Another showery day but we managed to get to the park for a quick walk.

Autumn has certainly arrived and the trees have turned from green to a multitude of colours or red, orange and everything in between.

Charlie ran through the leaves wondering why they kept falling onto him as he ran around the base of the trees.

One of the trees we came across was one with prickly round green balls around it’s trunk.

Mum said these were the fruits from the horse chestnut. She added that it was unusual to see them on the ground because when she was at school children would find hundreds of them and play a game called conkers using the nut inside held on a short length of  string.

For many years the game of conkers has been played in schools throughout the UK.  

The first recorded game of Conkers using horse chestnuts was on the Isle of Wight in 1848. Until then, children used snail shells or hazelnuts.

The game of conkers came to the attention of many newspaper editors in the last few years when safety concerns were raised.

The World Conker championships are to be held on the village green of the small village of Ashton in East Northamptonshire in 2009.

Thats all for now

Until next time

Charlie and Buster

 

Books – Playground games