Harvest Goodness at the Park!

The kids and I had a wonderful suprise at Micah's soccer practice this week. Her team meets at a local park close to our house. As we wandered around, we found that it was ACORN TIME!!! Tons of them, just dropping/about to fall from the trees!

So what did we do? Tacky mom that I am, I grabbed my daughters hoodie off the grass, politely excused myself from the huddle of soccer dads/moms, and began gleaning them up like crazy! Probably got about 4 cups of acorns, and a bunch of these:

They looked like giant, hairy acorns! My daughter found them and was thrilled. When the nut is out, the caps look like little nests! (And yes, these will surely reappear for some spring birdnest crafting!) With a little research (and the blessing of a friend who is a mad fountain of botany knowledge), we found that these were "Burr Oak" trees. Very cool. Local folk- go glean some up before they are gone!

What to do with these pretties? Started with the acorns as they fit into my containers better. Scored this hurricane for $0.50 at a yard sale. (You know how I love yard sales. To my joy, my sweet husband loves them also. Our perfect family Saturday date is grabbing some green chile breakfast burritos to eat while we visit and yard sale through the neighborhood!). Yeah, the silver is bright, at some point perhaps I will spray it antique rubbed bronze or something.

With the addition of these free acorns, what a fun addition to the fall pianoscape! I put the cool burr oak acorns into another glass vase. Thinking about moving them into a cool basket...we'll see!

Fall is the best! Take a walk around your local neighborhood (be sure to ask before you sneak into your neighbors manicured yard) and parks and see what goodness you can find!