Butterflies, flowers, and olive groves

We were amazed today at how extensive the olive groves are south of Alozaina. We think of Jaén as being the province dominated by olive groves, but clearly Malaga province is also.
(Google says that in a normal year, Malaga province produces about 85,000 tons of olives compared to Jaen’s 3.2 million tons - which is more than the entire country of Italy!)

We were pleased to see that today the olive trees looked much healthier than they had on our walks in Jaén two years ago. The leaves were green and plump, not yellow and dry; the blossoms were thick and robust rather than small and spindly. On our route, we were able to see examples of all the work that goes into maintaining a grove. There were piles of cuttings waiting to be burned. There was clear evidence of how the trees have been pruned for easier picking; all the trees had been trimmed to prevent them reaching their full height. One thing we couldn’t figure out is why some trees have a trunk that grows straight up like a regular tree, while in other groves, every single tree had a mound at the bottom, as if it had been forced to grow over a boulder.

Our walk itself was easy, through the orchards on paved lanes lined with spring flowers that were attracting butterflies.
The rain clouds bathing the mountains in mist kept nipping at our heels but never escalated beyond a brief shower. We made it back in time for Ned to get a haircut before the barber closed for the afternoon.

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