Two weekends ago, I accompanied my aunt to the university after my mom made the suggestion for us to pick up the fallen walnuts from the walnut tree in the parking lot. My aunt is crazy for walnuts and to tell you the truth, I didn’t expect a lot of walnuts to fall from the tree. I was so wrong because there they were, scattered all over the ground. Some even rolled over into the parking lot. My aunt quickly pulled out a plastic bag and began picking the walnuts one by one and within five minutes, the bag was full.

My aunt took this picture after we got home that afternoon. You can see how much my aunt picked up and she wanted more. I ended up accompanying her the following day to pick up two more bucket full. Still, it wasn’t enough. Five days later, we made a third trip to school and she gathered five more bags. For the past week, my aunt had been sitting in the backyard removing the walnut’s outer skin and then drying them in the sun.

Anyway, back to that day…

After we gathered enough walnut and placed the bag in the car, we walked around the school. My aunt had never been on campus before and so I thought I’d give her a tour. “So many ducks!” She exclaimed when she saw this scene. I don’t think I’ve seen so many ducks gather on campus either.

“That’s why they call it a ‘duck pond’.” I told her and pointed at the pond behind us. “Do you think they’ll fly away if I go closer?” I asked.

“Try it.” She dared. So I did. Step by step as my heart hammered, afraid if I get too close, they’ll attack me with their beaks but they don’t have beaks. They are not chicken. I laughed. I stepped as close as I could, got down on one knee, and snapped this picture of the ducks minding their business.

We then crossed the parking lot and bypassed the pond to another side of the pond where we found more white ducks resting and doing their business in the grass and the pavement.

I’m starting to feel the scene is a little chaotic, at least in a driver’s standpoint. There are ducks wandering around at the entrance of a parking lot. What will happen if a driver’s not careful? I suddenly feel bad for these ducks. This is their home and humans have invaded it and poured cement over grass and created parking lots and roads next to their precious pond.

At the same time, I feel like they are creating chaos in our lives too. In the picture above, you can see the duck’s nasty green poop in the background. I didn’t know what it was before my aunt told me. I thought it was the tubes of grass the school’s gardener dug up for spring aeration. “Why is it green?” I asked.

“Can’t you see they eat grass?” My aunt pointed out. “The grass didn’t get fully digested and that’s why it’s green.”

I grimaced and there I was, wearing my new shoes. At least now I know not to step in them. Two days later when I arrived on campus again, the path to the building where my class would take place was littered with duck poop. Great, I have to play hop scotch with duck poop.

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