Well, it’s been a rather wet November here, and after the weather gets done slobbering all over us it picks up its skirts and trips merrily up north to places like the British Isles…enjoy.
Picking our olives was handed over to friends of ours, Matt and Anita who rashly decided to volunteer, wanting olive oil from olives they’d picked themselves. As we really couldn’t face the huge amount of work involved we were more than happy to let them do it.
The weather swung between idyllic and hellish with heavy rain and wind. They soldiered on and got quite a few bags of olives – it was rather a bumper year for olives.
So here at the end of the month we now have that early Winter pattern of cold nights and (after the mist clears) warm afternoons. As we don’t have central heating, the first tasks of the morning are: get a fire going, make a cuppa, feed the dogs and us. Well not us at the moment as Sylvia is in England till the fourteenth on Granny duty helping Jo and Rich while they sort out a new nursery for Lexa etc. The dogs took a good week to settle down and get used to the situation, but will, I think, be very pleased to see ‘Mum’ home again. As will I.
Our Honda (car) decided that it’s clutch hydraulics should start leaking last week so that went in for service and the Suzuki Jeep will be needing a clutch transplant in the near future as well. Cars, can’t afford ‘em, can’t live without them.
We’ve been having visits from a pair of Grey Herons again this month and I don’t think there are many fish left in the pond despite a good covering of Water Hyacinth..Nature, red in tooth and/or beak.
As Sylvi is in UK I ran our Christmas stall at the gardening group in Coja with friend Vanessa's help and there was a lot of interest in her preserves and fabrics. She also spent weeks making a huge Christmas tree advent calendar for Lexa which hopefully is now hanging up in her room ready for the start of December.
Here are a few shots taken early on before it got crowded.
Our Stall
Hi there from Sylvia in London. I have indeed been spending lots of quality time with Lexa...what a little super angel and absolute madam at times but so full of character.
Here she is with the Advent Calendar Christmas tree I made for her.
We are continuing to settle her into nursery which she is starting full time for three days after next week. Richard has been travelling a lot and so I am also here as backup for Jo.
In the meantime I have had a couple of days with Pat and friend Malc who came down from Bath. Had a great time window shopping in Central London and went to view our friend Saied Dai's exhibition in Cork Street. It was great for me to be able to be there.
Otherwise Christmas shopping is very much on the agenda!
Bugsy has befriended the shepherd's new dog, Tarzan(?) Tarzan is the replacement for poor old Feruz, who we feel ended up dying of neglect. Tarzan is a great moose of a pup, very friendly but you could make two Bugsys out of him, with some left over, so it's good that they're friends. Scraps, having been molested by Feruz when she was hardly old enough takes a somewhat dim view of any large male dogs and tells him off if he gets too close....
So winter is here and the dogs and I are keeping warm and waiting for Sylvia to get back!