That Old Chestnut (Horse Chestnut That Is) in Everyday Ramblings

This is one of the older trees in the park up on the next block. My guess is that it was there when the wrought iron baron’s mansion was there. The mansion that was briefly turned into the county hospital that then became too germy with the flu epidemic in 1918 and was torn down and the park was created. Then the little Carnegie library was built under the giant golden beech a few paces north on the property.

This is the library that is now used primarily for art projects by the park department because the building is no longer structurally sound. I would love to teach yoga in that building but it is not safe. Nor is the now empty former nurses residence and children’s science museum at the south end of the property where the shagbark hickory is.

Notice a theme here? I am not even half way through reading “The Overstory” and the trees, the real trees in my world, are talking to me.

I am sure that they have been talking to me my whole life but I haven’t been listening.

There are three trees with narrow leaves across the street here that have an unusual oblong red (almost brown) fruit that is edible. I took a picture last week and am hoping someone can confirm on iNaturalist that these are Ziziphus jujuna trees commonly known as Chinese dates.

The reason I think they might be these trees is when they fruit… people from out of the neighborhood come to gather them like I see with the fruiting ginkgo trees downtown. We have ginkgoes near here but they don’t fruit.

But the trees across the street could be something else. The woman that owns the house and developed the garden doesn’t live here; the house has been empty for years. They come and do basic maintenance on it every three months or so. I’ll ask her when I see her if I can’t get confirmation.

Mrs. Sherlock needed to get a loaf of Mr. Sherlock’s favorite bread yesterday so we walked through our default residential neighborhood that has that bakery in it with the giant oaks with a view, and the three magisterial London plane trees and the unique towering red oak I have written about here before.

There were a lot of dogs out yesterday so Frida was engaged. At one point I was horsing around with her and this big mixed fellow came crashing through the underbrush escaped from his yard with the person yelling at him and him not minding her at all.

There was another guy standing on a corner with a huge bull terrier of some kind paying no mind. Luckily the dog was on a leash while the guy was having an intense discussion on his phone. Mrs. Sherlock asked him to mind his dog while I walked out of range and the guy grudgingly moved on. Other than the sudden appearance of a large animal through the brush above, that was the only encounter on our walk that was problematic.

The adorable young couple with their two cats on harness leashes was particularly interesting for obvious reasons. :)

It was so great to see Mrs. Sherlock. We both enjoyed the catch up. She told me about her six days riding the Allegheny Trail with a group of 20 led by the Mennonites. She was proud of herself for completing all the rides and had a good time. Then her and three other women (she travels with regularly) did the high culture stuff in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

Mostly she talked about the intensity of the density of the population in those areas and the noise. The predominant trees were ashes.

After our walk I came home and took a blissful nap.

No big plans for the long weekend. The church is closed for the holiday so I am not teaching tomorrow. We have a plan for our walk next week.

In the meantime I will go out and see what the tress have to say today.

Last updated September 01, 2019