The fallen in the fall.
This is acorn season.
In truth, they’ve been falling since late August.
Now, they pool beneath the leaves, collecting in wide swaths like lakes of marbles.
In the afternoon light they look rich and handsome, in shades of chestnut and cherry in defiance of their own lineage.
The mighty oak has such humble beginnings, and out of its thousands of tiny attempts at propagating itself most will not even begin to burst into life.
The two large oak trees on our property release thousands of acorns starting in late summer. Most get snatched up by squirrels and chipmunks, but there are always one or two that sprout and survive, tenaciously holding on through the winter to turn into a small little oak seedling that manages to defy the brutal odds and stretch to the sky.
