Conkers

Conkers? Yes. Here in Gironde the conkers grow big and fat. So it's a pity that:

1. kids here don't seem to collect conkers or to play with them. We could set up a business exporting Gironde conkers to Britain. We could make a small fortune!

2. because conkers are an untapped resource they simply fall from the trees. Hard.

Yesterday we had our lunch in Pessac near the green by the big Post Office and there was this conker tree that was simply dropping its conkers (pods intact) with loud thuds onto the grass below. We Daveys, ever intrepid explorers, went over to investigate this strange phenomenon at great personal risk and we managed to dodge all the falling spiny balls and collect just a small fraction of the big brown beauties. Pat had 38 best quality conkers in the pocket of her sweater after just about 10 minutes of selection.

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