Friday, April 28, 2006

Late afternoon walk

A photo essay of today's walk with Woody:

Heading out:


Edge of town:


Bark of dying walnut tree:


Fallen black walnuts:


Something about this image struck me as particularly Christian. (pretentious voice): I shall call it "Relic"!


My companion:


Old black walnut tree, possibly grafted to English walnut:


Another dying tree. I live along a beautiful avenue of walnut trees, but they're aging and have been attacked by mistletoe, which the city doesn't remove nearly often enough. Fortunately, the past two years the mistletoe has been removed, and the city is planting younger trees in anticipation of the death of the canopy.


Fallen:


Self-portrait. Note the "oak apples," or insect galls, on the tree branches.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Generally, English walnuts are grafted to black walnuts, not the other way around. English walnuts can actually be cracked by humans of normal strength, while black walnuts require superhuman abilities. Black walnut trees are a great graft stock and black walnuts taste better.

Leslie M-B said...

Oopsies--yes, that's what I meant. Thanks for the clarification!

The black walnuts along this road get consumed by crows (and possibly magpies), who drop them from great heights onto the road where they sometimes crack. The walnuts being run over by cars maybe helps, too?

Regardless, black walnut trees should NOT be planted along a bike path. Obstacle course, anyone?