Myrina: Public Spaces

Myrina: Public Spaces

In my last blog I posted the back streets and main street of Myrina, in this one I want to look at the public spaces of Myrina. Their public gardens, children’s playgrounds and large areas free for public use.

The use of flowers and folliage plants in public spaces is a new venture

I have now been living in our renovated house on an island in the Aegean for almost fifteen years, but we also live half the year in a very different village in the Dandenong Hills in Victoria, Australia. If you like baking cakes you know that all cakes require flour, sugar, butter and eggs adding the spice and fruit and perhaps chocolate makes the difference. I recognise that the basic ingredients of a village are the same but each village has its own spice and sweetness. 

Public Gardens

I worry about watering all this grass in summer, though this year has been unusually wet and the grass is very green,

Children’s Playgrounds

Other children's parks are being renovated, I hope not with too much cement!

The spaces for children’s’ slides and swings are very similar in both of our villages, and there is some similarity in the public gardens.

Large Public Spaces






Swings on the Beach

Being resident in each long settlement for so long I’ve developed a degree of intimacy with both, and I can see that while it is the mix of geology, geography and history, that makes a difference, it is the large public spaces that make the biggest difference. In Myrina the beach is the most used public space, and the mount where the old castle is situated is the larges public space.

 

 

 

 

It’s interesting to compare the two villages, Emerald in Australia and Myrina in Greece, though they are not interchangeable. In one there is a tourist steam train passing through, and it is your obligation to stand at the crossing and wave to the passengers as it passes by. In the other village there are special fetes for Saints days, and when it is time for the fete for your area you will be expected to join in with everyone at the march around the parish and at the party that occurs the night before the main service.

In our part of Myrina the celebration for Saint Pandeleimonos will be quite soon, on July 25/26.  Unfortunately we will miss the BBQ in the village park this year as we will be back in Australia.



Our newly renovated local park

 

View of the Castro from one of the tavernas

 

Myrina: Back Streets and Main Mall

 Myrina: Back Streets and Main Mall

 

 

 

 

Villages are a collection of houses built for a simple reason. They are often perched on a hill top for the view or settled in a river valley for ease of transport. Most have weathered storms of change, such as plague and flood,wars and famines. Their population will have grown in some eras and shrunk in others.

Myrina: The Agora

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Like a small plant growing in a crack in a pavement each small village most will have rooted deep and even if you think you’ve rooted it out many have enough resilience to grow back again.

 

 

The Greeks particularly enjoy village life and even though they may have moved to live in cities each has their ‘own’ village that they return to for Easter and for summer holidays. I’ve always been entertained watching their affection for the ‘village way’, so perfected that they make sure they enjoy it even when travelling on ferry’s or planes, where they seek out other Greeks and chat and eat and play cards together. 

Myrina: The Back Streets

Romance as well as adventure was involved when my husband and I decided to move to Greece and live in Myrina. As we also live part of every year in another village, in Australia, we noticed that the two villages had some similarities, but also many differences, especially in geography and history and in some of the folks there identifying activities

In the Australian village there is a tourist steam train passing through the hills and forests of the Ranges. It is your obligation to stand at the train crossing when it passes and wave to the tourists. Great fun for all!

In Myrina there are special fetes for Saints Days, and when it is time for the fete for your area gypsies and others set up stalls and that night you will be expected to join a march around the parish led by the priests, and then attend the party that will include a BBQ and dancing in the local square. The service for the saint will occur the next day and will be quite sombre in comparison.

 

Lemnos Folk Art Decorations

Lemnos Folk Art Decorations

 

A couple of quotes that I’m sure the writer would not have applied to these photos,

but which I am indicating some relationship.

 

Greek  Design and Decoration  by Dimitris Philippides

To incorporate the material of decoration into a general outline of art could be a dangerous undertaking: equally to disregard its mere existence would certainly be damaging. The consequences of our approach will be revealed gradually as we wander through the wonderful ‘forest of symbols’ awaiting us.

Each era, by right, sees and interprets the past through its own eyes, distorting reality accordingly.

 

Announcing upcoming events

Graffiti from Pomeii

In the vestibule of the House of Cuspius Pansa The finances officer of the emperor Nero says this food is poison

 

Some examples of graffiti from Pomeii

Exterior of the House of Menander   Satura was here on September 3^rd

Bar of Astylus and Pardalus    Lovers are like bees in that they live a honeyed life

Graffiti Fonts Today

In recent decades, graffiti has moved from an urban nuisance to a professional business thanks to the rise of street art as a serious creative force. And with the art form’s ever growing in popularity there is now a wealth of graffiti font styles.

These are available online for use in urban artwork.

 

Lemnos Creative Garden Containers

Tyres and Spare Wheel parts outside a garage

Pallets used as shelves for plants

Plastic bins in sacks

 

See more creative containers on Pinterest at

https://www.pinterest.com/microgardener/creative-container-gardens/