Branch Picnic is swarmed by Honeybees!

 Liz was assigned to set up branch activities to bring the two branches into one.  First activity was a picnic in the Maribor city park, a lovely park with a nice playground, lakes, walking paths, lawns, spreading trees and flowers.   As Saturday dawned the weather was iffy, but the forecast was good.

We left early to pick up game equipment: balls, ropes, badminton net, fishing pond, prizes, food, etc.  We chose the spot and started setting up.  We were joined shortly by the elders from Celje and one sister.  They had come on the train, and we had expected 5 or 6 members instead of just 1.  It was a lovely day and we started visiting and getting to know each other.  Maribor members came by, most of them late, but welcome whenever they arrived.  Last to arrive was the Branch President.

As for me, I was distracted when the air just by where we were gathered was suddenly full of thousands of honeybees flying in a giant, swirling ball.  It was a swarm, so they were looking for a home.  I walked into the middle of the flying swarm and watched them for quite a while.  I noticed right away that quite a few of them were landing on a sapling and its support-stakes, but they did not stay - they just landed for a moment and then took off again.  This is typical bee consensus gathering.

I haven't actually seen a bee swarm in flight for probably 40 or 50 years, although I have seen many of them settled on a bush or tree or porch.  So, I was quite excited.  I took people over to show them and explain that bees are harmless at this time of their life cycle.

As I continued to watch, I saw bees starting to settle high up in a pine tree, but not as many as on the sapling.  Eventually, the swarm settled onto the sapling and then onto one of the support stakes.  It is nearly impossible to photograph a swarm in the air, because they are spread out too much, but once settled they are easy.

At this point in time there was still a cluster of bees on a branch of the sapling, but most were on the stake.

Here they are, all settled down on the stake.  The weather was getting cloudy and a storm was approaching.

President Fidler was very interested in all this and we stood right next to it for 15-20 minutes discussing it.  He called a friend of his who might be interested in boxing the swarm.  A swarm is money in the bank for a beekeeper.

I was so excited over the bee swarm that I did not take a single photo of the picnic.  It was good, but not as well attended as we'd hoped.  We are doing the same thing in Celje next month, so hopefully that one will go better.

And I promise to take photos.

The White Horses - Lipizzaners

 After an excellent night's rest, we had a wonderful Slovene breakfast, and then we set out to see the famous Lipizzan horses, shown here so it will be the Meme for this post.

These were just walking back to their stable, but even then they are walking in step.

Prosciutto, salami, sausage, and soft cheese.  I also got two eggs, sunnyside up.

And deep-fried croisants filled with apricot jam.

It turns out that the original Lippizan horses were bred at a place called Lipica, in Slovenia, just across a smallish mountain from Trieste, Italy.  We drove just 10 minutes from our gasthaus and found the 600 acre stud farm where Lipizzan horses have been bred, trained, and shown for hundreds of years.

We had hoped to be able to see a dresage show, or at least see them training, but that is only done on Saturdays and Sundays.  However, we did schedule a carriage ride for a small fee.  They had to make a phone call to arrange it, because all the regularly-scheduled carriage rides were already booked, and ours would be the last one.

While we waited, we watched the little foals in a coral with their mothers.  Many of these still had the umbilical cords drying on their bellies.

These two foals posed for my camera while their mothers ate their hay.

Pretty little darlings.  Lipizzans are born dark, and gradually turn white or grey over the next 2 or 3 years.

This one is still uncertain on its feet.

Next coral has the expectant mothers.  This mare seemed very curious about the little foal.  The mare just beyond soon had enough and came over to have words with her.

Here comes our cart.  This team is just learning to work together.

The cart driver was a big guy - he was very friendly, with good English.  The guy in back got out and we got in for our ride around the property.  The wheels had no springs, so it was too bumpy for photography.  As we talked, he asked us why we had come all the way from Texas, and we told him we were spending two years here working to support the mission of the church.  Even though we told him the full name of the church, he decided we were Catholic and decided to give us a GRAND tour, including giving us very detailed instruction on how to visit the most unique shrine in the World (according to him) in a doline grotto on the grounds.  

As we drove around the property we passed doline after doline.  It reminded me a lot of my teenage years, hauling hay in Flowell while dodging the sink holes in the fields.  These were much larger than the ones in Flowell, and they all have trees growing in and around them.  However, none were as large as the ones around the town of Skocjan.

We asked why the fields had tall grass and no horses in them.  He told us that they don't let the horses in until after they cut the first crop of hay, and then they let the horses in them for only 6 hours per day.  The young foals are kept separate from the other horses for 2 years, after being with their mothers for six months.

