Walking the Streets and Memories of Playing Conkers and Other Things

The weather hasn't been too good recently - rain, wind etc - so haven't been very far with my camera. 

I have walked the streets locally though and usually find something of interest - in one instance conkers! They brought back memories from childhood when we played the game of conkers.

Where I lived, as a child in west London, there weren't any horse-chestnut trees so my dad would take me on a short bus ride to collect conkers. I remember one occasion when he told me to take a bag with me.

I soon filled the bag so we got on the bus to return home. Trouble was I had brought an old paper bag and when we got on the bus the bag burst and the conkers went everywhere!

Luckily the bus conductor thought this was funny and gave me a selection of money bags to hold the conkers. This was, of course, a long time ago when there were conductors to collect the fares.

Times change, and it appears, according to the media, that playing conkers is now banned in many schools on 'health and safety' grounds. 

Strange really as I can't remember any of my friends ever being hurt, a rap on the hand perhaps but nothing more serious. But I was lucky and grew up at a time when we climbed trees and had lots of freedom to roam.

Regarding conkers there was an article in the Daily Mail newspaper asking, "Is this the end of the conker tree?" They claim that the horse chestnut tree may become extinct in Europe. It seems that there has been a decline of the trees because of an invasive moth.

As for the game of conkers it was seemingly first mentioned way back in 1821. I'm not sure if other countries play the game so here's what happens:

Conkers is played by two players who each have a conker threaded onto a piece of string or sometimes a shoe lace. They then take turns to hit the other player's conker with their own until one breaks. The winner is the conker still whole.

Cunning players would try to harden their conker by soaking them with vinegar or perhaps baking them.

But enough of conkers, here are a few other photos I snapped on my walk.

I passed by the 500 year old bridge I mentioned in a previous post. Sadly I noticed someone had made their temporary home under one of the arches.

On a brighter note we have palm trees in Cornwall and ...

… there is still some colour about to brighten the breezy days ...

… and something tasty.

More colour, despite the rain and wind.

Going back to the game of conkers I have just remembered that conkers had a score. If the conker survived the game it became known as a one-er. If it won two games a two-er and so on. But, if say you were to beat a six-er, you added six to the value of your score. 

So it was possible to create a high conker value. I can remember once having a twenty-six-er for example.

I think that exhausts my knowledge of conkers!