I have been waiting years for this!

 

I like oak trees, acorns and oak leaves...all sizes and shapes. When we bought our home 23 years ago, I was delighted to see a young oak tree in the back yard.
Every fall I enjoy the lovely apricot colored leaves and secretly wish our tree had acorns. I love this perky little nut! It has the cute top hat but it is very cute with or without the "hat". I like to use them for crafty wreaths and Christmas decorations. I look for acorns that have fallen from the trees at a city parks or along the sidewalks of old neighborhoods. I like to use them in their natural glory but sometimes they look great with a light spray of golden paint.

Today I was outside with my 15-month old grandson. Keeping up with him is quite an activity. He looks at everything and has that special delight in the small wonders nature gives us every day. It was on an excursion such as this that I looked down and saw, barely, these tiny acorns. I could hardly believe this find! I looked more closely and found that the squirrels had beat me to it and devoured the nuts! They scarfed down the insides of many an acorn and left the shells of a few.

I never thought about the insides of the nut but perhaps to the squirrel the baby acorns are a delicacy. After all, they steal all of the walnuts on my walnut tree only to bury these in shallow holes that become baby trees in a year or two. I'd rather have the nuts thank you very much! But they ate the acorns, leading me to think it was a treat for them too.

Now I will be on the hunt! As I put my flowers to bed for the season, I plan to look for as many tiny acorns as I can find...whole or not!