Wednesday 26 September 2007

Bonkers for Conkers


Dodgy picture again I'm afraid but this is when we know that autumn is really here in our house. When Barney was about 2 we started having a seasonal display of nature finds on our dresser and it all began with autumn. Barney really enjoys doing it, especially conker hunting which he thinks are tree jewels and is always so surpised when we get one to pop out of their hard, spiky green shells. Its confined to a bowl this year because Archie is so curious and he's really going to get prickled. We found all sorts of things on a lovely walk around one of our favourite villages last weekend. Woody took Archie into the playground so B and I had a rare and lovely time being just we two together and found lichen covered twigs, seed heads, moss and sycamore keys. I'm totally obsessed with collecting conkers and made my poor mum jump out of the car to gather these up from verge the other day!


Thanks so much for the response to the charity shop post. I'm a bit sad to hear its such a trend and I do have mixed feelings about it. Value for money is really important and it doesn't feel this is being offered so much anymore.



(Lovely Butterton above the Manifold Valley and its very pointy church.)

Its been an odd old day today. I had a fantastic drive back from school after dropping Barney off (we're commuting from Buxton to Cheddleton until we move, around 15 miles each way) so Archie usually has his morning nap on the drive and I go on some of my favourite routes to give him a proper rest. It was a beautiful morning and the views across the top of the Manifold Valley were gorgeous. Met up with mum for lunch when she was in town for a meeting and had a lovely catch-up and then got to school to pick B up right on time, and that's when it went downhill.

The weather closed in so we hurried back to the car when the poor old boy tripped and had the most horrid fall. His arms buckled and it was his darling little face that broke his fall! There was blood everywhere, his nose and cheek are scraped raw, there's a nasty, big cut above his lip and he's got a bump the size of an egg on his forehead.


Mummy's Cath Kidston, washed roses tissues (now looking distinctly shabby and so not chic)came in very handy but he was in such a mess we had to go back into school to get him cleaned up. Bless him he was very upset but so brave too and ten minutes later he was chatting away with a tissue covering the damage until we made it all the way home again. He looks so pink and raw and it must be so sore (not helped by panicky mummy putting the wrong cream on - I'm so sorry sweetheart). Hopefully it'll improve in the next day or so but my little man has never looked so glum so I'm cheering myself up with a happy face picture. Now I know just how mum felt that day I opened up my elbow at nursery in 1979!

The blog is looking very non-homely, non-vintagey and non-treasure-findingly (?!) because most of the house is in boxes. We're aiming for a move on 12th October but I think it'll be a couple of weeks after that because it always drags on doesn't it. It took all my willpower to bother hoovering up today, everything is so upside down and doesn't feel like home at all. We had another visit to the house on Sunday (last time was the first viewing in May) and it felt so great to be back. It is bigger than I remember, such a relief, and I'm itching to get started home-making but its not quite ours yet. Keep everything crossed!

10 comments:

julia said...

Our conker colletion is well and truly under way. A nice thing to to with all your finds is to thread them onto garden twine with spaces between to make a sort of autumn mobile. We hung ours on the front door last year (inside of course, it wasn't THAT attractive) and it reminded us of all the lovely walks we'd had during the bleak winter months.

By the way I'm with you on the charity shop issue, ebay has done us no favours in some ways.Car booting is still the cheapets way to pick up some gorgeous stuff.

Hope your little one is over his fall, have a great day.

Julia x

julia said...

No idea what cheapets means, early morning blurred vision I think!!

Leanne said...

healing wishes on their way for the little one!

when my two boys were small they loved conkers too. they would go out and come back with bagfuls everytime, I swear we could have cobbled our whole drive with conkers if we had wanted to!

I too am in the moving process, but not as far along as you, its not fun, is it?

Leanne x

Vintage to Victorian said...

Mum used to take Hannah conker hunting in the park from about the age of 3 (when I was working) and 30 years on, Han sends Gran a conker or two in the post every autumn with a little note, remembering the fun they had.

So sorry to hear about B's fall. I'm sure he'll soon be back to normal - you, of course, will continue to suffer until the last scab has disappeared from his face.

Fingers crossed for the move. Looking forward to hearing all about it.

Sue x

Rosie said...

I've enjoyed reading your blog. I'v just remembered I have a few conkers in my coat pocket picked up during our walk yesterday - must go and rescue them:)
Hope your little boy's face is less sore now.

julia said...

Didn't you think Lisa Butcher looked scarily like a mad seagull tonight!

Have a great weekend!

Julia x

Anonymous said...

Poor Barney! I do hope that he is feeling better.

I loved the conker story. We were driving along a couple of days ago when I shouted 'stop the car, there's a conker tree!' and we leaped out and started collecting them. I must admit that it was fun to find all those 'tree jewels' - what a great name for them.

Good luck with your move and I hope that you are soon settled in at your new home.

Marie x

pinkgreen said...

I still love collecting conkers and I usually have a pile in my handbag that I pick up thinking the girls will like them, but forget to hand them over. They are meant to be good for scaring away spiders too, and I have to admit there aren't any in my bag!
Hope you get to move soon. I hate being in limbo. Still, it's a good excuse not to hoover!
Cathy X

Faye 'Country Chic' said...

Hi
We will be off on our conker hunt this weekend and we too love hunting for treasure from the wild, Ella is also very impressed with conkers, she even had a conker tea party when Granny bought her some over the other day.

Sad to hear about your little boys accident, It is so horrid when things like that happen, I hope he feels a lot better very soon.

xFaye

Vintage to Victorian said...

Reading Cathy's comment I remember that on a piece of paper which I unearth every now and again I've written that moths hate conkers. Maybe good to hang in our wardrobes or put in our drawers. There was something else written on the paper but I can't remember what it was - it could have been cloves.