He said there are over 300 horses and 120 workers on the farm, plus there is a military academy there where the young officers learn to ride white horses in the Habsburg fashion.  The people who ride the horses in shows are employees of the farm, and they train with the horses every day.  During our extended tour we saw them working with individual horses in small, sandy paddocks.  

The driver's name is Mitch to Americans, Mitja to Slovenes.  He told us he goes to a carter's show every year in Ocala, Florida, and he invited us to come see him there next spring.  We told him we would do it, but it seems like we've lost his phone number.  Liz is going to call the stables and see if she can retrieve it.

We went to the stables with the cart at the end of our long tour, and saw the horses in the stables.  They are each kept in their own " loose box" with their name and ancestry on a plaque on the doors.  It seems strange to me to keep a large animal like that in such a small space, but they seem quite content.  When they unhitched our team from the cart, they simply walked past the workers and straight into their boxes to receive a rasher of ground grain.

Of course, horses are sloppy eaters and there was spilled grain all over their stalls.  There were sparrows and swallows flying in and out the open windows constantly, the sparrows for the grain, and the swallows for the bugs.  I have always loved swallows.

A swallow perched on a wire running just below the stable ceiling.  Their nests were at the beam ends and in the electric lights.

After the tour we walked back to our car and decided to visit a small rock hut we'd seen from the cart.  Rock houses were the typical home for people in the coastal area of Italy, Slovenia and Croatia in ancient times, and a few of them still survive, although nobody lives in such drafty places now.

This was built on the farm as a student project.  It is a "shepherd hut", square outside, but round inside, with a narrow stone bench built into the back wall for a bed.

"Lipica  <C  Class of 2011  Shepherd's Hut  April 2012  BC. DO. VR"

This Doline is immediately behind the Shepherd's Hut and is probably 30 feet deep, and not much wider than that.

Another view of it.  I could see the cliff at the back, but it is hard to see in the photo, and I wasn't about to go down there with my knees like they are.

After we got our car, we decided to honor Mitch by visiting the shrine he told us about.  With his directions, it was easy to find.  He told us the story of it, but it is better on the sign.  He promised us, as good Catholics, that all our illnesses will be healed after a visit to this shrine.

DOLINA  MARIJE  LURŠKE   ==>   Doline of Our Lady of Lords

Liz examining the shrine.  I think she was lighting a candle.  It is a remarkably calm, peaceful, and beautiful place.

As we approached the shrine on foot, I saw a small deer on the path ahead, but it disappeared in a flash.  After we got around the next bend in the trail I that it was only an extraordinarily large cat.

Another view into the shrine (without braving the steep stairs).  I assume they hold services here on occasion.

There were many beautiful flowers planted here.  It is clearly well cared for.

And with that we lit out for home.  I was exhausted, so I took a nap as soon as we got on the freeway.  I awoke to find Liz totally frazzled after driving through a downpour, and a massive traffic pileup in one of the tunnels where they are resurfacing one of the two lanes.  Traffic has been considerably heavier in Slovenia since they loosened travel restrictions.  Who knew?

This all took place on Friday.  Saturday was to be the day of our first branch social event since the combining of the Maribor and Celje branches into one.  Liz was in charge and was anxious to get home and get ready.  So, I drove the rest of the way home and we went to bed early.

Next post will include the branch party, a walk in the park, yadda, yadda, yadda.

Caves, sink holes, and white horses

 I got into bad habits when my knee was injured, and in truth, I got lazy and fatter.  So, I've slowed down quite a bit.  Liz, on the other hand, has not slowed down.  She gets restless if she isn't involved in a half dozen projects with fierce deadlines to battle.  But eventually, she wants a day to play.  So she reached that point last Wednesday afternoon and told me she wanted to go see the Karst region of Slovenia.  I said, "Mmphf," so she booked a gausthaus near the caves in Karst for Thursday night., and we left bright and early.

[Start of Science.]

About 2-300 years ago, the word reached the World scientific community that there were amazing caves in Slovenia, and the scientists flocked to see.  At that time, there were only a few scientists in the scientific community, and they were busy naming things.  So when the Slovenes told them an area of eroded limestone, sink-holes and collapsed caves is called a Karst, that became the scientific name for it, and I learned that name in freshman geology class at BYU.  And a valley created by a major cave collapse became a doline, because that's what the Slovenes called it, and so on.  They did NOT adopt the Slovene word for cave, because it is "jam" (plural is "jama") and that was already taken.

