Hazelnuts are fun to collect. They are pale green and come wrapped in slightly darker green leafy jackets, and grow in clusters of two or three partly hidden underneath the leaves. They don't blend in with their surroundings particularly well, but for some reason they're hard to see—you can go over a branch meticulously picking every hazelnut you come across, then look at it again from two steps to the left and see a hundred more hazelnuts that you missed seeing the first time.
I got two very large stockpots full of them before getting tired of standing in the sun staring upward in search of hazelnuts heretofore unseen. It is likely that if I went out tomorrow morning, when that side of the orchard is shady, I could get the same amount again. (And then the squirrels can have the rest.)
There is probably a lesson to be learned from hazelnut trees about longevity and hiding in plain sight, if I were in a mood for learning. Instead I'll wait for a few hours, then go out again to pick more hazelnuts.
I don't understand the appeal of swimming indoors, or for that matter anywhere that isn't a lake or a river or an ocean.
Part of my stance on that issue might have something to do with my not having owned any sort of swimwear that might be considered fit for public viewing for several years, which fact stems from my preference for spontaneous swimming (in a lake or ocean or river that is nearby) rather than an orchestrated trip to somewhere for the purpose of swimming in it. Fun seems diminished somehow if it requires preparation.
The rocky beaches in the Gulf Islands are particularly well-suited to this purpose, because after dusk there is barely anyone around. (There is barely anyone around during daylight hours, either, but who likes swimming during the day?) I wandered down there tonight; and though I cannot claim that walking to the part of False Narrows with the cliff and tall rocks at high tide wasn't swimming-motivated, I'll defend to the death the claim that it might not necessarily have been. It was beautiful, at any rate; completely deserted as expected, and the ocean is getting colder as the nights are getting longer, and all of these are good things.
Near the end of last summer I spent the better part of an evening floating idly in False Narrows turning over and over in my head the possibility of drowning myself (in the name of following the path of least resistance, and of ending the season appropriately). Fortunately I am equivocative like you wouldn't believe, and easily distracted; there were some dolphins there that evening, too, further north than usual for that part of the season (I counted three of them). And all is well that doesn't end as it ought.
Hazelnuts have a very satisfying size and shape. I suppose these ones are especially satisfying because they are organic (from trees filled with bugs) and equitable (the sweat and aching wrists that netted them were mine alone). I spent the entire walk to the ocean and the entire walk back turning one over and over in my hand, and in a couple of hours I'll probably fall asleep the same way.