Autumn in Montenegro

Up until yesterday afternoon,  the skies have been clear and blue,  then the forecast changed and at 3pm we got the first spots of rain.  It drizzled all evening,  never very heavy rain,  just what we call nice rain that soaks in and does the ground some good.

We picked the first of the runner beans for dinner last night,  but the huge runner bean terrace on the way up to Yegen is now being cleared out,  half the caña is out and in bundles for storing,  although there still looks to be some greenery on the plants that are still to be removed.

Our neighbour's quince tree is still unpicked,  the branches bending under the weight of the fruit - it seems a shame for it to go to waste but we have enough made into chutney,  frozen for puddings and pureed to use instead of apple sauce.  There is only so much you can do with fruit and only so much you can store.

And now at last the trees are beginning to change colour and drop their leaves,  I took these photos yesterday morning.

But for these poor specimens,  well there isn't a lot left,  someone has started pruning - if that's the right word - their olive trees.  Normally the tree is 'doughnutted',  the middle branches are taken out for the light to get in and for ease of harvesting,  sometimes though the trees are so big they are taken down to the stump and the new growth from the base is left to grow big and strong.  This seems to be something totally different though!   Maybe they haven't quite finished,   but what were  lovely olive green rows of trees are now bright white stumps.