They all keep their olive groves shorn, because of fire risk: you will not find a blade of grass in them. It was tinderbox dry this year after a dry winter and very crunchy underfoot at our place: thankfully none of us smoke!
We have orchards with all kinds of fruit trees… almost unique in the area and they’ve been neglected for many years. I’ve just been taking out huge quantities of deadwood, cutting back the very hardy trees and some are just entering their dormant season so they can be pruned back hard. All that wood will be chopped for firewood or can wait to be burnt till November.
Firstly, my main concern is the diseased trees that have fungus. A double-trunked pear tree has fire blight, the left trunk nearly keeled over when I leant on it and the other has white fungus growing through the bark. Ideally I’d remove it immediately, but one would want to either bin it off the land or burn it. The first is impractical so I’ll burn it…
... that’s why I was trying to find out when a date was. I’m pretty sure there is one. With all the forest fires in Spain this summer people are very sensitive about the issue. Yesterday I jumped down from branch cutting in our laurel tree and was chatting with Pedro, who was passing through, about this and other things: his face went white and his jaw dropped, ‘?No, Tim el mes que viene!’... I’m just not sure when in November
