Olive Harvest III Tuscany Italy

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

Wow, this holiday week has already been a doozy! Last night I enjoyed a lovely Thanksgiving dinner hosted by one of my long-time blog readers Barbara Barrett that I finally got to meet this past summer. Barbara filled me up with such good food and her warm environment, visiting “long-time” friends and meeting a few new ones that I was finally asleep before midnight. You know you need it when your friends start commenting on how tired you look. Boh!

So, today, I also take the lazy man’s out and just post more images of my wonderful weekend during la raccolta delle olive (olive harvest) here in Tuscany, Italy. [P.S. The images of me were taken by 10-year-old Marco, for the most part. Feel free to leave comments on my blog site.]

Olive Harvest II Tuscany Italy

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

No time to write today . . . must not be late to the studio! Here are some more images from my lovely weekend picking olives. I should mention that the olives are not ripe, really, and quite bitter (I apparently need to taste to believe). Each tree had olives of different colors and at different stages. Some were actually different types of olives. The solid green ones came off easier than the half green/half black. They mix the types for the best oil. The funny part was that one friend laughed at me for biting into an olive out of pure curiosity, then he and I got to laugh again later at our Italian friend for trying it himself and being more theatrical in the face he made as he spit it out. I guess I need to work on my dramatic expressions. Apparently, ripe olives make lousy oil.