The days are already noticeably shorter and the corn is tall and ready to turn. The first signs of Fall are subtle, a few leaves turn color early, field crops ready themselves for harvest, apples get ready to pick, and around here signs of Penn State Football become apparent.
Riding through some back roads the other day I found another sign of Fall that could have multiple meanings. Literally. The hickory nuts (I think) that have begun to fall off the trees here.
In addition to giving the squirrels an opportunity to hoard for the winter they give the less attentive rider an opportunity to fall. Rounding a bend I came across about twenty feet of these hard round nuts that masquerade as marbles and give the Vespa tires fits. They are hard and keep the tire up and off the ground doing wonders for traction. These seasonal drops (nuts not riders) are common when roads run under hickory, walnut, and oaks loaded with acorns. One more innocent little natural hazard to add to the mental library along with manure drops, wet leaves, whitetail deer, groundhogs, springs, birds and bears.
Life in the sticks has its own unique set of riding requirements.
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“These seasonal drops (nuts not riders) “
that’s pure fun! 🙂
feel lucky not to live here in western Tuscany as pine trees are widespread and their dry needle-shaped leaves form sort of slippery pillows on the pavement.
very dangerous, as they neither have to be wet, because of their hardness and smoothness.
………..life in the sticks may have it’s perils, but my guess is, you wouldn’t have it any other way if you had to choose between the sticks or the burbs:)
The corn may be tall over there but not in my garden! As I heard Grampa say on Hee Haw years ago, “The corn crop is so bad this year the crows have to get down on their knees to eat it”.
Weird that your post should be about the nuts. Yesterday morning I nearly broke an ankle on some walnuts. I’ve gone back to running early in the morning. There’s a stretch of road that runs near the golf course. Now that it’s dark at 5 AM again, it’s hard to see those in the bike lane where I run.
ale: Almost anything on the road surface can lead to problems in the wrong situation. In rural areas there are a lot of natural elements that show up.
cody: I think I’ll stick with the sticks!
kano: Farmers around here have been lucky to get the crops they are considering how dry things have been. Not a drought but you could see it from here.
irondad: It’s hell to get old isn’t it? Running is just asking for trouble though. If we were supposed to be running we would have been created with four legs….
Glad you didn’t damage anything.