It’s pretty difficult to get a good photo of our hut due to the slope of the hillside. But here are a few attempts to show how things look around here. (Some of the images are warped because I took panoramic shots that distort the subject matter; sorry.)
Above is the outdoor receiving ‘room’, and below, through the arches, is simply a covered area. When Fr. Paisios first arrived, he spent the first three months creating this cave-like enclosure, where he lived while construction on the larger structure continued. When the hut was ready for habitation, he liked his 'cave' so much that he continued to stay there for a while. Life was simple, then, he says.
The kitchen door, to the left of the arches in the previous photo. If the doorways and arches look short, it’s because they are. I think this place was made for hobbits, and short ones at that. I try not to hit my head more than three times a day.
If you walk through that door, remembering to duck, you will see two monks making lunch:
They also provide my once (sometimes, twice) a day multi-vitamin:
They have things growing everywhere, but this particular cactus blooms for one and only one night a year:
The next evening it was completely wilted.
A new building is being built next door:
The main building is immediately to the left of the alley. The first door on the left will go into a kitchen, the next two into guest rooms, and the fourth into a bathroom. Around the corner at the far right is a door into the last room, which will be an icon studio. The little building on the far right of the photo is where they make incense. And, course, you can see some of the gardens in front of the new building, as well as in front of the incense building. We’ve been eating delicious salads and zucchini from the garden.
