Conkers..................

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/northamptonshire/4801933.stm

I want to play conkers!!!! We used to play at school....my Dad would skewer a conker for me and tie string through..............

I miss England in the Fall.....going into the woods to hunt for Chestnuts to eat and conkers to play with....having to squich the conker cases with your shoe because the cases are prickly........there was a wood opposite Lloyds house with HUGE chestnut trees when I was little...we would go in there and hunt for them and takes BAGS full home....then we would eat them....mmmmm and sometimes Dad would roast them in the ashes of the fire.................

I used to love buying roast chestnuts from the stands in London and in Edinburgh...........Lloyd would buy me little bags on Princes Street in the winter and we'd walk through the gardens eating them...they'd warm your hands in your pocket :)

Chestnut and Horse Chestnut trees are the most gorgeous trees with huge leaves shaped like hands with lots of fingers.......you can't eat the conkers from a Horse Chestnut tree but you can eat the nuts from the chestnut trees...................

I miss beautiful big old trees..................Susannah was asking about the Sycamores with their helicopter seeds that fly..................and gorgeous old Oak trees with their Acorns we would collect for the squirrels....or to make crafts from...................

The trees here in Alberta are sooooooo boring!!! Tall straggly looking things...no character...no age...no huge trunks you can climb inside.......