It's been dry and sunny for the last couple of weeks in East Central Portugal, and warm in the afternoon.
This really has been the perfect weather for tidying up my woodlands and dragging out all of the brash we cut out last spring, and FINALLY I've finished clearing out most of the stuff that looks like kindling from around half of the woodland, and I've been working on clearing some of the standing broom from the Olive Terraces this week, gradually widening them out.
I don't want to take ALL the broom out as it's a pioneer plant, just enough so I've got a nice visible clear strip down the middle and I can see the shape of the land.
One slight set back I had over the last couple of days was coming across some Bramble which had thoroughly united itself with all the other plants on the terraces, apparently the previous residents deliberately planted it as the 'liked blackberries' according to a mutual friend.
The problem with this is that the blackberries you get on Portuguese branble are pathetic compared to the bramble that grows in more Northern climates, like Canada, Germany or the UK.
As a result I've got around a dozen or so paches of bramble around which aren't worth keeping because of the fruit but are a prickly pain in the ass, literally if you fall over and sit on a patch.
Anyway, thankfully all it takes is a decent pair of gloves, some loppers, a rake and a bit of attention - you have to be alert when dealing with stuff and then it's time for the final solution...
Even though it's been slow going it's nice to be burning on the top of land now, where I've got a water source (stored from the roof), and thankfully it's not been so windy as to make burning a non starter.
And IMO burning is all that one should be doing with Bramble, cursed stuff that it is!
