Another Surprising Benefit Of Walnuts.

My new discovery.

Walnuts taste great although they do involve a bit of effort in order to crack the shell. Why shell, you might ask? Well buying the shelled nut is out of the question for two reasons...firstly, we have many a walnut tree in our garden and beyond and secondly, they are jolly expensive. Honestly, nuts!!

Living in a small village has many good sides but one not so good one. Autumn means leaves are descending to the ground in mind boggling numbers and need to be sorted out. Yes, a case of raking up the leaves in order for them not to be strewn over one's neighbour's yard due to a gust of wind. Those kind of happenings are frowned upon and could cause tempers to flare...

Anyway, Bob and I decided to pick yesterday to rake up the blanket of leaves at a walnut tree's foot. A huge task that meant raking and carrying many a bag filled with dried leaves to the compost pile at the back of the garden. A long walk indeed and a task that didn't seem to end.

On the bright side it meant that Bob and I could rake and joke together for two hours. Oh gosh, there were so many leaves blanketing the ground. A case of raking, bending to gather the leaves and then throwing them into garden refuse containers. A lot of bending down which brings me to the newly discovered benefit of walnuts....exercise!

Today, the results of it are in because even getting up from a chair is sheer torture. I never knew I had muscles at the back of my thigh never mind on both of them. Clearly walking doesn't work on them, but all the same, I shall stick to sedately exercising them once a year to rake up our walnut leaves. Gardening, much better than going to a gym.

Biggi