild. They are crisp, tart and taste like autumn to me.

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October 5, 2007 6:09 pm

When it gets hot and humid, I try to take sunrise hikes. Right now, sunrise is closer to 7:00 AM. I typically end my sunrise hikes by 7:00 AM in the summer.

I got close enough to these birds to be sure they are not turkey vultures. Black vultures have white legs and white marks on their wings.

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5:40 am

Despite a lack of rain, some trees manage to produce beautiful colors.

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