One Summer Afternoon

The heatwaves are over.  I hope.  We have visitors in the neighbourhood. All the houses are full.  There are cars coming and going.  The last of the summer out-of-towners.  

  Our elderly neighbour, Vaso, has her daughter visiting from the island of Lefkada where she was chief of police.

 Her son, an ex Navy officer, invited us for an ouzo on their patio. Vaso only had a basic education but she made sure all her children were well educated and had good jobs. Her other daughter was a school teacher .

Vaso is no longer in complete control of the 'estate'.  The younger generation is now giving the orders.  I think she's happy to relinquish control, at almost 90.  But she still gives her input, especially about the vineyard and the olive trees.  She's not happy if the work is not done to her standards.

Her son includes her in all the daily activities from peeling garlic, frying kilos of aubergines for their meals,  digging stones out of the fields or helping him reinforce their fences against the goats.  Actually she's the go-pher.  We hear him yelling 'Mana, bring me the wire cutters, bottle of water,  cigarettes' about 10 times a day. 

The Matriarch 

 

Their terrace-cum-patio is only 20 metres higher than us but their view, unlike ours, is spectacular.  We can see the lights of Athens on a clear night.  They enjoy the sight of the bay below, yachts and fishing boats plying their way from the big Port of Piraeus.      At night they can see the lights all the way down the coast of Athens and also the island of Aegina.

 

    Part of the vegetable garden under the olive trees.

    They grow or produce 90% of what they eat and drink.

We sat under the grapevines in a corner which gets the breeze coming up from the sea below

Everything except the ouzo and bread is from their land or made by them

small fish - brought from the island of Lefkada, pickled by the sister

smoked mackeral - also from Lefkada and prepared by Vaso's daughter

water - from their well

tomatoes and cucumbers -  from the garden

olives and oil from their trees

yellow split peas - made by me but not home grown

boiled eggs -from their chooks

wine - 2 varities, from their vineyard

Vaso has a good appetite.  After a few glasses of wine she had a cigarette or two and told us tales of her childhood. Stories which we have heard many times before but we are guests so we listen politely.  The bay below used to be full of large fish, sea urchins, octopus, kalamari, cockles  and limpets.  Nowadays they are a rare find.  It's illegal to take sea urchins, the shellfish have disappeared completely and you need a boat to go much further out into the bay to find a fish or an octopus.

We will reciprocate in a few days with fish and wine, their wine,  on our back terrace.