Mother's Day

Mothering Sunday was very different this year with the boys so far away but Michael's sister, Wendy, and her husband, Alan, were staying with us so we consoled each other over the absence of our respective offsprings and determined to have a good day! The lads prepared a champagne breakfast on the terrace - we were blessed with lovely warm sunny weather the entire week of their visit. After a luxuriously leisurely breakfast Alan decided it was time for some exercise and suggested we walked to the ruin that we can see on a distant hill from our roof terrace. (Just visible to the left of the clump of trees on the hill) Suitably attired and well underway, we somehow managed to miss the footpath completely and found ourselves amidst the olive trees walking laterally across the downward slope of the olive grove that was becoming steeper and steeper by the minute! Never having been the most sure-footed person, I was finding it harder and harder to keep my footing and combined with a completely illogical fear of slipping - which conjured up a vision of bouncing from one olive tree trunk to the next all the way to the bottom of the hill - I became frozen to the spot! Wendy was faring much better than I but even with her encouragement I refused to move another step. At that point the lads decided to do a right turn up the slope to check out the possibility of a final vertical climb to the top. Thankfully, on reaching the top, they shouted down that we could reach the ruin from there so, Wendy and I began the ascent - on all fours - which prompted much giggling, only adding to the difficulty of climbing on the loose, crumbling clay soil! I finally managed to reach the top ahead of Wendy and burst out laughing when I looked back and, seeing Wendy struggling up on all fours, realised what a hilarious sight we were - though humour seemed to have deserted poor Wendy who was moving upward two paces and slipping back one! Once we were reunited with the lads, we walked the last few metres to the ruin - only to find the perfectly good track we should have used! That at least dispersed the horrible nagging fear that had been fast growing into panic at the thought of having to go back the way we'd come and we all dissolved into laughter at the silliness of what we'd just put ourselves through - though I have a suspicion the lads wouldn't have missed it for the world!! And it wasn't even a ruin worth the effort - just a very old, large, dilapidated old house. However, the views were spectacular and having got our breath back we headed off back to the main road - via the proper pathway this time!

As we reached the village, we were very fortunate to find a couple of chaps putting their olive harvest of the day through the olive sorting/cleaning plant (there are 3 of these plants in the village). They were very keen to explain the process as we watched the entire automated mechanical process via a series of conveyor belts from the separating of olives from the leaves/stones to washing, rinsing, extracting samples for grading and finally dropping into the hopper where they await the lorry which takes them to the processing plant for extracting oil or marinating.

By the time we reached home Wendy and I had decided the day would be perfectly rounded off by a meal at the lakeside restaurant - and the lads dutifully treated us all to a superb meal after which we enjoyed a gentle wander to the water's edge as the sun sank lower in the sky and cast a beautiful silver path across the lake - so peaceful and beautiful.

It had been a wonderful Mother's Day, made complete and perfect by the beautiful card I received from Jon and telephone call from Sam (who was in Spain on a 'lad's weekend') to say he'd just posted my card in Spain - the sentiments of both cards bringing a tear to my eye.