May 29, 2020

We had arranged to spend some time today with Brother and Sister Lamb, who are assigned to Rijeka.  We are going to Hrjelin, where Liz's father was born, and also visit some members who make stained glass art pieces.
  We met the Lambs at their apartment and were given a very nice, warm welcome.  We chatted for a while in their apartment, and then we got in our blue car and drove to Hrjelin.  The village is on a hillside, so we drove up the hill looking for the house, which Liz and I have seen in photos.  We thought perhaps we could locate the street and then just go to the house number.  However, it seems like the house numbers have no rhyme nor reason.  Perhaps the house number is in order of when they were built?  We drove around looking for awhile before Liz remembered that when Joe was here, he recorded the latitude and longitude of the house.  Once we located that, we put  it into Google maps and drove right to it.

The second doorway is the entrance to the house where Liz's father was born.  The building has not been occupied for many years, and now the roof is leaking and the ceiling is falling. 
  As we drove up, a man was trying to leave, but he stopped to find out what we were up to.  He lives in the single-story house with the grape arbor, next to his car.  He was not very friendly at first, but Brother Lamb, who speaks Croatian, gradually loosened him up and he let us peek into the house. 

Liz and Sister Lamb are in the entry-way, and you can see Liz is very happy.  She was indeed, communing with Angels at that moment.  The ceiling rubble on the stairs, and the musty smell, did not detract at all.

This is the garden area just before we reached the house, and to the left is the stone outhouse.  Liz is actually just behind the foliage and there is a hint of her pink blouse.  She climbed back through there to see the terraces and garden and vine areas.  The property goes back quite a long way, and her ancestors made their living growing things in narrow terraces.  The dry rock walls are ubiquitous in the village.  Building rock walls without mortar, and that last, is an art form, and clearly the residents of Hrjelin practiced it well.

Directly across from the house is this well, and below it is an overgrown orchard.  There are still some fruiting trees, including figs and cherries.  That is Brother Lamb in front of our blue car, and the man who lives there is next to him, but hidden by a branch of the tree.  Liz also walked down hill to get a feel for how far the property extended that direction.

I took this photo from the well, looking downhill.  Liz is looking at the trees and glorying in seeing her ancestral home.