Mind your head
It’s duck and cover as you walk out our side door these days. The acorns are falling at a fast and furious rate making it difficult to avoid being hit in the head.
Last year there was an acorn famine. This year they are annoyingly abundant. As I crunch along the driveway, I wonder what it is that tells the oak trees when to unload on us and when to save their seeds.
Anyone out there have an explanation?
posted by Barbara at 6:33 PM
9 Comments:
Perhaps they feel you have it coming. Did you offend an Oak tree recently?
Merle's comment made me laugh out loud. I flashed immediately to the scene in the movie version of "The Wizard of Oz" when the trees hurl apples at the clueless travelers, and also to some scenes with angered ancient Ents in Tolkein's trilogy, Lord of the Rings...
F.
Merle -- Hopefully not, but if so, I hope my penance is soon over.
Anon -- I'm happy to hear you laughing out loud. And yes, I had those same images as I darted to the car with my hand over my head just in case. I wondered if it was a pair of squirrels high up in the tree lobbing acorns at me and taking glee at finding a target.
When we were in Wash. DC week before last each morning we walked from our hotel to the Metro station, through a neighborhood where acorns were falling like hail out of the trees and bouncing off our heads and shoulders. Back here in Oregon the oak trees are politely dropping an acorn here, an acorn there as usual. You folks seem to be having an acorn hurricane.
From what I understand there are two major factors that tell plants what to do and both are connected to changing seasons and work becasue plants have hormones, just like us.
Some plants bloom in the spring because of the increasein daylight. Some due to the temperature.
Mums in the fall have hormones that trigger the fall bloom when the amount of daylight decreases tro some kind of tipping point.
thats all I really know, and I might even have it all wrong.
Hi Barb!
Get an umbrella and watch for squirrels. This time of year down here we start to see a lot more dead animals on the road, especially squirrels, too busy storing up food to pay attention to the traffic.
My totally random and scientifically unsubstantiated guess would be that it has something to do with rainfall. (?)
I have a lot of oaks in the yard, and during that recent windstorm it sounded like bullets hitting my roof. There have been "feast" years when I have quite literally raked up bags of acorns that come practically to my knees. It gets REALLY bad. As for why? Well...that's just what oak trees do. One year you're in, the next year you're auf.
My squirrels have been busy, but when I come out with peanuts, their little dirt brown noses (from burying the nuts) look up and say, "YOU eat these bitter things. We'll take the roasted peanuts."
I just recently heard that trees lighten their loads in anticipation of a snowy winter.You'll probably also notice the over abundance of pinecones on the ground these days.
Better go out and buy a warmer coat. Just saying..
Miss you and I'll call you
xoxoxo
Gewels -- Where have you been? Call me soon so we can talk about CR, OK? Meanwhile, I'll check on my winter coat and my snow shovel...
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