These little pesky and irritating nuts started falling from the oak trees and onto our yard last month--last month, mind you. By the middle of August, I could no longer walk outside barefoot because the little devils would bruise the bottom of my feet. In August. Last year, there were barely enough to feed the squirrels; they actually stole them off the trees while they were still green. The year before, though, wow. The yard was covered, and it made the cleanup of autumn leaves a real pain. But I don't remember them starting to fall this early. And I'd forgotten how much those little nuts hurt when they hit you on the head. Ouch.But there may be one good thing come of a year of acorn abundance: it's one of the signs from folklore foretelling a snowier than usual winter. Heh, and this household loves snow. The other signs? Lots of spiders. Which we have, unfortunately. In abundance. In fact, my neighbor had one on her deck that I'm sure could be included in the Guinness Book of Creepiest Things Ever. Ever. Ugh. And then there's the increase in cricket population and August fogs. The crickets we have. The fog? I remember a few of those, too.
Of course, we had a lot of spiders and crickets last year, too--and lower than average snowfall. But with the pelting abundance of acorns? Maybe we'll get lucky this year. That's what AccuWeather's Joe Bastardi thinks, anyway. Let's hope--otherwise those pesky little annoyances will have plagued us for naught.
(Image: mine)