Need I mention the fact that the plans for our house renovation are still to be finalised?

But of course it means we can break our backs on the other thing – namely the garden. Slowly but surely we are claiming it back from the jungle. Toni’s tractor has done a good job but there are still brambles everywhere you look. It is seemingly a never ending battle as the roots go on and on. In addition to the brambles we have also freed a number of the olive trees from the ivy which was slowly strangling them. I’ve also cleaned up the threshing square from the same invasive weed.

We’ve also been busy lopping. Mainly lopping the dead bits off the olive trees. This means we’ve got loads of this excellent burning-wood stored away for the winter fire.

Using the smaller branches, all those bramble bushes and various other detritus, we’ve built up a huge pile ready for a bonfire. I don’t know whether I can wait till November 5th but Jackie is very worried that I might set off a forest fire as the flora all around is still tinderbox dry.

That may soon change though because as I type I can here the splatter splatter of our first Autumn rains and more is forecast for the next few days. It actually makes a pleasant change from the fierce heat we’ve been enjoying recently. I don’t know how long the pleasure will last though. I left the UK many years ago to avoid the cold and wet and I’m slightly concerned about the onset of SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) despite this being Southern Europe.

To end on a more positive note we have enjoyed the first cooked fruits of our land. We’ve had plenty of raw fruit but hadn’t cooked anything until Jackie put some (actually all) of our crop of pears into a crumble. So delicious it was that it didn’t last even long enough to pose for a photo.