Fruit and nut

Giovanni phoned on Friday afternoon to tell us that next morning he and Milena were returning to Rome for a week and we should go up for more grapes.  We didn’t need telling twice, we were soon there to see the couple of them already picking from their two abundant vines.

They kept insisting we didn’t have enough and we came home with over 2 kilos, and I’d eaten a lot during picking, plus a basket of their kiwi which are not ready but I was told to put a few apples with them and they’d mature very quickly.

I have had an allegedly self fertile kiwi in my garden for a lot of years and though it’s grown massively it has never cropped.  I plan to buy another plant, or maybe two a male and a female, we could be overrun with kiwi fruit.  

Our walnut tree has done really well this year.  I’m not a huge fan of walnuts but these are good, as Mr FF said at lunch I am having a cracking time.  I seem to be sharing the nuts with some creature as there are always plenty of empty shells on the ground and once when I was out on the terrace early morning, letting Grigio out, I could hear snuffling and trampling of leaves under the tree.  It was too dark to see what it might be and I wasn’t brave enough to go down.

We are still enjoying sun with some rain.  The forecast for the coming week is slightly warmer dry weather which is good news for us and the olives, Giovanni said we can start picking in 7 to 10 days.  He is I think 86 years old, his face lit up when he told me he is so looking forward to the harvest and how much he enjoys it.  He has about 200 trees and will be picking for maybe 2 weeks, we have about 30 trees and as I told him I find it quite hard work.  However I’m not complaining, our land continues to be deliciously productive and the garden gets better and better, we reap what we sow.