wordsfromanneli

Thoughts, ideas, photos, and stories.


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More Nuts Than Ever

I’m tired of washing, pitting, and freezing plums. The pears and apples are finished except for one winter apple tree that will be ready in about three weeks. So now it’s time to have a look at the walnut tree.

A closer look will show a few walnuts still hanging on. Some look dark and some quite green, but that is only the outer husk you are looking at. As the nut grows and the husk dries out, the nut and what’s left of its husk fall to the ground.

This one shouldn’t be too hard to pop out of its husk, but beware, the inside of that green coating stains like crazy. It would make a perfect “walnut” furniture stain. My hands always seem to end up looking like part of a walnut end table.

Once the husk is off the walnut, you can see the walnut that we are more familiar with, but it still needs some drying time. A burlap bag hung on the wall beside the woodstove is the perfect place to dry the walnuts.

Every couple of days I sneak some and take them to the woodshed as an offering to my squirrels.

“Thank you, Anneli,” Crispin chatters.

 

I love to have a change of food,

A different kind of nut,

The walnuts put me in a mood,

That makes me pat my gut.

 

The hazelnuts are such a treat,

I’ve packed a lot away,

But walnuts have delicious meat,

They’re best of all, I’d say.

 

I bite a hazelnut and run,

To hide it in a cache,

But walnuts are too big, no fun,

To lug them to my stash.

 

And this is why it’s oh, so fine,

To have them brought to me,

I know that all of them are mine,

To be devoured with glee.

 

 


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Land of Plenty

Guess what I’ve been doing in between trying to get  photos of Crispin helping himself to the nuts on our two trees.

It’s that time of year when everywhere you look there is work to do, but you know you’ll be glad you did it later.

The squirrels have been working hard to clean out the nut trees, and I finally decided I should go out there and seriously pick up the fallen nuts, and shake the trees to get more of them down. The pears, apples, and plums are a bonus (from their own trees, of course). May we never go hungry.

 

Harvest time is very fine,

Though my grapes won’t turn to wine,

Could it be that I’ve been grazing,

Eating all the grapes? Amazing!

 

But the hazelnuts are here,

Glad that they don’t disappear,

Good to know the squirrels will share,

There’s enough and some to spare.


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Lunch with Crispin

Hi again! I’m Crispin. Remember me? I’m kind of small, but I’m not unimportant. I’d like you to watch a video clip of me eating a hazelnut. Please ignore Anneli’s unsteady hand with the camera. She’s getting old and a bit shaky sometimes. (But don’t tell her I said that).

So that’s how you do it.  It takes two hands to spin it around as you eat, but that keeps it round. Kind of like licking an ice cream cone around and around so it doesn’t flop over. But don’t forget to put most of the nuts away for the winter.

Would you like me to peel one for you? Then we could have lunch together.

Hazelnuts are oh, so yummy,

Feel so good inside my tummy,

But there’s one important trick,

Learning how to peel them quick.


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Not so Grisly Grizzlies

If you’re lucky enough to have a boat and can travel up Canada’s west coast, when you get close to the US (Alaska) border, you may find yourself near the Khutzeymateen Inlet, behind Somerville Island. You would then be in grizzly country. A few years ago,  a friend anchored in this inlet and saw some of these wonderful bears on the beach nearby. He took these photos and I am posting them with his permission. Farther up the inlet, south of the Kateen River, is an area that, in 1994, was declared the Khutzeymateen Grizzly Bear Sanctuary.

 

This might not be the best place to go ashore to stretch your legs.

In case you were in doubt about what kind of bear this is, check out the hump on his (or her) back that identifies him (or her) as a grizzly. And no, he/she’s not a camel.

 

Camel, you say? Come over here and say that! Bruno, did you hear what he said? Just because my back has a hump….

Yeah! I heard. You’re no camel. I’ll “back” you up on that, Honey. Get it? Get it? Ha ha … “back” you up? Although … that is quite a hump you have there.

Now that’s enough out of you. You shouldn’t forget who your friends are. I might have to swim over to that boat and climb aboard to teach that guy a lesson.

It’s okay, Honey. Calm down. He’s just another gawking human. I’ll keep an eye on him from here while I eat some salad.  Hmm … I wouldn’t mind a bit of hamburger with my grass.  But I don’t see him coming ashore any time soon.

