As many of you know, we live on one of the Balearic Islands called Mallorca. This island is so much more than fast holidays, drunken tourists or a playground for the super-rich. It’s a culturally diverse place to live and full of natural phenomenas, such as the olive trees.

Recently on my hike across the Serra de Tramontana, I got to walk among ancient olive tress. Each one displayed its own dramatic work of art through their shapes, bark and patterns. Often you would see one of the trees and be baffled at how a tree even manages to grow in such an extraordinary way.

Yesterday I went to visit Dora’s parents who needed some extra hands to help harvest their younger olive trees. The harvest would then provide them with their very own olive oil.

I have never harvested olives before and found the experience to be very therapeutic. We forget where our source of food comes from so working with the very element that gifts us our sustenance, is a real treat. It was also Charlie’s birthday, the 13th November, and he would have been 14 (can you spot what’s on my t-shit?!) so I thought this was another wonderful way to celebrate his spirit, by being close to the trees and enjoying their beauty.

We started at 10:30am after a brief walk around our friend’s home, close to the centre of the island. They had a surprise recently in the shape of a new baby donkey! They didn’t realise their newly adopted female was pregnant and so along came ’Regalito’ which means ’gift’ in English.

Leo isn’t allowed too close to the baby donkey, as he likes to bark and this scares it but Leo is always patient and soon after feeding the baby plus mum, we went on a gorgeous walk with Leo’s favourite lady, Dora! Dora is a labrador rescue from the island and we like to call Leo & Dora, ’the blondes’. She is a wonderful dog and around 9 years old. We feel very lucky to know Dora and her parents who have helped me hugely over the year to grow and come out of my shell!

After our walk, harvesting began. You use your hands to gently pick each olive off its branch and then throw them in the basket! Some trees are full of olives and that’s when Peter, the owner of the olives (with his wife Charlotte) would use a special tool to shake the olives off the tree.

I loved it! Each olive felt ripe and warm in our hands for the sunshine hasn’t stopped here on the island. We spent many hours scanning and picking the olives which hid gracefully behind the olive leaves.

By 4pm it was time for Leo and I to go home but I heard that around 50kgs were harvested and today they are at the olive press being transformed into yummy olive oil.

Now a quick note to my Charlie boy in Spirit:

Happy Birthday Charlie Boy! I know you’re still close and when I dream of you, you’re always happy. You’re being was the most prized experience of my life. You’re eyes really did carry me to depths of my own soul. I miss you plenty but I know how fortunate I was to have you in my life. I will always love you and thank you for being you. Please keep being generous with your wisdom, for now they are whispers, I am still listening xx

Thanks for reading about our olive picking experience and lots of love!
Leo & Natalie xx