Manuel, Monarch, and Moonlight

We are paying a man to finish the bravos (wild shoots that suck the energy from the olive tree and make it difficult to harvest) - makes me feel sad I didn't manage - could definitely have worked harder, but there are still maybe 200 to do, and it's difficult because of the slope and the rocks, and because they've been left for years - some of them are like small trees, you can see some of them bottom left.

But got up early and worked with Sr Manuel, and tried to learn as much as I could. Think he was a bit nonplussed to have a woman - a foreign one at that, working with him, but we got on fine in the end, and I did learn a lot. We're paying him for the job, not per hour, so he feels free to stop for a smoke, and to leave when it got too hot. Suits me, I was so tired.

Went back to the building, where Mike is digging holes and channels for water pipes - to the news of Monarch's demise - which our kids and grandkids had flights to us with ... mostly sorted now, though money lost. Then, further hassle over a visa for our son's fiancée ... And then, looked at the Guardian on my phone, and saw the news of the shooting in Nevada... and the police brutality in Catalunya ... 

But, the morning light was magical, as were the cats that followed us round all morning - extra especially for you, Julia. As was the moon over the Alentejano plains as we drove home from shopping in Évora tonight.