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March
'11
Cutting
comments
This year, we decided to make an all out effort to prune all the
olives trees that we are currently cultivating. In addition I wanted
to finsh off thr last two terraces up the road on the left of the
finca. Finishing these terraces, completed our cut of the trees
over the road.
There
were just under 600 trees and we had three months to get them finished
and all the cuttings burnt. In addition we needed to cut the grass
and flowers under the trees then plough the land at least once.
These
pictures show the change from the old "wild" tree growth
in the first column, then after they have been cut the first time.
The thrird column shows trees that were cut for the first time last
year (like the middle column and have then re-grown all that growth
in less than 18 months.
These
threes are now on their third year's pruning and are beginning to
look like proper olive trees.
Spring
Sprung
We were not sure if we would get many wild flowers this Spring,
as we had ploughed the land several times last year. Luckily, after
a dry Jan & February, we got the rain we needed in March and
we were surrounded by wild flowers again. The poppies seem to have
done really well and they were plenty of other wildflowers for the
bees to feast on.
Raoul,
one of our Agents Rural, knew we are working organically, and asked
if he could put a few bee hives on our land on one of the high terraces
near the barranc. We were delighted and soon the bees settled in
and before long, Raoul came round with two jars of dark brown honey
and a few almost black chunks of honeycomb. The honey was absolutely
delicious and was saved for our yogurt, banana & honey breakfasts
which we always have, down in the finca.
Mist
It
I did make a special attempt to get up and get a picture of the
eclipse, but didn't have a filter even close to being strong enough
to get a good image. The reflection off the filter is the only evidence
of it. Doh. Still I did get a nice picture looking down from the
village to the morning mists covering the whole area around our
finca.
High
Roller
Finally, we were impressed by the olive collecting rig which our
local metalworker was putting together for one of the villagers..
Five rollers in front and three behind. All driven by what looks
like a converted sit-on lawnmower. Neat.
February
2011
April 2011
PB
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