my back yard is quite literally carpeted with acorns this year. they cover more square inches than the grass. what struck me about this photo, which i should have been aware of but which never registered for some reason, is that fall is the season when oak trees sprout. i normally think of spring as the season of sprouting and budding and new growth. but all of the acorns in my yard are growing little squiggly root tails, and some of those roots have started boring into the ground in a very celebratory springlike way, and so i may need to adjust my thoughts about which is the hopeful season of growth, and which is the melancholy season of harvest.
sprouted red oak acorn
