Cleaning up the firewood...

Tuesday, February 17th, 2009

Can you believe it! Another sunny day but with a warm wind blowing from the south. A little overcast in the morning but by 9 am the sky was clear blue, a signature Mediterranean sky.

In order to give Professor Berdrow an accurate idea of what my Micro-Lease product was about I proposed that between her interviews on Tuesday that we accomplish some of the typical things that might be done by any Micro-Leaseholder. Since we needed firewood and I had felled several trees in the fall (and one more large tree had come down in a windstorm) I decided to spend the day cleaning up the wood and getting a stockpile of wood for burning in the outdoor fire pit.

Most of the trees were felled over the old terraced garden area in a tangle of brush that was both unsightly and seemingly impenetrable. Starting a small fire I began to limb the trees for burning and cut up the trunks for saving. The large tree that had come down in a windstorm was particularly interesting since it had been overgrown with vines. And I don’t mean spindly little vines, there were so many vines, each the diameter of my arm at the shoulder, snaking around the trunk that they formed a continuous sheath up most of the tree, two trees in one really.

By the end of the day we had cleared two of the four terraces and stockpiled a fair amount of firewood. We quit early as I had invited Christian and Corinne for dinner and I was cooking. I made one of my specialties, stir fry Thai noodles and Corinne made a nice home made chocolate pudding for dessert. We had no fresh spices while I was cooking so Corinne ran outside and grabbed a handful of rosmarin (rosemary) which, along with thyme and sage, grows in wild profusion virtually at your doorstep. I had opened up the big fireplace for dinner and it crackled with the burning of old shutters and new wood. Between a great dinner and the wine and the discussion about the business it was a good day.

Once again, George Vancouver would have to wait.