The other day a friend asked me, ‘What’s happening at Boggioli?’ ‘Everything,’ I replied. And it is.
Now that lockdown has eased up a bit we are able to get out and about more freely. We no longer need to fill out a form justifying our travel, no matter how local, and can move between comuni and even provinces provided that they are within the Region of Tuscany.
Where this will leave tourism is anyone’s guess. Italy’s frontiers will be open in early June for EU citizens to leave or enter, and let’s hope that restrictions will be eased soon after for travellers from the rest of the world. Tourism is one of the supporting columns of Tuscany’s economy, whether it is the hospitality industry or the sale of products like wine – and olive oil.
Meanwhile everything is blooming. The roses are fabulous this year; like most trees and plants, they must have benefitted from the warmth of February that for once was not followed by a cold spell in March. The grass is almost chest-high in places, and the cherries are starting to ripen (must get to them before the birds do!). Lizards and birds are active everywhere. In fact, there is a pair of redstarts that has built a nest in a wall near the house – and they are very busy.
We have just finished spraying all the olive trees with a foliar fertilizer of various ingredients including boron, an essential element that is lacking in our soil. This fertilizer is absorbed very quickly and helps to increase the numbers of flowers that eventually turn into olives. We do this just before the flowers come out and administer another dose after the fruit has formed.
What we really need now is rain, and a lot of it.