The Karst region of Slovenia is on the rainy side of the slopes of the Julian Alps, and the limestone is seriously eroded.  There is a place where a pirate King lived for many years in a big castle built into the mouth of a huge cave.  He was invincible in battle, but died when one of his servants stabbed him with a spear while he was sitting on the john.  The castle is probably the biggest tourist attraction of the Karst region, but it and almost all the caves are currently closed due to COVID.  The only cave still open is at the village of Škocjan.

Škocjan, a tiny village on the edge.

There is a river that flows down from the mountain to the left, but it sinks into the ground and disappears.  Immediately behind the village, there is a several-mile-long valley with nearly vertical walls.  The river flows out of the sheer cliff at the far end of that valley and then disappears into a cave in a sheer cliff just on the other side of the village.  The river flows through the cave directly under this village, proved by a sinkhole down to the river next to the house where the vicar lives.  In all the photos I took, I don't have one as good as the face of the brochure they gave us, so . . . .

At the top of this brochure photo is the village in my photo.  Under it and a little to the right, at the base of the cliff, is a black hole which is the cave where the river flows out from under the village and into this next doline (collapsed cave that creates a valley).  The river flows through this doline, under the two foot-bridges visible in the photo, and disappears back into the cave at the cliff on whose top I was standing when I took the photo above - the same spot where the brochure photographer stood when he took his.     [End of Science.]

Škocjan is on the far side of Slovenia and we arrived by 10:30, which shows how small Slovenia is.  We went into the visitor center to enquire if there was a cave accessible to poor, old, decrepit, kermudgeons who need a cane to get up and down stairs.  The guy at the counter just said we were welcome to go on any of the trails and into the cave, and the shortest cave hike has 800 steps.  NOT FOR ME!

Shortly after, another lady came out and pointed out a walk around the smaller doline and through the town.  She said it is much easier.  I keep forgetting that Slovenes walk everywhere and their estimate of easy is different than mine.  But we headed out and walked up a moderate incline on a gravel path until we got to the overlook where I took my photo above.

The cave where the river flows out from under the village.

The river flowing under the natural bridge at the bottom of the doline.

The river was really roaring out of there with the spring rains.  If you look closely you can see several little caves where water is also pouring out above the main flow of water going under the foot bridge.  I would love to have gone down there.

It started to rain about this time and I put my good camera away to protect it.  But I used my iphone to take a video clip of this river on Marco Polo.  Sadly, neither of us realized that we had zero cell coverage and the Marco Polo videos we took here are gone, gone, gone.

This is the observation point, looking back at the visitor's center where we started.  By this time, my knees were already aching and most of the stairs were still ahead of us.  The heavens opened up and it rained hard for a while, so I didn't photograph them, but we climbed more from here and then took an endless (seemed like) set of stairs that went down to the lower level of the village.  After that I wished I had two canes and I was in pain.

I did stop to take a photo of this olde beehouse.  Most of them are wood nowdays, but the really old ones were built of stone.  This one is the museum version of that - with modern mortar between flattened stones, and the hive fronts are decorated with large child-like graffiti.  But, there are 24 beehives there.

The bee house.

This little house was pointed out as having the old style of roof.  It is made of pieces of slate.  The walls were made of round-ish river stones, and the sign points that out, but it has been recently plastered over.  This little area of the village is on a lower level from the main village where there was a less-serious cave collapse.  I had to wonder if the people who live here worry about any more collapses.  None have occurred in history, but every year the caves are eroded more and more.

When we got up to the main village there was a sign by a little grate in the rock wall along the road.

This is pointing out that there is a sink hole that goes all the way down to the river in the cave below (after a bit of a dog-leg.)  The smaller drawing is showing how the river flows through cave, doline, cave, doline, and finally into a cave that flows into the sea.  I tried to get a decent photo of the sinkhole behind this sign.

The sink-hole.  It is about 20 yards across, sheer walls, and a 90 meter drop straight down.  90 meters is about 300 feet!  The vicar's little garden yard has a hole in its rock wall that drains straight into this hole.  The rock wall that holds this grate is at the very edge of the main road into town, which is barely wide enough for one car.  I bet they are very careful here, because you would NOT want to run over this wall!!!

It was still raining, I was very, very sore by this point, and the trail became uncertain.  We followed a road down the hill a bit and found the administration office for the park.  They let us sit on a covered bench outside to wait for the storm to pass.  We sat for about a half hour watching rain, hail, slush, and lightening.  After that rest it felt much better to complete our expedition.  We found our night's lodging where Liz had thoughtfully booked a room with a hot-tub.  I soaked until dinner was ready,

I was very hungry and I nearly forgot to take a photo of the first course.

