The first time I ever saw olive wood was in Greece, Skiathos to be exact, on my first ever beach holiday. It was in the late Seventies when I was a student. 
I noticed the dark-grained wood everywhere in Greece: chairs, tables, plates, bowls, picture frames. And I bought a set of coasters: odd, I know for a 19-year old without her own home, I can only assume it was all I could afford. 
So at this time of year, as we walk around the valley where the olive farmers are doing their annual ‘cut’, I remember my coasters.
The gnarled, wrinkly branches don’t look too promising, but when you see the cut timber the beauty is revealed. 
Whorls and whirls, from blonde to black-brown.
5 to remember
la primera vez – the first time
la Grecia – Greece
las vacaciones – the holidays
los Setenta – the Seventies
el/la estudiante – the student
Notes on a Spanish Valley 
Yes, I agree, lovely wood.
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🙂 SD
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That is very pretty. So, just to clarify, that is actually from olive trees (like the olives we eat), right? If so, I had no idea they used the wood for anything. Very interesting indeed! 🙂
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Yes, the wood is beautiful isn’t it? I think the wood is very hard, which makes it difficult to work with. 🙂 SD
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Do you still have those coasters?
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Somewhere in the back of the cupboard, they were wobbly: not ideal for coasters! SD
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Olive trees can live to be 1000 years old, so it’s said, and are fire and drought resistant. In ancient times, a king was anointed by pouring olive oil on his head, a mark of his great nobility and even divinity and hoped for endurance in office.
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Didn’t know the bit about the king. Thx Shari. SD
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I can attest to the hardness of olive wood! Poor Pete is struggling to cut up some large olive wood logs that we have in the shed. He’s not doing very well with the axe, I think we may need to borrow a super powerful chainsaw. Olive wood is beautiful to look at and has a gorgeous finish when worked, it also makes excellent fire wood as it burns much slower than cherry wood for example, it also smells nice!
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Don’t try with an electric chainsaw, you need the real deal! 🙂 SD
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