Dirty Walnuts and Chocolate Chums

I know I've mentioned it before, but walnuts are dirty critters! Today I've been hulling the ones we salvaged from the felled tree. Knowing about the black staining that lasts for two weeks, I used my nice new Marigolds to protect my nails and fingers. No-one wants to see a Mother-of-the-Groom with black nails and fingers. Just look at my Marigolds though! And my picking thumbs managed to tear a little hole in each thumb, so, sorry Greg and Jess, my thumb nails will be black underneath. Maybe I should paint my nails with black polish? Not a good wedding look, I know.
I developed an effective technique to hull them. I tipped them all over the ground and stamped hard on each individual nut. The hull fell away and the nut was preserved in a divot in the earth! Any stamps that shattered the nut case showed that they were clearly not good enough! There weren't many like that ...


The aftermath of discarded nuts and hulls.

 Something marvellous happened today... Sue and Steve visited! And, oh my goodness, look what they brought with them!
There were at least twelve of these beauties! Still a bit warm from the oven, dark chocolate, white chocolate and walnut cookies! Oh my word, they tasted good! I nearly cried with joy!

 And that wasn't all. Remember the chocolates Sue made for Steve's birthday meal in their barn? The ones I forgot to raid in the middle of the night? She made some more! Some very special ones, AND some chocolate leaves. How on earth did she do that?! 
These amazing chocolates are coming back to the UK with us next week. No, you can't have one, I'm afraid.

The sky- you can never see enough sky, can you? Oh...you preferred looking at the chocolatey goodies? Oh well, here's some sky anyway.

 There was a bit of rain today, along with thunder and lightning. After it had blown over, the sky on the horizon resembled a giant rolling wave! And, yes, there are some clouds still lurking in the forest.

 Here comes the sun, just in time for sunset. 

And a rainbow over cottage #1, followed by this spectacular yellowy scene...

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