OK. Things are looking up I hope.

[NNadir]

14. Black walnuts are simply magnificent trees.

Last edited Sat Oct 25, 2025, 03:05 PM - Edit history (1)

I had to have one taken down when my septic failed. It broke my heart, although honestly, it was very close to my house and a hazard to my house in a hurricane.

It had a diameter of close to a meter. (I saved the wood, but never managed to get it milled.)

I remember when my boys were small, gathering up the walnuts, our hands getting stained orange with jugalone. The nuts themselves were hard to get to, but man, they were delicious. They are also extremely healthy since they are one of only three life forms on the planet that can synthesize eicosopentenoic acid, the active ingredient in fish oil. (The others are algae - which accounts for the presence in fish oil, and humans, but only lactating humans; it is an important constituent of breast milk, and may account for the neurological and intellectual benefits of breast feeding.)

It's good, my friend, to see you up and about, among the trees. My wife told me last night that an acquaintance of hers had episodes of severe nonspecific pain sometimes requiring hospitalization, generally untouched even by opioids. I mentioned that I knew, electronically, someone with that same awful syndrome.

My wife mused that perhaps it is a post covid syndrome. Polio can be like that, and perhaps covid can be the same. My mother-in-law, one of the last polio victims in the United States often faced extreme pain related to post polio syndrome. Since there were so few polio victims left, most doctors were unaware that the syndrome existed and was very real. (Happily my father-in-law was a doctor.)