See the conkering hero come

The balmy weather continues into October, all the more appreciated when we recall the snow storms of previous years. A local farmer ironically admitted that he was finding it difficult to find anything to complain about. Butterflies are still settling on the rotting windfalls and dragon flies still dart over the water of the little loch. The fields that have been cropped, ploughed, harrowed and re-sown are, with the warmth, are starting to show a shimmer of green.

Dragon fly  at the loch

….and it is conker time, though, as boys, we always called them  “cheggies”. 

 Their prickly outer husks must have evolved to allow them to bounce and roll away from the parent tree and so increase their chance of fulfilling their destiny and creating another chestnut tree …..until they fall prey to boys looking for conkers. Now they are probably safe to spread and grow. Do boys still play conkers? I doubt it.

In my distant youth...in history as my grand daughter put it....I recall hardening them with vinegar, drilling them with a nail and then fixing them on to a string to bash my specimen against another's and whichever survived the trial of durability was the winner and so graduated from a one-er to a two-er. The rules were that, if your opponent had a sixer and if you had, say, a fiver and you triumphed, you could add his score to yours and so have an elevener!

It is said horse chestnuts got their name from the horse shoe shaped scar left on the twig when the leaf falls. I think not. There are lots of species with the “horse” prefix – horse mussels, horse mackerel, horse radish, horse mushroom – and all are larger, coarser versions of their non-equine equivalents. The horse chestnut was perceived as a inedible, coarser version of the sweet chestnut.

 In fact, they are not related at all.

Another chestnut gets ready for a canter on the stubble field

The sheen on the brown nut emerging from the outer covering is a pleasing sight and one can see why brown horses came to be called chestnuts, the glossy horsehide mirroring the lustre of the conker.

Now, I collect cheggies not for playground battles but to grow in pots and, after a few seasons, plant out in hedge rows and field corners for another generation to enjoy. 

 Simple pleasures.

Planted some years ago