Did I mention it’s California buckeye (horse chestnut) season? Thanks to a September storm everything didn’t wither up like some recent years so the buckeye trees are standing out for being bare except for their fruit. There are a few dozen of them along my commute route. They are small with a spherical canopy, like a citrus tree. The husks are about as big as a racketball and the nuts about like a squash ball. The natives ate these, and used them for a fish anesthetic. The raw nuts have a neurotoxin and must be rinsed and boiled for days to make them safe to eat.