Coffee with Neighbors

 

For past five seasons, we have been having evening conversations with a couple in the neighborhood who speak no English.  Whenever we are out in the alley grilling, eating or playing cards, they always stop and make polite chit-chat about food, the weather, or invite us to upcoming religious celebrations and events in the neighborhood.  They will often drop off a plastic bag full of produce from their garden, or sometimes they bring by a bottle of their homemade wine.  I have also encountered them further up the mountain gathering fresh herbs for making tea or cooking.  Until today we didn't even know their names.
 

The couple invited us to their house for coffee this morning, and to help with the language, Susan Trovas (a seasonal neighbor) came along as an interpreter.  In the shade of an orange tree above their stone grotto, we were treated to traditional small cups of dense Greek coffee, bakery cookies, and small cheese pastries our hostess had just baked.

Rena and Zephonos are a retired couple from Athens.  Zephonos grew up in Vourliotes, and Rena is from near Corfu.  They are seasonal residents of the village now, with a large garden/orchard behind their small stone home, and a vineyard up by the monastery from which Rena makes her wine.  Zephonos was an actor and chorus singer in outdoor theater productions, and owned a magic shop in Athens.  During coffee, Zephonos entertained us with an impromptu magic show and gave us a tour of the house and garden.  The house faces the village but the garden is a big agricultural plot with airy and unobstructed view of the Aegean Sea, below.  What an unexpectedly great morning!



Zephanos, Kathy, Susan, and Rena

*I just found this post, in draft form, as scheduled to have been posted exactly a year ago today (5/15/2016).  So better late than never, here it is.