Lengthening shadows

Evening walk with Darwin

We've had a few days of proper autumnal weather here in Alcala la Real -  a mixture of drizzle, heavy downpour and misty overcast, low-cloudy days. The place is not at its best when the weather is like this. I have sighed a little over fellow bloggers photos of glorious rich autumn colours; the oranges, reds, russets; the pumpkins and squashes; the dew-heavy spider webs...it's not like that here. I have found it uninspiring and although I have sought to find the beauty through the dampness, I simply haven't seen it.

However, yesterday, the sun shone forth and we were back to business. I went in search of autumn. And I found the Andalucian version right on my doorstep.

Leaves fall straight from the tree whilst still quite green

The olive trees - at least here - are quite heavy with fruit. This tree
is very old judging by the size of its trunk.

To dispel any myth that black and green olives are from different trees.
Green olives go black - here they are, just turning.

And here we have my beautiful Sierra Nevada, once again with snowy peaks!

In some areas, there are very few olives this year. Strong winds in April
blew many flowers away so there are many trees without fruit at all.
In this little grove, the fruit looks good

Not a bad view and one I love particularly at this time of year

Signs that it has been damp recently

Autumn here means the gearing up for the beginning of the olive harvest - la  campaña de la aceituna - time to check the tractor over, keep an eye on the olives and check the weather forecast. Olives destined for the table have been picked already. They are a different type from the olives destined for oil - slightly longer, with a pointed end - and are picked whilst they are green. Many farmers now have machinery to vibrate the trees, making the olives fall into prepared nets (also known as bragas, or knickers, honest) but some smaller-scale olive farmers have to go out with sticks and hit the trees to collect the fruit. It's very hard work but folk can gather enough to produce the oil they use in a year - with maybe a bit left over to sell. There is at least one co-operative in each of the bigger villages -  pueblos o aldeas - near Alcala to which farmers bring their crop to be weighed, cleaned, pressed and turned into oil. Within a few weeks, tractors and trailers will be chugging along the roads to unload their haul.

Last Wednesday, at my Spanish Conversation Class, we had a very interesting session where we discussed the various stages of olive farming. Some of the class live on farms and are actively involved in the process and very knowledgeable. And we were joined by the Spanish friend of one of the class, who was able to give us even more detail. It was an excellent class and I'd like to thank everyone for sharing their stories and information. This is only my second autumn here and I'm still learning lots. One thing I definitely know, though, is that however tempting an olive might look on the tree - DON'T TRY IT! Yeeeukk!