Going bonkers in a world where kids don't play conkers

Last week's windy weather brought down a carpet of shiny conkers on the pathway along which the dog takes me for a walk every day.

- with Mike Hill

Scores of them bursting out of their spikey casings just waiting to be gathered up and strung for a game in the schoolyard at breaktime.

And yet the following day, and the ones that followed, they remained there, some of them trodden into the asphalt, others lying like unclaimed prizes waiting for a previous generation to come racing by to gleefully stuff them in their pockets.