Remote Harvesting Walnuts

This blog is vicarious in the extreme. If you detect hints of jealousy then well done; they are definitely there.

Bashing the tree and collecting the walnuts

At the weekend E managed to get over to my school with her friends to harvest from the seven walnut trees that are on my property.

The walnut trees on my property are all along the front wall, in the little area where I am planning on putting an outdoor table and chairs. They appear to be doing very well for themselves, particularly if you consider that they have probably been left completely alone for the past 8 years at least while the building has been empty.

This is a portion of the harvest

It is a really strange feeling, at once making me feel proud that my land is producing something that people want, and at the same time making me feel jealous that I'm not out there and present at the time when the harvesting is happening. This time next year I will be, though, and I'll be blogging about it I'm sure and will look back at this post and remember this, sat in this dark back room of my current house, feeling tired after work and nervous and unsure still about the architect and building work, and so many things will have gone right and so many will have gone badly that I'll probably laugh and say "ahhh, if only missing the harvesting of the walnuts was the worst thing".

The gutter, the big hole, the rest of the roof

The other benefit of E having gone over is she got to take some pictures of the roof. My analysis is that it looks like the big hole has got a bit bigger, what guttering remains is looking a little less secure, but the rest of the roof looks about the same. This is good as they have had some pretty high winds recently and I was a little worried that it would not be in a good state at all.

My watch-guard

My little lady neighbour put in an appearance, as I thought she would, just making sure that the place is safe and not being raided by people who have no permission. This is a great thing as I know they are keeping an eye on it for me as they promised they would.

It's 10 days til I fly to Bulgaria next and I'm still trying to get a meeting with Veselka confirmed. I really hope I can because I won't be over there again until I drive there with the parents. I am thinking that she could have the contract prepared so I can sign it in person and we won't have to fanny around with couriers or any of that.

It is funny to think that I was hoping all of this to be completed by now and this trip I have coming up now to be me starting to whole process of removing the roof. The best laid plans and all of that.

The other day, driving back from my studio, for some reason it really struck me that before I know it I will be driving away from it for the last time, with all my belongings in a truck and trailer, and two roof boxes, and that this really will rush towards me. Time is flying, it's nearly October and then it'll only be five months.

I cannot wait.

Thanks to E for the pics.