 

 

My thanks to Ken Johnstone who kindly allowed  me to use his photos.


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Young Heron

Hi! I’m a great blue heron.

Well, I’ve landed here, high up in a fir tree. Mom said it’s pretty safe and I should wait for her here.

But uh-oh. Do I hear a raven? Or is it a crow? Either way, they can be a real pain when they harass us. No wonder they call them a murder of crows when they get into a gang.

Whew! They’ve passed over. Time for a quick preening while I have the chance.

Those darn bugs. The second I sit in a tree, they get on me. Oh well, I had to straighten out my feathers anyway after that rough landing in these branches. But Mom said it’s safer here than out in the open where the eagles can see me.

Oh no! Is that an eagle up there? Mom said if they come after me, all I have to do is fly way up high in circles and keep going higher and higher, and after a while the eagles can’t keep up. They’re heavier than we are and can’t go as high.

Looks like they passed over. I hope Mom hurries up. I’m getting nervous up here.

 

I’m a heron, please stop starin’,

Thought I’d rest up in this tree.

Much attention, I must mention,

Might draw predators to me.

 

Though an eagle may seem regal,

They send terror vibes my way,

I take care and stay aware, and

Live to see another day.

 


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Pronghorns, the Not-Antelope

Pronghorns are not really antelopes. They are related more closely to giraffes and okapis. I’m not big on trophy hunting, but I took this photo at the home of someone who is, and I find it useful to show what a pronghorn looks like up close. Apologies to the non-hunters. I have mixed feeling about the whole thing, but it’s not the purpose of this post to start a discussion of the topic of hunting. It is a natural thing for animals (including man) to hunt for food, but nowadays we let someone else do the killing for us. I like my steak once in a while, just as most people do, and yet I cry if I see an animal get hurt.  So where’s the logic in that? And to be fair, the person who shot this pronghorn most likely ate the meat the way we eat beef.

As you can see, they have horns with a prong on them, but they don’t bother anyone unless they are desperate or trapped, perhaps up against a fence that they don’t like to jump. They prefer to crawl under fences, but that slows them down in their attempt to escape predators such as coyotes.

If necessary, they can run at close to 90 miles per hour for a short distance, but around 60 mph for a prolonged run. Since they are, otherwise, rather defenseless, it’s a good thing they are considered North America’s fastest land animal.

These pronghorns  happened to be near a pullout on the highway in eastern Montana. I got a couple of quick photos but they didn’t want to hang around or come closer for a better picture.

The grasses taste like cereal,

What kind is immaterial,

But forbs, those leafy, juicy plants,

Are lovely,  when they’re found by chance.

 

While munching herby sagebrush here,

Our leader raised his head in fear,

Beware the tourist, here she comes,

With fumbling camera, she’s all thumbs.

 

Let’s smile and let her take her shot, 

But wander farther at a trot.

One never knows where danger lies,

When people one of us espies.

 

If need be, we can all take flight,

Across the fields with all our might.

The photo op will have to wait,

Just save your lives, it’s not too late.

 

And yet, she looks so harmless there,

Let’s pose for one and be more fair,

We have a good head start from her,

And we can leave her in a blur.


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Backyard Eateries

Oh, good grief, those squirrels are such messy eaters.

What do you think I should do? Such a  mess!

It even spilled over the edge of the table!

I’ll just take this one sunflower seed. I wouldn’t want anyone to see me here and think it was me who made this mess!

Uh-ohhhh! The Steller’s jay is at my dining room table.

I have to hide these nuts I just got off the hazelnut tree.

That’s good. I’ll push it down with my nose. I still have one nut for my lunch. Think I’ll eat it now before that jay finds it. They are such thieves!

First, to get the shell off. Good thing I have really sharp teeth. I tried them out on Anneli’s thumb one time. I felt bad later, but what does she think? I need to be fed?

Oh, yes, now this is looking better. The shell is off and I’ve worked up an appetite.

Can’t wait to bite into this hazelnut!

I found a new place to eat. As you can see, I’ve switched to walnuts. They’re not so messy. But I still have to keep an eye out for those jays. I think I’ll have a quick bite, and then take the rest to my secret stash deep in the wood shed.

