Yearning! That seems to be the most probable explanation.

In the past two years the weather denied them the chance to bear fruit. The warm winters brought about late and weak blossoms, which were destroyed by early heat waves. The trees were suffering from the heat and the drought.

So, this year, where the winter was good and the spring long and fresh, they grabbed the chance and are flowering with unprecedented intensity. All trees – even those infected by the fungus spilocaea oleaginea in the Voulgaraki groves (see entry of 21.3.2025) – are full of life and buds that are already flowering and forming fruit in some places. It is as if the olive trees are fulfilling a yearn!