by Sr. Ruth Percival, MMM                                             Ireland                                                 29.11.2025

It was a beautiful sunny Autumn afternoon when I went out into the garden to collect hazel nuts.

The sun was causing some of the trees to look as though they were on fire while others quietly held onto their leaves. Some trees had blood red leaves while others were all yellow. Just one corner of the garden!

Soon I was marvelling at the large size of this year’s hazel nuts, really big, and very difficult to crack as I was to find out later.

And so, I continued my walk under the hazel trees until for no reason, as I often do, I stopped and looked around and looked up into the tree above me and straight into the black beady eyes of a robin. We held each other’s gaze for what seemed ages. I then moved quietly on marvelling at those brief seconds when I got the impression the robin was hoping I would look up and see him.

Next stop was our Chestnut tree and here again I collected some chestnuts from under the blanket of leaves that hid them very well. Edible chestnuts are a real treat to eat when roasted.

As I returned to the house I smiled over at the apple tree, which, in this its second year, gave us two delicious apples, which we shared leaving us looking forward to next year and giving thanks for God’s wonderful abundance and promising that we will continue to protect our fragile earth in any small way we can.