Conker Crazy

Owen has become an insane conker-ite. For those of you not in the know, Conkers is a game "traditionally played by children in the UK using the seeds of horse chestnut trees – the name conker is also applied to the seed and to the tree itself. The game is played by two players, each with a conker threaded onto a piece of string. They take turns to strike one another's conker until one breaks" (from Wikipedia, of course!). There is a World Championships held on the second Sunday in October near Cambridge.
We have conker trees all around our park. Owen collects a basketful and sets to work peeling off the outer pod, pushing a large, thick needle through the seed and tying the string. He actually made his fingers sore yesterday, requiring band aids. The only downside is that he makes an incredible mess inside and outside the house with all of his materials and the leavings of the conkers. So much so that he is driving me conker crazy!