Winter was about to start and we needed to prune our 5 ancient Almond trees.
It was evident that they had not been pruned in years. And for this we needed some help from the locals as we didn’t bring any tools from Cape Town.
Luckily we have Pedro, our neighbour (who is a builder.) and his wife, Stathula, who knew all about pruning trees. She was born in the house next door, where they still live today, and has the wisdom of the island and its ways...
So there we were , a day before we were about to leave again.
It was about 4 o’clock on a Sunday afternoon when Pedro and Stathula and their helper arrived with chain saw, ladder and cigarettes. And the process started… Pedro in the tree, and Stathula showing Pedro where to cut. We also had our ideas of where the tree must be cut so a whole discussion in Greek and English started to try and figure where the trees needed to be cut. It felt like we were busy building the tower of Babel instead… After three branches the saw packed up. Time for a cigarette….. This happened 3 times during the cutting of the first tree...!
The chainsaw finally gave in completely while cutting the second tree and we knew this was a matter that would take its course in time and so we eventually left the island with instructions for them to complete the task…….
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