Acorns

The Washington Post reports this morning that the East Coast oaks aren't producing any acorns this year. We don't have that problem this year; our trees have been producing bumper crops. So many that we've found acorns on the ground, ones the squirrels who live in our yard have either missed or rejected. And the squirrels are getting chubby.

For several years we didn't see any acorns and wondered if there was something wrong with our Valley Oak. But local naturalists reassured us--oaks don't produce every year, but in three to seven year cycles. So in years with fewer acorns our squirrels are assiduous in their hunt for the acorns our tree produces. Only in years with a lot of acorns do we find any leftovers.