OTHER INTERESTS

PLACENAMES
A number of correspondents have pointed-out to me that the names I have given to the beaches north of Gaios are misplaced. They say the first one should be “Kamini” and the second “Kioni Gouli” based on signs which have recently been erected.
I have discussed this with Thomas Arvanitakis and he says that whatever Paxiot I ask about it will give me a different answer!
Similarly, I have been challenged about the spelling (& indeed, location!) of the settlement south of Magazia which I have called “Arvanátika” and which, on the new sign-post, is spelt “Arvanatikeika” i.e. not only with an extra ‘e’ as in Grammateika, but with almost an additional syllable.
This time I discussed it with a member of the Grammatikos family and she said that in her opinion, Grammateika was the only placename properly to have the extra ’e’ but then added more or less the same disclaimer as Thomas: “It depends on who you ask!”
This reminds me of the situation here in the Isle of Man. Whatever names the Manx Government put up on their bi-language street-signs in English and Manx Gaelic; the locals will have some different spelling (or even word!).
If I want to refer to a location, I usually use the name given it on the Ordnance Survey Map and then get the complaint: “That only goes back to 1850!”
With my contacts with Paxos only going back to 1982, what hope is there for me?

Another problem with maps and place names, at least when one is attempting to draw them, is where to put it? i.e. whereabouts on the Map surface? Space is often limited if there is a fair amount of detail to show, yet it needs to be positioned so as to reasonably relate to the place it is intended to identify. Of necessity, there often has to be a compromise.
Added to this, in countryside like Paxos, settlements tend to be scattered, rather than compact or centralized. Where is the boundary? Where does one settlement end and the next start. Magazia and Bogdanátika are good examples of this. Can one be guided by the roadsigns? I suspect some of the older inhabitants may have other ideas!

Then, back on the spelling issue, almost any map of Paxos which one inspects, will have different spellings and this is not un-expected, in that there are at least two, and sometime several more, versions of the Greek language floating around. Ionian Greek has quite a lot of Italian in it. Then, on what basis is it to be translated into English?
In the past I have based my placenames and locations on other peoples, earlier Maps. I said in 2010 that in future I would consult but two. Firstly, the Demos published a (colourful) little Map in the Brochure publicising the ‘Cultural Village of Europe 2004’ Celebrations.
Secondly the new Topo “Hiking Map” drawn by Penelope Matsouka with help by a plethora of well-respected locals, has the air of authority.

Now however, we are presented with the great book "PAXOS and ANTI-PAXOS" by Archduke Ludwig Salvator, who gives names to a vast array of settlements, groups of houses, individual houses, hills, valleys. bays, beaches, headlands, caves, etc. Many of which I have never seen named before. So I have taken the risk of using many of these in the 12th. Edition, in the hope that they are reliable.

WINDMILLS   Previously on my website I have somewhat disparaged the imitation ‘windmills’ being built on the Island. There are now, alas, several more, none of which look convincing.

Below are some photos/drawings of windmills (some of them previously featured) plus one additional sketch.

Millwrights, men who built mills – as opposed to Millers, who ran them – tended to be peripatetic, like Stonemasons. Thus as Castles built in the medieval period, from Syria to Scotland, tended to be of similar design; so Windmills in Spain, the Canary Isles and the eastern Mediterranean, tend to be similar.
Windmills are by no means as simple as one may suppose!
To a degree, the larger you make them, the more effective they will be and they will pick up and work in the lightest breeze – so the owners hope! But size is limited by the materials at hand and big trees to provide long, strong, timbers are not common everywhere. Furthermore, the wind is a dangerous element, not to be trusted and the larger you make your mill, the stronger it will have to be if it is to survive the next gale.
As is well known, there are two main distinct types of windmill and this arises from the continual need to rotate the axis of the mill to face into the wind! The choice is to rotate the whole building  - tower, cap and all the internal machinery, in effect the whole structure – or just rotate the actual sails/arms and axle. In practise this really means turning the whole ‘Cap’.
To achieve the former type, with the totally revolving structure, it inevitably means it has to be built entirely of wood with a covering of boarding, shingles or felt of some kind. As far as I know, this type of mill does not exist in the Mediterranean.
So the Paxos mills will be heavy, massive, stone constructions, reinforced with heavy timbers built-in as strengthening, the whole capped by a relatively light, timber-framed cap covered with canvas or thatch.
Paxos mills vary a little, in that some are built as a simple, vertical-sided, ‘drum’ whilst others are tapered with sloping sides which, in architectural terms, are called ‘battered’.
The Registered ‘Lessiantis’ Mill at Tranatika and the Mill above FP53 are  examples of the latter, whilst the small one behind Lessiantis and most of the others, appear to be straight-sided ‘drums’.
Whatever the tower form, it will have been topped by a circular, heavy-section, timber RING BEAM secured to the tower with iron straps down to the massive reinforcing timbers set vertically into the stonework of the tower, of which only the empty slots now remain.

The Cap itself had a similar Ring-beam as a base, being assisted to revolve on its supporting ring with rollers or just grease.
The cap revolves around a vertical axle, which could be either timber or iron and this extended down a considerably way into the tower, where it was held laterally by and swivelled through, heavy timber cross-beams. At the bottom it lodged into and turned the stone grinding wheel either directly, or through gearing. Some had pairs of stones.
This vertical axle was in turn revolved independently by the actions (when the wind blew) of the sails through gearing from the separate axle on which they were mounted – all entirely within the cap – and which was usually set slightly above the horizontal.
To take advantage of the wind whenever its direction changed, it was necessary to revolve the cap to face into it.
In relatively simple mills of the Ionian type, this could be achieved either by a long, sloping pole attached to and projecting from the back of the cap and extending downward to a metre or so above the ground. Here the Miller + any available help, would struggle to push the cap around! To make this possible, such mills usually had a raised, circular surrounding, stone-paved platform on which the Miller could walk. Remains of this are clearly seen at the Lessiantis Mill.
Otherwise – and sometimes in addition – a winch or windlass was provided inside the mill with ropes attached to the upper ring-beam for internal revolving of the cap.
From the present, skimpy, remains of Paxos Mills I don’t think it possible to see if such things where common here but the photo taken inside a Canary Isle restored Mill, shows one such system.
(Other, more automatic means of bringing the cap into the wind were used elsewhere, including tail-fins (as used on modern wind turbines) and small, vertically spinning, fantails, can be seen in Holland and Eastern England etc.

Working a windmill was fraught with problems and wind Millers needed to be both highly skilled mechanics and good weather-forecasters! Not only had the cap to be kept at right-angles to the wind, but the sails had to be wound out larger or smaller in tune with the wind velocity.
Again, ingenious semi-mechanical contraptions were devised to help, but I doubt such sophistication reached Paxos. The sails here would be simple, canvas affairs, such as in the restored Mykonos Mill illustrated. These were adjusted by a sort of roller-reefing arrangement using ropes, all very much as they would sail their caiques.

So you will appreciate that there is much more to a Windmill that just a tower with a cross sticking out!

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