<p class="MsoNormal">It’s apparently chestnut season here in Sofia.<span> </span>I thought that it was fall but I was clearly mistaken.<span> </span>On Saturday morning, I woke up to this sound: “thud, clatter, clatter, clatter” and men talking and then again “thud, clatter, clatter, clatter” and more talking men.<span> </span>I got out of bed to see what was going on.<span> </span>From my balcony, I could lean out enough to see that there were three old men out in the street throwing something up into the tree—the thud.<span> </span>The resulting clatter, clatter, clatter were falling chestnuts hitting the street, cars and anything else within range.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I watched this for five or ten minutes. These men had such a great system and boxes to put their chestnuts in.<span> </span>When a car needed to drive down the block they stopped moved their boxes and waited between parked cars before throwing up the heavy object (which I am sorry to say I don’t know what it was). I don’t know if it was their chestnut tree or if they were pirating the chestnuts off of the chestnut tree on our block but either way I had a lot of fun and they seemed to be having fun too.</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">That afternoon I decided to take a walk in this park called Boris Garden—it is for the record much, much more than a garden it is a huge park.<span> </span>Here it was clear that cooler weather is coming our way. <span> </span>The leaves are starting to turn and parents have begun to bundle up their children.<span> </span>Still it was warm enough that after long a walk I was able to sit on a bench and read my student’s first homework assignment.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I sat on one of a long line of benches that line the main path in the park.<span> </span>Trees grow over the path and four mothers with strollers could easily walk side by side on the path.<span> </span>So sitting here also allowed me to do a lot of people watching.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">There was a little bit of a breeze but the sun was out so most of us had jackets that we were carrying or on benches next to us.<span> </span>It turns out that the trees that line the path are also chestnuts.<span> </span>So when the wind picked up a little bit as it is bound to do chestnuts would clatter down from the trees over head.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The first time this happened I was a little bit surprised.<span> </span>I knew what they were when they were falling down but the noise the little nuts make gives you pause and question if you actually know what it falling from the trees above. The noise is such that you really feel like you have to look around.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">That’s the great part because this is when I realized that lots of people in the park were collecting chestnuts.<span> </span>And I can see why, these things are everywhere.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">One little girl—maybe 4 years old—walked by in a knit-cotton dress with a big sweatshirt style pocket across the font.<span> </span>It was completely full of chestnuts.<span> </span>She would put one in on one side and another would come out of the other side of the pocket.<span> </span>She had a chestnut-belly.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Others had small plastic bags that they were collecting them in and I saw one man with the pocket of his corduroy pants bulging distinctively with chestnuts.<span> </span>I bet he had 10 or 15 chestnuts but it made me think that he would be a lot happier collecting chestnuts into a bag of some sort.<span> </span>I think that he went out for a walk like me and then couldn’t resist picking up the chestnuts off the grass.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I understand why.<span> </span>At the fruit and vegetable market in my neighborhood, they are selling roasted chunks of pumpkin, chestnuts, apples and even roast pears and they smell delicious.<span> </span>That I think makes it pretty hard to resist picking up chestnuts when you see them on the ground.<span> </span>And, if no one picks them up they are going to go to waste so you might as well be the one to collect them.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">This said, I love collecting things but I am not collecting chestnuts.<span> </span>First I am not collecting chestnuts because I am not sure if there is chestnut-gathering-etiquette, second because I am not sure that my little oven will support roasting chestnuts and third because I’ve had so much fun watching people collect chestnuts that it feels like I might ruin it by collecting them myself.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In the end, I am happy to report that it appears today is going to be another beautiful autumn day—cool with a little bit of a breeze in the air and bright sunshine.<span> </span>But I do think that maybe we need to reconsider if this season we are currently in—fall should really be such in Sofia.<span> </span>Maybe this is really chestnut season.<span> </span></p>