Road trip!......

 

Ha ha ~ Demitri was rubbing his face into the pillows, and now he looks like a wookie.   :-)

We first visited St Katherine's Greek Orthodox church in Chandler, Arizona, to a retreat with Dr Jeannie Constantinou  as the speaker.  I really enjoyed it, although I realized on Saturday that I had only purchased tickets for Friday's Women's retreat.  How embarrassing.  I really need to pay attention!  I  should do those things on my computer and not my phone.  

Their church was very impressive.  They have a large hall, and a nice area outside with playground equipment for kids.  They are just now finishing up with the church building, and their parking lot already needs to be expanded.   

Sunday afternoon we drove to Spafford, Arizona, and visited St Pasisios Monastery.  It is such an amazing place.  A true oasis in the middle of the desert.  

We stayed in the women's dormatory, where each room can accommodate 2 to 3.  Our room was on the west side, where unfortunately there was a huge Anatolian shepherd, that really enjoyed barking.  The monastery actually has Anatolian's or Great Pyranees dogs that they release onto the grounds for protection.  So by 6pn we had to be in our rooms, since these were not pets!  Most of the population of the monastery are nuns, with only a few priests.  

They have large groves of pomegranates, and grow some of the largest I've ever seen!

Geese, penned in a small grove of pomegranates.  

They had apple trees as well.  In fact they grow much of the food they need.  A huge garden, olive groves, goats, chickens, geese and ducks.  As we wandered around we noticed that they were getting ready to cover the crops that they could winter over, with u shaped pvc pipe and plastic.  

 

Dog tracks in the sand...

There are 320 acres of land, most of it covered in greasewood, a spiny desert shrub.  

 

Here is one of the pomegranates ~ so huge!  I've never seen such large ones.  We had to wear long sleeves, long skirts and head coverings while we were there.  When we left, and drove out from the gates, we stopped and changed.  Right out in road!  Which is exactly what we did going in as well.  Haha

The food was really good.  I need to write them and ask if they have a cookbook or if they would share some of their recipes.

I am still catching up on all the things I didn't do while out of town.  A few days after we returned I was caught up in a wedding where I was the sponsor, or koumbara.  It was a lot of frantic getting ready! Although it was an honor, I sincerely hope I am never asked to do it again.  Whew. 

Have a wonderful week!  I hope your fall weather is like outs ~ perfect.

Love, 365