Ravioli filled with local soft cheese, and cooked in a butter sauce with crisp prosciutto, leeks and herbs from the gasthaus grounds.

The main course was pork loin, cooked slow, with rosemary from the grounds.  With new potatoes from a local farmer.  It was fantastic, but after eating all those luscious ravioli we weren't able to do justice to it.

Dessert was a little cake with molten chocolate inside, in vanilla sauce.  The cook is the owner of this gasthaus - a retired chef who just loves to cook.  We were served by her daughter who is also retired.

  After that, we retired to our room and the hot tub where we nearly decided to spend the night.  Sadly, it cooled off and we gladly went to bed.  We were very happy to be warm, cozy, and well-fed, after a wonder-filled day. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

This BLOG has gone on quite a  while, so I think I'll save the white horses for a separate post.  Sorry.

We teach school

 A couple of months ago, when we were under fairly tight restrictions, the young missionaries arranged to meet a school teacher named Tomislav, at our apartment.  He had responded to their Facebook offer to provide service to anyone who needed it.  He wanted to set up a day when they could come to his 3rd grade class and tell them what it is like to grow up in America.  We all wore masks as we spoke, but we made a good impression on him and he promised to let us know a date when classes resumed.

A week or so ago, the missionaries let us know they had a firm date to go to the school.  They planned to go as a group of four - two elders and two sisters.

This is the sign in front of the school.  It says  "Osnova School     Holy Sunday".  The school was named for the Holy Sunday, commemorating the day the Turks withdrew from Slovenia after failing to penetrate into Austria in the 14th century.

A few days ago, the missionaries called us to let us know the school headmaster had contacted them with a request for us to present another 45 minute presentation on what "Mormons" believe, in the two 7th grade ethics classes.  There are two groups of the ethics class to keep class-size down, so we would have to present it twice.  And none of the other young missionaries had that day free, because quite a few of them had to go to the government for visa applications that day.  So we were nominated.

Rules:  

• we couldn't preach to them, nor 
• solicit them to join the church.

We had three preparation days.  Liz decided to do a Who, what, where, how type of presentation, and I agreed.  Then we gathered up some films from the LDS Media website for missionaries, including a couple in the Slovene language.  Two of the English-language videos were problems:

• The first one was "60 beliefs in 60 seconds".  It is perfect because it is little clips of people from around the World saying a 1 or 2 word belief.  But, it is in English and 1 per second is way too fast for children trying to translate from English into Slovene.  We decided to go ahead and show it as-is first, and then challenge one of them to read the list of 60 Slovene words (which we had printed out) in the same time period.  That worked OK.  I'm sure they missed a lot, but we were only presenting an overview so it wasn't critical for them to get it all.
• The other problem film was a 1 minute film that used illustrations to explain how Christ's church had come to become so many denominations.  Again, it went by very fast.  It also introduced the idea of a church leader and twelve apostles.  For this one, we asked the help of two young missionaries who are charged with media presentations and have a special computer to do that work.  They slowed it down until it ran in about 3 minutes instead of 1, and overlaid the soundtrack with their own reading of the text in Slovene.  This one was a big hit, but we think that was because they were laughing at our American pronunciation of their language.  Whatever, it was fun.

I took my laptop to the school, which we connected to their projector.   That way I could move through the slides in our presentation and play the movies.  We took turns explaining.  It was very stressful, especially for me, because I was still editing the slide show up to the very second we left.  But presenting it was fun.  The kids were polite and attentive and interested.

We were met outside the school by the headmaster and (we think) the headmistress, whose name is Mirriam.  They stayed with us the whole time we were there and she helped us with translation when needed.  We went straight into the first class and gave our presentation, and then we had an hour off until we were scheduled to do the other class.  So, they took us to the teacher's lounge and fed us the morning snack - a sausage-vegetable soup with bread and fruit.  We were surprised they fed us, but they thought it was perfectly ordinary.  The have a big commercial kitchen with several cooks who serve three meals (they call two of them snacks)  to all the children who want them, every day.  As we ate, the headmaster asked us if we'd like a tour of the school, which we gladly accepted.  

How did I miss taking an outside photo of the school?  However, I did take a photo of this doorway between the old part of the school and the new.

The two square pieces on each side, at shoulder height, say 18 and 16, so the door was placed in 1816.  That is for the new part of the school.  Of course, it is built of stone and masonry.  Apparently it is traditional to rub the keystone when you pass through.  It looks like maybe you rub any food off your hands onto it.

