Still Life with Acorn


a small bunch of oak leaves and acorns

Acorn from the neighbor’s tree, ©2022 Karen Fayeth

It’s one of those Bay Area days where the so-called Marine Layer is in and it’s clinging to the treetops. Not quite fog, not quite overcast. Just dark gray and low, kind of like my mood.

I’ve no reason to be glum, but I have to admit on an overcast day, it’s kind of hard to be chipper. There are certain people who get energy from the gray skies. As a sun loving New Mexican, that ain’t me.

But overcast skies do make for lovely photography. Thanks to the generous overhang of our neighbor’s oak tree, we have a plethora of acorns littering our yard. They plink off the eaves and bounce heavily on the rooftop. Our local squirrels are shoving them in every corner and crevice and I swear we’re going to have an explosion of oak trees in our yard next year.

I do enjoy the squirrelly surreptitious dig-dig-dig, bury, pat-pat-pat, look around to be sure the pesky crows and scrub jays didn’t see, dash off routine happening outside my office window right now.

I went outside to clear my head a bit and found the lovely little still life you see at the top of this post. Easy snap, full of a feeling of memory and thoughts. Now that matches my mood.

Autumn really is a nice time of year, and Halloween is soon enough. Hey, that gives me an idea. maybe I need a big bowl of candy? That will surely help my mood. For a minute or two, anyway…