Winter larder

In Lincolnshire our Horse Chestnut trees are stricken with two problems. One makes them ooze a sticky tar like substance and the other makes the leaves die. In our garden the  tree near the house looks very sick. Never the less there is an annual replanting process going on. People with  bushy tails  are very busy, rushing about, burying conkers... anywhere will do....flowerpots, the middle of the vegetable patch, in the lawn.... What few conkers we have are being distributed around the garden in a random fashion which denotes  a short memory span by our population of grey squirrels. They also steal peanuts and bury those. And walnuts and bury those too. And my tulip bulbs have disappeared, the alium bulbs never got chance to appear at all, and I can guess who dug them up! And I won't  mention the hazelnuts, but I can hear  the squirrels as they run along the sewing room roof, between the hazel tree and the  back garden, so I know what they are up to!