More olives

Friday 17 December 2010

As Jim and Anita tied the knot in Liverpool, we found ourselves involved in a little olive husbandry at Goat Bottom.  Tina rang and asked if today would be okay for Ian (aka Shrimpy - he used to work the shrimp boats out of Norfolk) to come round with the chainsaw and look at pruning our trees.  If it suited them, it suited us, so we got the olive nets back out, and decided where to start.

Tina explained that olive trees in dry climates don't do well if they're too tall.  If the tree can't get enough water, the topmost branches become parched - and dangerous.  She looked at the tree nearest the camper truck and said she wouldn't park a vehicle under that one, so that's where we started.

Two of the biggest branches were full of rot, eaten almost away inside, so we caught it just in time. 

When the rains came we hid away in the shed - a bit of a squeeze for four people with all our tiling paraphernalia still lying about everywhere - and had some lunch.  A small accident with a flask of soup introduced an interesting flavour of mulligatawny to our woodwork.

Despite the rot, the tree had fruited well this year, so as Shrimpy cut away the rotten branches, Tina and Sara stripped them of olives (while Dave grouted the shower)

Another break, and while hailstones lashed down outside, we inaugurated the bigger gas stove (a pressie from Mike and Margaret) so we could make four cuppas at once.

But at the end of the day we had a substantial stack of olive wood - so it must be time to get on with installing the stove.


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