Tag: black walnuts

It’s Not a Joke

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

guy falls out of a tree - YouTube

I heard my wife on the phone with our insurance agent, saying, “A nut fell out of a tree and broke my windshield.”

“So this nut climbs up a tree and falls…”

“Was he hurt?”

We had a storm the other day, and we have black walnut trees with walnuts as big as baseballs. You don’t want to be under one when it falls. They’re all over the place, making footing very difficult. Anyhow, one of these black walnuts fell on Patty’s windshield and cracked it.

You have to say “black walnut” or it just sounds loopy. A nut fell out of the tree. Well, what was he doing up there?

We’re supposed to have more bad weather all week long, which is going to make it harder and harder for me to finish writing The Witch Box. At least I haven’t been beaned by a black walnut.

And it isn’t raining yet, so I’d better get out there and start writing.

Writing Under Bombardment

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

See the source image

Well, it’s black walnut season again, and these heavy, baseball-sized projectiles are falling from the tree in our yard. When you hear one hit the roof of a parked car, you know it’s gonna hurt if one hits you.

Most writers probably don’t have to worry about getting pelted by walnuts. But I’m outside, trying to finish off the last chapter set of The Wind From Heaven, and there are walnuts falling all around me.

Why don’t I just write indoors? Nuisance phone calls are only one of many distractions. Besides, over the years, I’ve come to need the outdoors as my studio. Believe it or not, it’s kind of hard to imagine imaginary people in imaginary places and write them up in such a way that readers can believe they’re real. I need the birds, the bees, the butterflies, the sky, the grass, and the trees. When I write my fiction, I’ve just got to be outdoors.

Risk of falling walnuts notwithstanding.

Anyway, I’ve got to finish the book before the cold weather sets in, and I’m plugging away at it every day I can. May the Lord make my work fruitful in His service–and protect me from getting beaned while I do it.

Bombardment!

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

Image result for images of black walnuts

No, it’s not an artillery barrage I’m hearing, It’s our nearby walnut tree pelting the earth.

The nuts in the picture are peanuts, compared to our black walnuts. Ours are roughly the size of baseballs, and just a little heavier. The tree is full of hundreds of them–and don’t be standing under one, when it comes down. The other day one struck my writing chair and broke a hole in it.

We can’t make use of them because it’s way too labor=intensive to get the nut out. Under the green rind there used to be a layer of yellow stuff which by now has turned all black and gooey and disgusting. Squirrels like to perch on a branch over my head and spit this gunk onto my manuscript. They’re lucky I don’t have a slingshot.

Once the yard is covered with hundreds of these nuts, maybe even thousands of them, the footing becomes extremely iffy. Easy to turn your ankle!

In spite of all these drawbacks, though, I can still understand that these nuts are God’s stuff and He made them for a reason. They’re even sort of cool, and I have to admit I do enjoy picking one up, taking my stance on an imaginary mound, going into my glorious Luis Tiant windup, and firing a strike past Johnny Bench–who isn’t really there, but you get the idea.

He hasn’t gotten a hit off me yet.