Difficult Days

Went for a wander on this day that felt quite sombre. Never mind our own feelings as we broke up a puzzle that I'd made with Zion, found a tiny pair of socks in the wash...  heard at the post office that a man was killed this morning here when he fell into a ditch and his tractor fell on top of him, in his vineyard. Plus, folk are still visiting the cemetery for All Souls Day today (All Saints Day yesterday)... And it's drizzly, which is good, but adds to the melancholy.

Anyway, ended up joining in for a while with a neighbour's olive picking. (This is a rich neighbour who doesn't actually live here, so he pays a foreman, who hires these three men.) Spread netting (in the background of this photo) around each tree trunk. Then hit the branches with a petrol driven shaker (can do it with rods, but hard work and breaks more branches; the shakers cost around 800 euros, it belongs to the landowner). Gather up the net and pick out as many leaves as you can. Scoop into tins and empty into the trailer behind the New Holland tractor - which you're not actually tall enough to see into.

You'll be paid a pittance for each kilo (divided between the three of you), which is then sold to a Roma man for a slightly larger pittance, who then sells it to a oil pressing factory... Not counting the cost of removing all the suckers (like we just did), so you can get the nets round the trunk. And then the cost of pruning the trees. 

And people want cheap olive oil...