The tale of the tape

Suddenly, there is plastic tape everywhere. Throughout the Greater Daglan Area, or GDA, it’s been hung from post to post, along roads and driveways.

If the tape were yellow, you’d think that the most of the GDA had become a crime scene.

But it’s not yellow tape — it’s red-and-white plastic, fluttering in the breeze.

One example is a long stretch of tape hung beside the road that leads to the garbage and recycling bins behind the Daglan Rugby Club’s clubhouse. Here’s how it looked this morning:

Red and white plastic tape, fluttering beside a road.

So what’s the reason? It’s simple: The tape is marking off walnut groves, and is meant to keep unauthorized walnut gatherers away from the trees, and the nuts that have fallen to the ground beneath them.

The rule is that walnuts found on a road are fair game: They can be picked up by anyone. But the walnuts lying within the groves themselves belong only to the owners of the trees.

So in short, all the red-and-white tape we’re seeing these days is a sure sign that the walnut harvest is about to get under way. Unauthorized pickers: beware!