Grounding

I went to a meeting in Bristol today. The weather was very nice after all the rain and cloudy days we have been having.

I was in very good time for the meeting, so I decided to take an unfamiliar path from the car park to the hotel where meeting was to be held. The path was delightful and was elevated from the road at the side of Castle Park in the centre of town. The path was bordered with some large horse-chestnut trees and some of the conkers had already fallen to the ground.

I picked one up and also found an unopened casing. I pressed it slightly with my foot and two pristine conkers eased out. They were absolutely beautiful. The sheen on them does not last long but the depth of colour and the gently undulating variations in hue are one of nature's jewels. The very nature of this transitory appearance only adds to the magic of the find, knowing that in a few short hours they will become merely brown nuts, passing to one of the three functions of the next stage of their lives: food for squirrels, the hope of another tree or the percussive toy of a child.