Malc and I had always planned to open up our land and woodlands at the back and side of the villa. If not immediately for the clients ‘ pleasure, at least to allow us to walk around and harvest useful fire wood.
Those plans for the land and small forest had to be put on the back burner for a couple of years as different priorities were establised (repair and increase the height of the stone walls at the front of the villa, put in the swimming pool etc).
Malcolm always wanted to make the most of the land and existing forest to plant and harvest more fire wood. Free renewable energy , you see 🙂                                                  With that in mind, he bought and seeded 500 eucalyptus in May last year (the“ Sydney Blue Gum” variety for the tree geeks amongst us 😉 ) . My , my … Did they grow !! By September, they were nearly my height (a diminutive but strong 1.60m, lol).

Come the end of October and November, we worked like dogs !!!

I actually forgot to take different pictures of the land at the back of the stazzu before we set off to clear it, but the back left corner was full of trees , shrubs and massive granite stones; all of it covered in thick brambles and vine like weeds.

What I presumed would take 2 weeks took  4 weeks plus of full on work. Malc was on the strimmer and chainsaw. I was dragging piles of cuttings and burning as well as taking down and piling the wood with Malc .

That might have taken us 3 weeks just clearing the site but our neighbour Martino was chomping at the bit to get the stone walls between our 2 properties repaired. The thicket had prevented the sheep from straying into our land but with the now apparent gaps in the walls, Martino was keen to repair them . And ” sooner rather than later” was his motto. So in between 2 or 3 fires on the go, dragging mounts of cut branches and gathering of useful stones, me and my sprightly 93 years’ old neighbour got to work …

I am really glad we did all this clearing and planting. The real pleasure was in uncovering trees and truly stunning stones that hadn’t seen the light of day for nearly 3 decades….

And our clients can now benefit from more unspoilt space to discover in our small woodland … and enjoy a different panorama too.

And in January this year, Malc planted the eucalyptus trees ( you know, the ones grown from seeds .. nearly 400 of them !!) . Free and renewable fire wood forever as well as a different kind of forest to walk through …