Saturday 23 June 2012

TREE ELEPHANT IN AZOGIRES

It was early last week when three rather handsome gentleman walked into the cafe, and took a seat under the mulberry tree. While they were enjoying their drink, one looks up upon the sky and shouts "We are about to be crushed by an elephant!" They called me at once and I ran to the rescue. Only to realize that it was an harmless tree elephant. The funny part is; he is been in the Alfa cafe yard since 1952, and no one ever noticed him before, besides these three charming gentleman. We all now are trying to be nice to this elephant, I myself have been trying to give him some peanuts, but he still refuses to eat them. As a tree though? he loves the water from the hosepipe that Ioanna gives him every day. Next time you are in Azogires, and you happen to see any sort of funny tree or stone like creature, please take photo's and we will post them, so that they may be also enjoyed by the world.

Friday 8 June 2012

MAY AND ITS MAGICAL MOMENTS

May is a month full of natures joy. From the ancient days May was a very important month, even its name in Greek 'Mayos' means 'Maya' meaning Magic! The month where witches, sorcerors, magicians and spiritual leaders demonstrate and practise their magic and their ritualistic ceramonies. All over the world May is the month of blossoms, beautifull flowers and shiny rich greenery. All over the world it is a month where animals become active, if you know what I mean. In Azogires it was always a month where people rejoyce and enjoy the magic of nature. Azogires has a long history of spirituality, religious and not, and even bigger history of black and white magic. The old ladies of the village always hid in the dark caves of Azogires late at night around the time of may, to cast their magical spells. Even today there are rumours that its still taking place. Even though the Orthodox religion is deep in our hearts, certain people still practice the old ways. For me and my family May started with a beautifull hike along the river to enjoy the blossoming olivetrees that age between 500 and 2000 years old. We then made our way up to the mountain in order to celebrate the international free day of 1st of May 'Protomaya'. We cooked wild goat and drank loads of thirty year old red wine. Ioanna on the other hand did not approve of our heavy meat eating habits, so she cooked mushrooms and aubergines on the grill. We were so drunk that we actually ate it, and you know what it was wonderfull. She caried me on her back all the way home, yes she is a strong lady. To strong for me. For the rest of the month we enjoyed picking wild sage and thyme in full blossom.