The school is very well equipped with modern equipment, but they wish they had a new building.  It does have a LOT of stairs.  They are obviously very proud of the school, which they invariably described as "our school".  During the tour, I asked if they teach how to keep honeybees, and the headmaster said they don't anymore, but would I like to see the bees at the previous headmaster's house after we finished our next presentation?  Of course I said yes.

The previous headmaster was there for 40 years and had only recently retired.  He lives just down the hill from the school.

This sign as at the entrance into the former headmaster's yard.  He is Mr. Skok.  The sign says, "Beehouse Skok - Domestic honey and beehive products".

The sign at the front of the yard is not just a sign.  The little white disc at the bottom side of the sign is an adjustable bee entrance.  The front of the sign opens up and you can see the bees inside through glass.  They don't have any bees inside, yet, but it is a favorite of the children during the summer holidays.

It turns out the teacher who invited us there is the new Mr. Skok in school, and he is also a partner in the bee business.  He called for his father, who was in the garage making new frames to go inside the beehives.  

Most of the hives were bustling with bees.  They collect pollen in the hives on the bottom row, honey in both the middle and bottom rows, and the very small hives on top are for catching swarms and raising new queens.  But almost all the work of managing the bees is done inside the long shed.

The backs of the hives are along the walls on the left.  On the top shelf at the right, you can see the new frames like he was making, with wax foundation already inserted.   Various tools and supplies are scattered about, but generally it is well organized.  There are two chest refrigerators they use to store frames of honey until they are ready to extract the honey from the frames.

When I think of all the days I've spent in a heavy bee suit under the hot, Texas sun, it almost makes me sick to see this wonderful arrangement where these Slovenian beekeepers work in the shade and peace of their sheds.  The bees defend their entrances, so they remain fairly calm in the dim light of the shed, even when the back door of their hive is opened.

This hive had a screen instead of a back door, and Mr. Skok opened it up so I could see his Carniolan bees.  This is the only kind of bees allowed in Slovenia, by law.  They are grey instead of the bright yellow of Italian bees or the black of Russian bees.  They are reputed to be very calm and easy to manage, though prone to swarm very frequently.

After we left the bee yard, we walked over to the church and castle.

The round turret is typical of a Templar building.

As we walked the short distance past the church to the castle, the headmaster asked me if I knew about "Holy Day".  I told him we celebrate Good Friday, Christmas and Easter.  So, he told me about the Turkish invasion and the great day when they negotiated the Turkish withdrawal in the 14th century.  Apparently, the templars built this church and castle right after to make sure they remained withdrawn.  I told him I knew a little about the templars.  But he surprised me when he told me that the templars still send money to maintain this church and castle.  I told him I'd thought the templars were wiped out on black Friday (Friday the 13th), but he said that was only in Italy, France and some nearby countries.  Of course, the Rothschilds are descendants of the templars, who invented banking, so that is who sends them money, still identifying themselves as Templars.

I can't believe I didn't take a photo of the outside of the castle with its round corner turrets.  Grrr.

When we entered the castle there were a lot of old museum pieces of farm equipment.  There is a museum there, but it was closed after the Dec. 29, 2020 earthquake, which centered in Croatia, but cracked the outside wall of the castle in one place, forcing closure of the museum.

These two photos are of a huge press.  It could be set up to press wine, or to hold millstones to grind flour.  The size of it is mind-blowing!  Compare it to the full-size road motorcycle.

A Templar cross in cobblestones inside the castle.

This well still has water.  It is about ten feet across and has a geared machine to lower a bucket.  When the castle was full of knights and maids it took a lot of water, I guess.

The castle is currently occupied by "social residents" - people who can't afford a place to live.  The Templar church grants them space in the castle.  It wasn't exactly bustling, but you can see a modern garbage can in the corner behind the well.  We saw several doorways with unmistakable signs of residence.

After the tour of the castle we returned to the school for lunch.

Fried chicken patties, rice, vegetable soup, corn, green salad, fresh fruit, and deep-fried croissants filled with orange-apricot jam.  It was piping hot and very, very good.

When we finished, the headmaster asked us if he could take a photo of us all together.  So we went out front of the school.

The headmaster, Liz, me (the only one wearing a mask), Sisters Hart and Williams, Tomislav (the teacher who invited us), Elders Kunzler and Miller, and Mirriam.  

A group of students were nearby and they wanted their photo taken with us, too.

This is only the students who happened to be outside when we took the photos.

The final thing that happened was the school presented each of us a parting gift:  a jar of the Skok's Floral honey in a nice gift box, for each one of us.  It is wonderful honey, too.

Jeruzalem is the town just to the east.  I think it has a catchier name than Osnova.

Altogether, this was a marvelous day.  We hope we can return many times.