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It's a squid! It's a flame! It's a Buddha's Hand citron, now playing at an upscale grocery near you. The first time I saw this fruit, I laughed out loud. Looking at it makes me happy, and it apparently has the same effect on at least a billion other people: in China it's been a symbol of happiness and long life since the 10th century, appearing on lacquered screens and in jade and ivory carvings.

I bought this trunk for $25 when I was in college. Someone had found it in an old farmhouse attic and was selling it for beer money. It was not in good shape: it had been painted brown, and the leather straps were disintegrating; but structurally it was sound, and I needed a storage box. This was before Rubbermaid and all those color-coded plastic bins that the cockroaches will inherit when they are the last animal species left on earth.

The first acorns came down more than a month ago, and they were huge-- the size of walnuts. Our neighbors were already speculating about the coming winter, basing their predictions on everything from jet streams to caterpillar fur. Did these ginormous acorns mean anything, omen-wise? Or were they more a reaction to the recent past (last winter having been the hardest on record for the mountains of North Carolina)?

Some images draw a stronger reaction than others. For instance, this little botanical shot.  I was walking in Reynolda Gardens near our house in Winston-Salem when I noticed small turquoise and blue-green berries on a vine with pretty leaves. I made this picture and posted it on Facebook, because I have friends who are keen gardeners and I bet they could tell me the name of my mystery plant. Once I knew its name, maybe I could buy it somewhere-- or failing that, I confess that I thought a small cutting would never be missed.