Greece

On January 2nd, 2021, Sheila Darmos from the Southern Lights regenerative agroforestry project in the Peloponnese was our guest speaker.....

Here is the recording:

Some links to ecovillage communities, networks, sustainability campaigners, alternative off-grid living in Greece.

If you know of websites, communities or other resources we should add to this page of bookmarks, please message @Pete Lawrence or email pete.lawrence@campfireconvention.com

Thanks x

Journeying to sacred wild spaces in Eastern Crete we encounter immense mountains with springs emerging directly from the mountain face, pools with water nymphs and coruscating web-like waterlight on rocks, wild sage and thyme, iridescent green lizards, tiny frogs and toads, giant freshwater crabs, wild grapes and figs. I'm told there are 3000 varieties of herbs here, contributing to the longevity of the people.

Over the centuries, Athens had become harder to love. After the heights of its Hellenistic phase, full of chiselled harmony and Golden Ratios, this concrete jungle of wannabe graffiti scribbles now suffered from tattered self esteem. What did it have to show for itself? Where could hope and better times be found?

Our eighth Firecast is a recording of my Paros breakfast meeting with Mary Valiakas, founder of Campfire's Athens Beacon and Head of Innovation at the Hellenic Institute of Cultural Diplomacy. A lucid and articulate thinker, Mary talks about her recent move back to Greece and the ongoing cultural shift from masculine to feminine archetypal values. She explains how the switch from capitalism to collectivism has led to Greece using its grey zones from falling apart to maximise the impact of self-organising systems and to bring philosophy home to the cradle of western civilisation.

It’s hard to start any article written on the day I turn 60 without resorting to clichés and platitudes, so I thought I’d try a different approach. After spending a fair amount of time reflecting on life on a recent sojourn to Greece, I thought that I’d actualise some of those reflections and put myself on the casting sofa and attempt a few ‘Q&As to self’

How do I feel?

iPhone in hand to capture some images around Greece and its islands on my recent early autumn trip..

I've only had a day in The Mani - a place I've wanted to visit for many years and effectively have just dipped a toe by aiming for Limeni, in many ways the perfect Greek fishing village, but to say that I'm enchanted is an understatement.

This is a working week so I really have to bear in mind being connected to world, which is sometimes hard to do in locations as beautiful, warm and relaxing as this..heading out of the city in search of nature and history.

I love the fragrance, the small of travelling and the way scent and the senses somehow secure memories for retrieval at a later, unexpected moment.