Life is never easy. You always have to be on your toes and have an alternate plan in case something goes wrong.


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Rusalka at the Sydney Opera House

Did you know that the Sydney Opera House (in Australia)  is a UNESCO World Heritage site? It is located on Bennelong Point overlooking Sydney Harbour and is known, among other things, for its “unparalleled design and construction.” UNESCO, in case you don’t know what all those initials stand for, is the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural  Organization. The idea is that sites included as World Heritage Sites are meant to be protected by participating countries, in hopes of preserving their unique and wondrous qualities.

Some other UNESCO World Heritage sites are the pyramids, the Acropolis, temples in the Angkor area in Cambodia, Pisa, the Colosseum, and there are many others.

Danish designer, Jorn Utzon, won the international competition for the design of the Sydney Opera House in 1957, but the construction of the building had many problems, not necessarily his fault.

Those sail-like structures, when seen from a different angle, are a bit like scoops or ears. Made of concrete, they, alone, would be a challenge to build. The building is supported by 588 concrete piers,  sunk as much as 82 feet below sea level. The specs are amazing and if you’re interested in finding out more, check out Sydney Opera House on Wikipedia.

The Sydney Opera House was not completed until 1973. On October 20th of that year, it was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth ll.

My friend who provided this photo, taken from one of the ferries in Sydney Harbour, attended a recent performance of Antonin Dvorak’s opera Rusalka. I immediately thought of one of my favourite arias of that opera, The Song to the Moon, but my version had a singer from many days gone by performing it.  In this recent presentation, the soprano who sang that aria was Nicole Car. If you would like to hear her sing, please check out this youtube link. I hope you enjoy it. I did.

 


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Harvest Time

The squirrels have been harvesting hazelnuts from the trees and hiding them to be retrieved in the winter.

Along comes Woodrow the Woodpecker, innocently looking for bugs.

Ronald Rabbit knows the squirrels wouldn’t like their stash to be unearthed, but, “What to do? What to do?”

“Mind your own business, Ronald,” says Woodrow. “That’s “What to do’!”

“I’m telling,” shouts Ronald. “The people will let their dog out and then you’ll be sorry.” Meanwhile, I have one leg raised and ready to make a run for it.

“Look out, you guys! Here I come. And don’t forget! I may be a teddy bear in the house, but I’m a wolverine in the field.”

“Are you serious?” Woodrow calls to Ronald. “Now that the dog is out, we’ll all have to make a run for it.”

“Aw, do what you want. I’m going up here to higher ground and — oh! What have we here? A hole in the tree. Anybody home?”

And so life goes on … unless you’re a bug in that tree.

 

 

 

 

 


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First Day of School

It will soon be back-to-school time, and I was remembering my very first day of school in grade one.

My dad took this picture of me that day. It was just a few weeks before we left Germany to come to Canada. I hated my hairdo then and I hated it for many years until I was allowed to have it a little bit longer so it didn’t look so chopped off.

But anyway, it’s not about my hair. It’s about this big cone. Too bad the photo is only black and white. The wrapping on the cone was so pretty. This big decorated cardboard cone is bribery, I suppose. All grade one students get one of these on the first day of school as an incentive to be brave. If you go to school without a fuss on the first day of grade one, you get this cone that is filled with goodies. My mom, who is peeking out the window to watch this memorable moment, allowed me a quick peek into my cone. I remember that it had some of that packing straw in it with a big chocolate bar under it and a bunch of grapes on top of it. Probably there were other goodies lower down, but at first glance I could only see the few things right on the top, and I wasn’t allowed to do any more peeking after that first quick look.

The rule was, you couldn’t indulge until you came home after school. As it turned out, it was a pretty good day,  and I loved school every day after that, even if we didn’t get a cone full of goodies after that first day.

My left hand gives away how I felt that morning before going to school. It’s in a fist. Just a bit of tension there.

Thirteen years earlier, my older sister, Hanna, went through the same thing. Here she is with her “first day of school” cone. Like me, she had a leather schoolbag over her shoulder and I’m sure she felt every bit as important as I did on my first day. She seems a lot more relaxed than I was though.

I think it would be fun to have this tradition for first graders in Canada, but I don’t suppose that’s likely to happen. I just remember that it made an intimidating day into one of happy anticipation.