So we headed off yesterday with backpack, plastic bags, tree lopper – strategically timing our outing to coincide with the fiesta procession, knowing that there wouldn’t be anyone in the countryside to see us scrumping figs (athough thinking about it, that would be the time anyone who was up to no good would go out – so I am surprised the countryside wasn’t full of countryside wardens & police…).
But disappointingly, there were no almonds, no signs of any haven fallen so could have been a very bad year? The figs weren’t ripe and we did find some trees branches – and they were OK, but not really inspiring.
However, on the way back we remembered that there is some wild bamboo up one of the lanes so we went and got some bamboo stalks – we got a few green ones and some which had thicker stalks. And then, I saw some eucalyptus trees which had been cut back and they had some great branches, which were going to be much better, so we got some of those too.
I put one of the bamboo tops in Ludvig’s cage and he loved it. He shredded the leaves and chewed up the stalk, so that was a great success.
We’ve currently got the branches soaking in a bleach solution as I want to make sure we kill any nasties that might be there as the branches were on the ground. The branches need to be soaked in bleach and then put outside in the sun for a while so the sun breaks down the bleach – this will harden the branches too.
I want to turn the eucalyptus branch into a play gym for Ludvig and hang it from the ceiling. I think he’ll have fun with that.
So, while the scrumping side of things was a bit lacking, we did get some fun things for Ludvig – so he’s happy!
I did notice that we have three olives on our olive tree – so that was a nice surprise!