Still not fully spring

 

April is going fast but spring has not fully arrived yet, or better, the stable warm weather we would expect at this time of the year. We still have fluctuating temperatures, going up to 20 degrees and dropping next day to 10. 

Having said that, the country side is  like an open garden in bloom.

                                                              poppies under the olives

At the beginning of the month some of the first developing flowers of the vines were burned by the frost, but it seems that the second lot are now looking good. First and second pruning is now completed (vines)and the next step is to start taking off the excess growth at the bottom of the plants and then tie them securely to the wiring. 

On the vegetable side, potatoes are developing well and new lettuces, cabbages, onions are also growing. Courgettes planted at the front of the house have now a few new leaves which is a good sign of healthy growth. Tonino has bought more vegetables today (19/4) and with Lesley we also planted more peas and French beans which are already appearing out of the ground.

                                                 New vegetables to be planted. 176of them.

 Not all,  but  a few almond trees have plenty of almonds on them already at a good stage of development. This year we will finally be able collect them having had none in the previous three.

                                                           new almonds. still green

                                            Fig trees have also started to show  new fruit.

                                                                       Figs starting

On the 12th we went to the seaside house at Marazzino to do  3 days' work in one of the bedrooms as we are changing a window, and previous works were poorly done by the builder at the time. 

                                               preparing the opening for the new window

This Saturday we are going to help my brother to prune some olive trees in his wife's land. It will be a day of work between 4 or 5 of us. The place is in Esporlatu, a small village in the Goceano area.

I am keeping cutting excess growth from olive trees and preparing big piles to be burned as soon as possible. Also we still have lots of old vines to be cleaned and cut to size for the stove in Oliena. This is a tedious job but needs to be done now as the vines and roots are now dry.

The 4 meter long root of an old vine. Vines are a very strong plant and roots can go very deep.

More work has been done between my brother Graziano and my Aunt Cicita's  land. We opened a dry wall section to facilitate the passage between the two pieces of land.

                                                                          Job Done

        

First broad beans and Lesley meditating under the olive tree in front of the house (encouraging the zucchini).

Sunset on our mountain Corrasi and Aunties Maria and Cicita preparing a king size meal for Easter day