51.   Montecastillo is no longer controversially easy, as it was a year ago, but it is not yet a genuine gauntlet through the stark hills and olive trees.

52.   Nablus is reached by a stunning road that winds through terraced hillsides dotted with olive trees and, on the high ground, Israeli settlements.

53.   Now even olive trees have become targets in the cycle of provocation and reprisal.

54.   Odysseus made his marriage bed out of a massive olive tree trunk.

55.   Now, even the olive trees that have been a fixture of the California landscape for centuries are earning new respect.

56.   On weekends, Mrs. Myers gardens on terraces where olive trees alternate with blood oranges.

57.   Often the olive trees are planted along driveways or rocky hillsides that are inhospitable for grapevines.

58.   Outside are gnarled olive trees that look old enough to have been there during the lives of Jesus and his disciples.

59.   Passing through a garden of white pillars, each one topped by an olive tree, I lost my footing on the pebbled ground.

60.   Other ranchers are planting pumpkins, wine grapes, olive trees or U-pick strawberries, she says.