like a grove

Take a look at that; it’s my new olive tree courtesy of my lovely daughters and son-in-laws for Father’s Day. I love it. We are true olive geeks now having lived with our own grove in Italy. As mad as it may sound it drives me nuts not being there to tend to them, work on the pruning and so on. It won’t be long before we need to head off out there for the olive picking again. Good job too because for the first time in over 6 years we are running out of our oil. Arggh. Still to make me feel better I can pop out onto our balcony here and feed my nurturing need by removing any yellow leaves from not just the latest tree but also from the one got for me by Simon and Jayne for my 60th. So we now have a beautiful two-tree olive grove here in Teddington to complement the Italy ‘estate’. Ha! Here’s a shot of the ulivi twins:

And that chair is where I’ll be sat with a glass of wine in my hand once British summer time eventually starts.

pp

trees

After 3 days of really lovely weather the forecast here today is for showers. That’s a bit of a bugger as I’ve been trying to get the garden a little clearer. I’ve been collecting all the pruned off-cuts from the olive trees and chopping off the bigger bits for kindling, our stock of which has run out. It’s already taken me several days and I’m only half-way through. Until I’ve collected it all I can’t really cut the grass.  But the grasses and weeds are growing rapidly  and more rain makes working in the garden impossible (plus it stimulates even more growth). I’m wading through thigh-high grass already and it’s a little unnerving knowing the wildlife we get out here. I saw a neighbour using a scythe on his land the other day and I’m tempted to get one too. I can’t see the strimmer getting through this.