Picking Walnuts

Personal picture // Freshly hand picked walnuts

Last week-end, I visited my family in my home region and enjoyed simple Autumn pleasures - a walk around a crater lake, views of forests slowly turning orange, family gatherings around the dining table, featuring garden vegetables and games. And picking walnuts down the road.

This is one of my favourite seasonal pleasures, hardly possible in Paris. Walking down the road and suddenly finding food. In Spring, there are cherries, in Summer berries, and in Autumn, nuts. I remember there was an almond tree in the playground of my kindergarten and it was such a joy to find almonds around it, cracking them open with a rock and eating our hardly won prize (it isn't easy to crack an almond with a rock, especially when you are 4 years old).

Which made me think, children have so many ways to enjoy the present moment, make a game of everything, and be happy with simple things. I want to keep nurturing this fresh approach to life, and enjoy the simple gifts of nature and seasons.

This year, we went on a walk with my boyfriend, with very little expectations, having been told there weren't many walnuts this year. A gust of wind, and suddenly, it was raining nuts. Thankfully, it wasn't a coconut tree, as we were just underneath.

Finding the prize // Personal picture

The first one is a rush of excitement: "look, there are walnuts on the ground!" Then it is the gathering game, who will find the most walnuts?

Improvised bag // Personal picture

Of course, we hadn't planned for this, picking walnuts is never planned. So we used my scarf as an improvised bag to bring them all back home.

The treasured prize // Personal picture

It may sound weird, in our modern society, that we'd find so much joy in finding our own food in the nature. After all, that's where food is supposed to be, initially. Perhaps local folks thought: "Argh, Parisians". Or maybe they enjoy picking walnuts on their walks too.

Home made walnut brownie // personal pictures

The final joy is to actually eat the hardly won prize. We've had our share or raw walnuts these past days - fresh, cracking under the teeth, tasting so much better than the supermarket kind. I also like to bake walnut-involving cakes - like the brownie above. There is something special in eating the results of your own efforts, as if this cake was a bit more my own than usual...


On a side note, the "improvisation" post I mentioned is still in the works, I seem to have a harder time putting together long thoughts posts lately, maybe Maja is right, it is hibernation kicking in. Or maybe it is because I found out Diablo III works on my MacBook and spend my nights doing co-op games with my friends back in Lyon...