Autumn is the time for conkers. They hold a special place in my heart. Yesterday, I mailed a conker to our son Ian in London. It was still in its husk and it came from his own horse chestnut tree - grown from a conker he picked up when he was three years old. That tree is now almost forty feet tall and I am thinking of having it professionally felled.
Having churned out blogposts for over fifteen years, I have of course blogged about conkers before and I don't really wish to repeat myself. To read those old conker posts please go here (2013) and here (also 2013).
The pictures that accompany this post were taken yesterday in the late afternoon after I had picked up a seed husk that was almost as big as a tennis ball. By the way, it is unusual to find three conkers in a shell. It's normally just one or two.
The Micro Manager talks about conkers and a game they used to play with them.
ReplyDeleteI used to play conkers too. If the other player hit your knuckles with their conker it hurt like hell.
DeleteI forgot about chestnuts, need to keep eye open for them.
ReplyDeleteDora - Thanks for calling by. Conkers are inedible. Not of the same family as sweet chestnuts.
DeleteThat first picture looks like something from outer space! Does Ian know you mailed him a conker? That could be quite a surprise in the mail if unexpected!
ReplyDeleteNo. I didn't tell him Bonnie.
DeleteThe colour, shine and size of conkers seem to have been designed to appeal to the kid in all of us making us natures seed distribution system. Why cut down the chestnut - is it endangering something?
ReplyDeleteThe neighbours have complained about it as it casts shadow on their garden. Also, I never foresaw that it would grow so big. My son and I have plans for some of the wood.
Delete'Damned' is a great post YP. It reads like the first chapter of a memoir like Cider With Rosie. You took me back to conkering. Don't see many Horse Chestnut trees over here in Hibernia. The Roman name for Ireland.
ReplyDeleteIf I had played you at conkers I would have deliberately rapped your knuckles with my conker. Whack! Boo-hoo!
DeleteI would beat you at British Bulldog. Do they still play: The Farmers In His Den? On researching your post I find Conkering is banned in some English schools. We use to play Japs and Commandoes or was it Jocks and Druids?😊
DeleteI could have beaten you at marbles. I was the school champion and have not yet lost my marbles! Previously, I imagined that you would have preferred skipping with the girls.
DeleteI bet you were never allowed in the Wendy House and your school report said: " Yorkshire Pudding tries hard but is easily distracted ". Doesn't it say that on everyone's along with: "Must do better!"
DeleteIt actually said, "He will probably end up being King of the World".
DeleteYes why cut down the chestnut tree? a bit of judicious pruning by skilled tree surgeons maybe. It is part of your family's history.
ReplyDeleteThe neighbours are the problem. The tree casts shadow on their garden. My son and I have plans for some of the wood. For example, I want to carve a bowl for him.
DeleteI am pretty sure I have commented back then on your 2013 conkers posts, but right now I don't have the time to check. Conkers are beautiful and fascinating! I don't think I have ever found three in the same shell; two, yes, but never three. These days, whenever I find a particularly big and shiny one, I pick it up and give it to my Mum. Her display of conkers on the dining table around a vase of autumn flowers is growing with my, my sister's and her own finds.
ReplyDeleteThey say that conkers scare spiders away.
DeleteThere are so many diseased chestnut trees around, if yours is healthy, Thelma's tree surgeon suggestion sounds a good one.
ReplyDeleteI suspect that our tree is not disease-free Charlotte.
DeleteIt is said that if you put conkers in the corners of room it keeps out the spiders. I don't know whether or not it works because the cat removes them to play with.
ReplyDeleteMy daughter suffers from arachnophobia and always has conkers around. Personally, I rather like spiders. Fascinating creatures.
DeleteI can't believe that I have just spent minutes thinking up a comment for your previous post that has already become history.
DeleteAs for conkers, every child of my era has his conker stories. People used to try all sorts of things to harden their conkers. It never worked. It was always a question of technique.
I agree. Having hard conkers wasn't everything.
DeleteI seem to remember my Brother soaking his conkers in vinegar to harden them off.
