Goshen goes nuts

Pecan nuts on the tree

I have been to the pecan tree grove two days in a row now. Yesterday we went there the whole family, and although it was mostly me and Yoram who contributed to the amount of nuts we picked, we still had a huge pile when we arrived at home. The nuts mature during a period of a month or so, so we can come back on several occasions. At this point people had only picked the most obvious nuts that are visible from a distance to the tree, but I stepped in under the branches and was suddenly in the middle of a mass of nuts within arms length. Next step will be to start using sticks to hit the higher located nuts down to the ground, but that was not necessary at this point. We brought some aikido weapons, but they did not become handy. Under the trees the ground is in most places covered with hip-high dry weeds, with hooks and spikes, which made it less comfortable for the legs. I could have used long pants, but since it is still over 30 degrees warm, I preferred stung legs.

The pecan tree grove

Today I decided to go back, not only to pick more nuts, but also to take some pictures of the nature awakening after the hot and dry summer season. In Sweden things become greyer when the summer is over - here it becomes greener. There is an almost fluorescent shine over the protruding new grass and the new leaves on trees and bushes. From now on, until the spring time, is the most fascinating period for someone that is interested in botany and I will use all opportunities to experience some great flora all around.

The autumn in Israel is like the Swedish spring

Everything is coming to life again...

Today Goshen had a close encounter with a wasp while I picked nuts. I wonder what makes dogs much stupider than other animals, so that they don't understand all the stop signs nature has created for other creatures to understand that this little bugger wants to be left alone. She happily chased him around and tried to bite his head off. He ended up stuck in her fur on a place on her back where she could not reach, but where he could penetrate her fur enough to sting. This is when I realised the drama that was played up before me. She ran around and tried to bite her back until I called, located the wasp and removed him. Then she wanted to keep on chasing him. I think that she at some point got a bit stung on her nose, since she rubbed it ferociously in the ground, but it might as well have been the hooks from the weed that caused that. Anyway, luckily she was not stung in her tongue or equivalent, but this proved her somewhat bimbo mentality...