the list

Reluctantly I accept that I wont be harvesting my olives this week. The weather has packed it in and pickers are hard to find. A local will do the work, for a half share of the oil, but the olives wont be picked for another ten days or so. I was becoming quite possesive about the crop and the process, so I have had to let go. Big sigh. Meanwhile I am hoping that we (neighbours and I) might do the pickling olives on Sunday.

On a brighter note, work is coming along nicely in the palazza. I have outlined the panels and doors (photos tomorrow maybe) and it is beginning to look a little more finished. Today every time I turned around someone had borrowed my ladder, and the light went out several times as electricians worked upstairs. But at the end of the day I had painted many metres of geometrical design and it felt like progress!

Pickle is asleep under my bed, keen to behave now the cold is coming. Chewing my wrist brace was not a good idea however; she was severely reprimanded, and is now safely away from my "Noh! Noh! Noh!" Zacchi has decided that Pickle is smelling very interesting. Separate dorms time!

So, olives are off the list, Pickle is at the top of it now, and the other jobs are being ticked off slowly but steadily.

Today I am grateful for our wonderful bread, baked in a wood-fired oven.