For a few weeks now, there is the occasional "thump" that happens as another walnut smacks the roof: a juglandaceous bombing that will likely continue for weeks to come. Perhaps I should collect up some of these walnuts and -- while I'm watching TV in the evening -- shell them for later use.
FYI: "Walnut" is etymologically interesting, since it literally derives from Old English word for "foreign nut". In this case, the word "foreign" meant "Welsh"; therefore "wealhhnutu" ("Welsh nut") has led -- via changes in pronunciation and standardization in spelling -- to "walnut". Therefore (analogous to the origin for the word "turkey"), we have a geographically imprecise viewpoint of origin that has labeled our food (though much less obvious in modern English than our naming of Meleagris species), since the walnut genus is comprised of 21 species, with native ranges from various places in Europe, Asia, and North America, as opposed to merely Wales.
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