It is a mast year

which means that the oak trees have produced acorns. They land on our roof all night. However, although I am glad for the tree, which I feared had become sterile, I miss the squirrels. They used to go quite mad when there were acorns. All the squirrels have vanished from this corner of the cul-de-sacs. I have looked for news about this and not found any.

I live behind a great oak tree

and once again it is barren. I have lived here for 10 years and only known it to have a "mast year" once, with acorns everywhere underfoot and acorns bouncing off the car every few minutes. This year many of the trees are covered in fruit (the limes are messy and the sycamores are going to be a real trial with their random seeding) and the oak tree is doing nothing. I wonder why? Apparently this irregular fruiting pattern is a mystery to science and nothing to do with weather patterns or environmental factors (according to an American website) but if anyone knows better I hope they will tell me.