ReplyDeleteNo rude comments please.
Briony
x
Me? Make a rude comment? What kind of scoundrel do you think I am?
DeleteI seem to remember that conkers was a boys' game. Not many girls played - probably too scared of getting their knuckles bruised - or too sensible.
ReplyDeleteOr lacking in the skill and muscle power required to smash another player's conker to pieces!
DeleteWhen you point a finger at someone else, you have three fingers pointing back at yourself. Any man who would cut down a forty-foot tree because a neighbor said that it cast a shadow on his or her garden surely skipped with the girls himself.
ReplyDeleteThat first picture looks like the mother of all novel coronavirus or at least their version of a Supreme Being.
Can you see the Supreme Coronavirus half-smiling at you - ready to gobble you up - for suggesting that I may have also skipped with the girls.
DeleteYour neighbor doesn't like the shade? A pox on your neighbor!
ReplyDeleteIt seems too awful to cut down a tree. Can the tree have a repreive?
My mum used to play conkers too. The first time I ever saw a chestnut tree was at Bodiam Castle in south Enlgand. Magnificent trees.
I must admit that the tree got much bigger than I had ever imagined. The neighbour lopped off a couple of overhanging limbs when we were down in London. He didn't even talk about it beforehand. The next time I saw him I was like a frothing monster and he was visibly shocked by my verbal assault. I am normally so calm and avoid confrontation as much as possible but when he did that I just exploded.
DeleteWhilst I don't condone the action of your neighbours in lopping your tree without discussing it (which they are perfectly within their legal rights to do if it's over their garden as I'm sure you know) I think your decision to remove it if it casts their garden into shadow shows great consideration for other people. I have a friend near Glasgow who bought her house over 50 years ago and, like some neighbours, planted trees which are now huge. She is a very keen gardener but parts of her, fortunately largish, garden are unusable because of tree roots and shade from trees. She has lopped significantly all her trees casting shadows on her neighbours but, unfortunately the neighbour on the side that casts shadows on her garden has not though to do likewise.
ReplyDeleteWhen you have suburban neighbours you should try to be considerate. Unlike my neighbour. Fortunately the people on the other side are perfect neighbours and were disappointed when I said I would be having the tree chopped down. When the neighbour attacked it, it seemed like an act of vandalism and I have not felt the same way about the tree ever since.
DeleteI love the look of conkers. They're such a beautiful shiny brown. I would also argue for sparing the tree if possible, but I'm sure you haven't made your decision lightly.
ReplyDeleteSadly, some of the tree's branches overhang the neighbour's garden. I am determined to make use of a fair amount of the wood. It will probably cost me three hundred pounds or more to bring it down.
DeleteThis is a lovely post.
ReplyDeleteMy husband will be round with his chainsaw......
He envies other people's log piles.
I planted an Apple pip in 2012 with my grandson who was 5. It's around 6 feet tall. No signs of any apples so far!
Log piles? I thought that was a painful medical condition Christina!
DeleteLovely thing you did with the apple pip. Maybe there will be blossom next spring.
We've got two ginormous Horse Chestnut trees here at our new place. One very near the house and one a bit further away. The further one has lost a large limb and I've suggested occasionally to hubby that he could cut it into small pieces and we could have an outdoor BBQ.....hot dogs roasting on a chestnut fire {go ahead, sing it with me!!}
ReplyDelete"Jack Frost nipping at your nose!" (Hic!)
DeleteNice to see a subject not overwhelmed by a commentator
ReplyDeleteBoth Eddie Waring and Kenneth Wolstenholme are long deceased.
DeleteSo, John, what's your take on conkers? And/or a hot chestnut?
DeleteU
The PC brigade have banned children from playing with conkers in the school playground. On my walks I see hundreds lying around when once upon a time children would have snapped them up. Apparently they are good for deterring spiders and a bowl of them by entry points to the house will deter them. So I am told.
ReplyDeleteI have heard that if you wear a conker necklace you will not catch COVID-19.
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