Pregnant

All the while that the wisteria was treating us to a mesmerising display of lingerie-inspired chandeliers, the canopy was alive with the happy buzzing of bees having their wicked way with her. After the flowers had begun to drop it became apparent that there were thousand upon thousand of tiny seed-pods eager to grow, ripen and make more little wisterias. Our plan however is for the parent plant to extend so that she fully covers the pergola and we no longer need to sling an extra layer of protection from the sun for the milky-white skin of visitors who wish to sit out enjoying a morning coffee without risk of burning. Therefore we want the wisteria to devote her efforts into growing larger, and not producing viable seeds.

So, I was up the ladders snipping off all visible flower-heads, and from that vantage point I had a new perspective of the heavily-flowering olives on the terrace below.

Our first year as residents here witnessed a bumper crop of both almonds and olives. Of course it being our first year we had no idea that it was an exceptional year., we took it for granted that it was the norm. Since then our stocks of almonds, olives and oil have diminished to the point that we aren't sure we can get through until winter without purchasing oil, and it has most definitely been removed from the list of free gifts we offer to guests at our cottage.

But very early this year it looked as though 2016 might produce another bumper almond harvest and we couldn't help hoping that almonds and olives might benefit from the same conditions, and that therefore a good olive harvest might be on the cards too.

The olive trees are now unimaginably full of blossom. Fingers crossed they are pregnant :-)