Acorns

I live in a house that has several white oak trees in or adjacent to its yard. The one near the back door had a mast year a few years ago, and it's having another one right now. 

That means there has been a rain of acorns for the past few weeks. If I wasn't collecting them, the path between the back door and the alley would be completely crunchy underfoot. The planted areas of the yard, where just as many acorns have fallen invisibly among the large perennials, will be producing seedling trees next year, each one with a little taproot that will make them hard to pull out. 

Oh, joy.

While I was collecting the gallons of acorns from the hard surfaces and bit of lawn grass, most of which were just the nut meat, I found a few that were intact, with their little nubby cap and stem. 

I thought it would be a good idea to get a photo, because who doesn't need to have a photo of what acorns looks like, since they're often used as a symbol of growing something large from a tiny beginning?

So here you go, a free photo to use as you see fit:

(Click the photo to enlarge.) 

It doesn't make up for the constant noise, the physical bombardment when I'm outside, or the many weed trees I will have to pull in the future. But at least I will have this photo to remember the mast year.