The apricots were now ripe, and they were delicious, the kind that oozes a sweet syrup when ripe, and we couldn't stop eating. We had made a plan with the birds that was absolutely destroying the fruit by pecking at every one they could reach, by hanging a few old cd's on the trees, as we heard that it sacred them off, leaving one with the least fruit for the birds to also have a nice Xmas!
We cooked jams, and chutneys, and I then decided to dry some peaches in the sun, as the ones you buy nowadays are dried in microwaves, and are chewy and sour! So while the others were relaxing under the age old Pepper tree, I was as busy as a bee, breaking the apricots in two, and taking out the pips. I had found a big piece of some kind of sieve, and packed out my fruit on that, as it would also enable me to take in at night. My drying endeavor became a nightmare, as first the precious fruit was attacked by a stream of ants, so I put it up high on the low side of my roof, where it immediately came under siege from the many fruit eating birds. It amazed me that animals have such a wonderful ability to find just anything you try to hide. In the case of birds and ants, I was sure it couldn't be their sense of smell, for how can ants appear within such a short time of packing out the fruit, with noses so minute, that is, if they have noses. Will have to investigate! The bees were last to attack my fruit, but I did not mind them so much, as they at least make honey from it. When I saw a few flies circling above my stuff, I took my huge net that is used to cover food, and covered the whole lot. As it was shrinking quite a lot, I picked some more apricots to dry. It was an arduous job keeping the wildlife from stealing all my precious fruit and carrying the whole thing inside every night,  but when on two occasions I found some of my family members with their hands under the net, I got stark raving mad, and shouted at them to dry their own bally fruit.
I had never tasted anything so nice as a half dried, warm baked apricot, and I decided to eat some of the drier ones while they were so full of sun, and of course before my family secretly ate them all up!
We had a lovely week together, but all good things have to end, and Trienkie and Stephan were the first to leave, as they had to spend new years eve with his family.
The others all left a few days later, leaving me feeling quite lonely, but as there was such a lot to do, I soon perked up and got on with it. I decided to go to Irma for a few days, as I needed some foodstuffs urgently, and I also had to see how my tennants were doing in my flat, and buy food for my goldfish that Tanya, my tennant, looked after for me untill I had my pond finished.
I had actually started on the pond, but it was heavy going, the amount of rocks I had to get out quite a lot, and some of them quite heavy. But whenever I felt energetic enough I took out one or two.
I was amazed at the amount of tamatoes the few stools I had produced, and realised that Ronalee, who gave me the plants were quite right in telling me that the small cherry tamatoes have no enemies, as they all ripened beautifully, and I had tomatoes for about four months, and there were still some ripening when I left for Scotland in April. My tomato planter (top) worked very well indeed, although I at first thought it just a gimmick.