A bit of Autumn Equinox poetry for you

Equinox blessings to you all!

It’s chestnut season where I live, and the nuts are coming down from our two trees with gusto. I go out daily to clean up the burrs and gather the nuts that the wildlife - chipmunks, squirrels, deer and our lone bear - haven’t already claimed.

The past few days, several brave chipmunks have continued to scoot around while I work, nabbing chestnuts and hauling them down into their burrows or chewing them open and stuffing their cheek pouches with the insides of the nuts. It has been a delight to watch them. (That’s not my photo up there, but a public domain one from Pixabay. It does, however, capture a pretty accurate sense of how these little critters cram their cheek pouches full with the nuts.)

There aren’t nearly as many chestnuts on the ground this year as there were last year. These things go in cycles. Some years, we get loads of them - last year, I stopped gathering when we had 35 pounds in the freezer. This year, I don’t think we’ll top 15 pounds. And yes, I do give the wild critters plenty of time to gather their own winter provisions.

As I was picking up the prickly burrs and the fuzzy-glossy brown nuts the other day, I began thinking about mast years, those years when the mast - the nuts that sustain the wildlife through the winter - are so plentiful. Mast years come every four or five years for our chestnut trees. It occurred to me that, although that makes little difference for my own food needs, it’s probably a big thing for the chipmunks and other wildlife that rely on them.

I was inspired to write a little poem about the chipmunks and their provisioning for winter. I hope you enjoy it.

To the Chipmunks as They Gather the Chestnuts

Last year was a mast year,
So this year the pickings are slim.
If the bear and the deer don’t get to it first,
You can go on and gather it in.

Hear how the wind flies over the land,
Bringing the cold behind it.
Gather your provision now, my friends,
For soon ‘twill be too late to find it!

I wish you all a bountiful and peaceful autumn season!