The bitter winds have returned and the worn-out brown garden is again draped with frosty snow. I watched a frantic squirrel digging deeply into the snow and burrowing under leaves looking for the last of the acorn crop. Now I know why the pin oak trees were so heavily ladden with a bumper crop of acorns last autumn. The winter of 2007-2008 followed a devastating spring freeze and the trees had no yield - there were no acorns, no berries for the wildlife that winter. I had birds at my feeder that I had not seen before. Fall of 2008 also yielded few nuts; the trees had not yet recovered. But, in 2009, Mother Nature went wild with her bounty and no wonder - she seemed to know that THIS winter would be very cold and cruel to her children, so the trees and bushes were filled with food to tide the wildlife through. I do my part, too - feeders full, water in heated birdbath and plans for more fruit-bearing plants to come in the Spring.
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