Friday, June 28, 2013

Conkers

The season seems to be a bit behind the normal schedule with the Horse Chestnut trees around town all abloom now. I spotted this majestic one on the grounds of Spadina House. I wonder if kids still play conkers with the chestnuts - we would put a shoe lace through a hole drilled in the centre of the nut and then you swing the nuts at each other in an attempt to break the other one. Somehow I don't think it can compete with video games.

11 comments:

Andy said...

I'm from the the conker generation. They were much cheaper than video games. I'm sure that by today's standards they would be considered weapons.

PerthDailyPhoto said...

Gosh that's a magnificent tree Pat..all it would take would be for someone 'cool' to start it off, and playing conkers could be the 'latest' craze :)

Lowell said...

Gorgeous tree. I've never heard of horse chestnut trees or conkers! Must be a Canadian thing! :) I was always told Canadians were bonkers. Nah, I'm just kidding.

TexWisGirl said...

pretty fun game! love the tree!

Anonymous said...

Playing conkers would probably be outlawed by health and safety laws thesedays! Mighty looking tree!

Shaun said...

We have some corkers of conker trees here in the UK. I will see if i can find a photo of one for you. We have seen conkers bigger than golf balls here !!!

EG CameraGirl said...

was just thinking yesterday that the horse chestnut trees were blooming later than normal. This is a well-shaped tree.

Deb said...

Wow look at all the candles on that tree, plenty of conkers to come!

William Kendall said...

Conkers?

It's an impressive tree!

Randy said...

Beautiful looking tree.

Linda said...

Your season does seem a bit behind - our chestnut trees were late to bloom and then once they did were over very quickly. This is such a grand tree.