no stress...

When I first moved in (May 2006) and gazed out over the Liri Valley I was very tempted to cut the top out of a mandarin tree on a lower terrace. It cut into my view from the doorstep. I can't reach the mandarins, even on my ladder. I had been eyeing up the top of the tree again recently.

My promise to myself was to make no drastic changes until I had actually lived in the house a full, unbroken year.* I extended that promise to making no drastic changes in the garden too. That year will be up in two weeks.

It was a bad year for citrus and olives last year. The 2007 summer was a tough one. Dad and I watered and watered my trees. Other visiting Kiwis were told the price of their accommodation was several buckets of water to each tree each day. My trees survived in reasonable shape, quite a few oranges but very little fruit on the mandarin trees.

This morning I noticed that my new neighbour was busy in his garden. Company out my side of the house is rare; I live in a relatively private spot. I grabbed the chance to go up the ladder and beyond, reaching a little precariously for the last of the citrus. It is still too chilly to lie undiscovered outdoors overnight should I inadvertently choose a short-cut down.

As I stretched out to harvest the last of the mandarins I looked across at the view.

If something is blocking the vista then you simply have to climb higher.

The top of the tree will stay.

When I came back inside the television** was expounding on the problems of techno-stress in today's world. I didn't take my cellphone or computer up the tree.

A woman, a ladder, a basket, a dog, a tree.

No stress.



*I moved here "officially" on a residency visa 24 April 2007
** Don't get excited folks, I haven't changed. The television was purchased to keep my Italian friends from fretting about me being lonely on my own when I moved from the more social and public side of the village to my private hillside with no real neighbours. It sat in the box for over two months - but I could say that I had one - and is purely for trying to learn Italian.