ralo on the road
878 Weber St N N2J 4A9 Waterloo, ON, Canada

Warm best wishes for the New Year from a frigidly beautiful land. Let's hope for more light in the troubling darkness of our times, with a fervent hope that those who endure daily oppression, suffering and deprivation will see the light of a day that has no call on their endurance but rather their capacity for joy and creative goodwill. @ Niagara Falls, Ontario

An ancient column & olive tree, Roman Agora, Athens, beneath the northwest face of the Akropolis. And so begins this year's quest for the finest oils of the new harvest, ...

Due to extremely dry conditions (little or no rain) some olives turned dark earlier than normal. Some olives lost moisture as the tree pulled water from the fruit to sustain itself. The colour may be misleading in terms of ripeness, with the darkness possibly being only skin deep. I heard a paradoxical phrase to describe this phenomenon - "unripe-ripened" olives.

A team of harvesters in action...perhaps a rare instance of finding someone "in their tree"...