Walnuts

have been plopping to the ground for weeks, but I just started picking them and popping them in buckets to just empty on the road for tires to roll upon a while to take their hides away.

The inner hulls are washed and dried and waited on to crack one day.

Ladybugs

are landing now and loading up the house
with orange and black.
They stink (as sharply as they bite)
and scurry into cracks.

The swarm and scurry of today
means winter is not far away.