Signs of autumn

I’ve decided that one thing I’m going to miss in Nassau is Fall. I love the changing leaves and the crispness in the air. After way too much rain last month, the past week has been filled with beautiful fall days and evenings. Although I’m already feeling like the evenings are starting too early – I’ll miss you, sun!

In Kyiv, this time of year is the time of falling chestnuts. Something like 80% of the trees in Kyiv are chestnut trees, so that’s a lot of nuts. And they seem to fall 4 or 5 at a time, so you’ve really got to watch out. I saw a woman take a serious blow to the head last week. The really strange thing is that people here don’t seem to eat chestnuts.  When the apple trees lose their fruit, you see plenty of babushky picking them up and selling them on street corners. But there are currently millions of chestnuts on the ground here, and no one pays a bit of attention. No chestnuts roasting on open fires or anything. You would think there would even be some sort of special Kyiv dish with chestnuts – they’re so into that sort of thing here. Like chestnut dumplings with sour cream and dill. Yeah. That would be Chestnut Kyiv.