Ooooh an Orchard!

Well we have an orchard... we kept to our word and have spent two more days on the land, regardless of the weather making sure we got things done. We were rewarded for our choices by the second day (yesterday) being a lovely warm fine dry day. We finally finished the strimming, clearing up, and burning . (Well on the main large flat terrace) and were able to plant 6 lovely new trees. 2 apples, a pear, an almond and a plum, the others will go in, in a couple of days. The area towards the back of the plot was flooded as we have a small water mine there which in the weather we've had is now a raging torrent. Rik spent the best part of yesterday afternoon digging a gully for it to run across the land and over the edge of the terrace... within two hours you could walk with only a little squelching underfoot... another couple of days and it'll be great for planting our remaining six trees. We also already have three clementine trees down there which we've been rescueing from years of ivy growth... amazing stuff, great ropes of it thicker than my wrist, not good for the trees though so it has to go...All in all a very productive couple of days, we have another three terraces to do down there though, all choked with brambles 10 ft high , oak saplings, ivy and general scrub. There are some old olive trees to recover and also some vines we hope to make productive again over time. So lots still to do! We have to really press on fast new as only another month before we start to work in the veggie garden, and that really does take up most of my time during the spring and early summer, so Rik has the work on the land to do by himself.