
Today Barnaby was sitting under a tree in
Morocco, minding his own business, when what should hit him but a shower of olives!
Way back in May
in Turkey, he'd seen little flower buds on the olive trees. By the time he got to
Greece the flowers were out. Then
in Italy he saw actual olives, although they were way too small and hard to eat. Even
in Spain in September, they looked ripe but weren't quite ready. Finally, he thought - they're falling off!

But when he took a closer look he realised they weren't. There were wrinkly black ones, shiny fat purple ones, and hard green ones - all coming from the same tree. And in fact, there were ladders. With people up them, pulling the olives off the branches by hand. He thought maybe they were picking them too soon, but when he asked, they told him that it's best this way - they wanted all three colours to cure and to make tasty
olive oil with.
And when he tasted one, he found out they're
still too bitter to eat! He's just going to have to wait until they're cured.
Hello. We've been slightly useless at keeping in touch with your travels over recent weeks. Have had a quick check of the site this evening, and we are pleased - and of course jealous - to see that you're still having such a fantastic time. Life back here has been a little dull in the meantime - some odd stuff happening with the economy, but nothing you need to worry about.
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