OLIVE TREES IN THE MIST

The choice today was yet another in-house still life or a wait until the fog lifted and to see what I could see. It started lifting so I threw on some clothes, but left my bedroom slippers on, and we rattled over to the church to get a shot of the valley from a different angle. Too late, the fog had closed in again. Defeated, took some shots of pine and olive trees. Couldn't decide which to use. Olive trees.

The big tree on the right has had il drastico, a drastic lopping off of the tree. This prevents the tree from getting too high and putting the olives out of reach. All of the trees in this grove are growing from ancient stumps. They do regenerate over and over again for centuries. I have, however, seen at least one tree killed stone dead by il drastico. Then again I could be wrong. Give it a few decades and it might grow again.

I thought this one of the pines was a better picture but the trees more common. All of the twiggy stuff in front is regrowth of acacia trees, the only tree anybody is allowed to cut without permission because they grow back so fast. The pine trees are spindly because of the stand of acacias in front of them two years ago. Misty Pines

For the record: Thick fog. Dark. +8 C Sunrise: 7:21; sunset 5:45 Sopping wet slippers.