Sep 30 2008
Picking up buckeyes
Yesterday I took the kids outside to brush up on some photography skills. They took pictures of all sorts of things.
We ended up going down to my parents’ house then driving down to the woods and out around my grandparents’ house. The kids shot up some film and I took some pics with my camera. The kids and I rode around in the back of Dad’s truck (yes - I know it’s a no-no, but I grew up riding across fields and down dirt lanes around the family farm in the back of a pickup) and I had the chance to tell them stories of when I was a kid.
I told them about coming down to the woods and running around with my brother - walking the dry creek looking for rocks and other treasures. I showed them where we used to pick blackberries along the side of the lane that runs next to Grandma and Grandpa’s house.
There’s a spot down at the end of the lane where every spring, there is a hill completely covered with yellow daffodils. I used to love walking down the lane to pick Easter flowers (as we always called them). I’d bring bouquets back up to Grandma and she’d smile and put them in a vase and place it on her kitchen table.
After we finished with our photography expedition, we went back to Mom and Dad’s and Mom gave the kids some drawing lessons.
My youngest, Rubenstein, didn’t want to draw, so she and I spent the time picking up buckeyes that had fallen from the tree in Mom and Dad’s yard. We had fun trying to find the shiny, brown treasures stuck in the grass. After all was said and done, we ended up with a bucket about 3/4s full of buckeyes!
So what to do with buckeyes? You can’t eat ‘em. I guess we could plant a couple of them to get some trees started.
No, I have found that buckeyes are great for crafts. Yes - crafts! I have made necklaces, Christmas ornaments, and garlands of strung buckeyes that look really neat.
So I guess we’ll get busy making more garlands, ornaments and the like. Maybe this year I’ll make myself some earrings. . .
