The Garden

Today was a completely easy day. We spent most of the day on the terrace. Frank and Adrie have the most beautiful view! You can see the mountains sloping down to a small town which sits at the edge of a magnificent lake.

In the afternoon we finally roused ourselves enough to take a walk to Frank’s garden. We were happy to walk among the rows of grape vines and the various fruit and nut trees. They have walnut and hazelnut trees, plums, apricots, cherries, olives, kiwi, apples, pears, and even pomegranates. They also have a vegetable garden with tomatoes, zucchini, onions, herbs, and more. It was rather educational to see all the plants. I thought the nut trees and kiwi especially interesting. The kiwi is a vine that has fuzz over it much like the fruit!

Despite all the fruit and nuts, Frank’s real passion seems to be his grapes which he uses to make his own wine. They make about 600 litres each year.

The girls had great fun picking plums and apricots. We picked a bowl full, but there is much more on the trees, in fact more than they can eat. We’re very happy to help them with that task!

Late in the afternoon we took a drive to the lake and to the nearby town. We stopped for a nice view which just happened to have an ice-cream shop next to it! With Italian ice-cream, real salami, cheeses, and all the other goodies that Frank and Adrie are feeding us, I’m thinking I’ll need to loosen my belt by a notch or two by the end of the week!

CM