Here in the middle of a happening is a question spoken by Elijah:
‘How long are you going to hold two opinions? If the LORD is God follow Him: but if Baal, then follow him.’ And the people were silent. 1 Kings 18 : 21.
This question was asked on mount Carmel where there were 450 prophets of Baal and one for God, Elijah. How did it end? Let us walk a while first.
The word Binfield comes from the Old English beonettfeld and means ” open land where bent grass grows.” The surrounding forest was cleared after the Windsor Forest Act 1813, when forestal rights were abolished and people bought parcels of land for agriculture; it was at this point that villages like Binfield expanded, as there was work for farm labourers.
Let us look at some of this land:
A shower of rain then it was gone…
Blue sky in the distance exactly that tint. Farmland still now as it was once upon a time…
But then there are these seven horse chestnut trees with not a conker on the ground. Thirty five years ago our sons and a neighbour’s daughter decided they wanted to know how much 1,000 looked like. They organized and had their plastic bags ready. They did it, recorded it and were pleased to see the piles.
Today there is not a single one! Why? Apparently last year was a mast year and with late spring frosts and most leaves and small conkers dropped in late August with the heat of summer the trees are now bare. One tree is a stump, so clearly there had been eight when the children discovered their 1,000.
There has been leaf minor moth and bleeding canker here in the UK so this has reduced the number of trees and according to a Welsh TV broadcast we have a ‘ Great British Conker Shortage’ this year 2026.
This affects small animals now as they hunt for food to get ready for winter, and the loss of leaf cover during the heat of summer was notable as there was less shelter for birds.
The first tree of the seven horse chessnut trees to the left of the photograph seems to have a scar. The trees are well spaced but the grass has few leaves and even fewer on the trees. Then there are no prickly green- yellow ‘covers’ to crack open to see the shiny brown almost wet looking horse chest nut. I missed them today.
It is sad!
Walk through wood land and along a long wall with its own greens and moss, and a companion path brown with scattered leaves. It is a typical autumnal day with a little rain, no sun but gentle colours of green, lemon, grey and brown.
It was good to walk 4 miles.
Take care,
Sandy
PS
How did the people show their answer to the question Elijah asked. The happening ended as the Baal worshippers slashed themselves to draw the attention of their god leaving themselves injured and dying while God burnt a wet sacrifice. A long ago painful happening. Why remember it? A good question.
The whole event is in 1 Kings 18. Then another question : ‘Does sin contain its own seed of death?’
Just a question.
Your post brought back some wonderful memories. We knew what horse chestnuts were, but had never heard the term conkers until we were in England in 2017. I remember sitting at the Orchard tea garden near Cambridge with our friends as they explained about conkers. It was a wonderful day in a beautiful setting.
My husband is a plant pathologist. I will have to ask him if he’s familiar with bleeding canker or other diseases affecting horse chestnuts. It’s not a tree that grows here, but he may remember from when we lived in Pennsylvania and Ohio, where the tree is common.
So glad this brought back good memories. Roy and I hadn’t walked past those trees for a while in autumn and they were noticeably different. Thank you for your comment.