Monday, November 8, 2010

Post 17
Full or partial entries of my blogs may be found at LatviansOnline http://latviansonline.com/forum/ + Forum Home + Open Forum – The 4th Awakening. If you copy this blog for your files, or copy to forward, or otherwise mention its content, please credit the author http://esoschronicles.blogspot.com/, http://melnaysjanis.blogspot.com/, http://the-not-voter.blogspot.com/ or http://the4thawakening.blogspot.com/


I suggest you look at the links imbedded in these blogs or at the end of the blog as an integral part of my argument.


An interesting exchange of letters and information--in Latvian--about the state of Latvia's forest here.
http://aculiecinieks.delfi.lv/news/novados/rakstiet-ja-izcirtis-mezus-mes-nomirsim-bada.d?id=34985063

The governing bodies in Latvia (state and municipal) are going whack-ko cutting down trees and asserting the rule of stupidity over sense.

The cut down trees end up as sawdust and cheap export, rather than in the creation of a furniture industry.
...............................................

Viens labs iemesls kāpēc celt sev privāto lauku templi ir fakts, ka daudzās valstīs--ievēromi tās kuras atrodās Eiropas austrumos--mēs sastopamies ar attieksmi kura mums noliedz nest atbildību (šeit vārdu 'atbildību' lietoja angļu valodas conscience nozīmē). Varbūt tāpēc Latvijā ir bieži sastopama neatbildīga attieksme (arī conscience nozīmē) par to kas te vai tur notiek. Templis Melnays Jānis šo nevīžību (arī conscience nozīmē) veicināšanu, lai no kuras vēja puses tas nenāktu, peļ un uzskata to kā nopietnu šķērsli atbildīgas cilvēces veidošanā, īpaši pašdarbības veidā.

One good reason for building your own private outdoor temple is the fact that many countries, especially those located in Eastern Europe, are against the freedom of conscience both de facto and de jure. [How can you not be de jure if you already are de facto?) At Temple "Melnays Jahnis", we see this attempt to limit the breadth of meaning implicit in the word conscience as a form of spiritual repression by corrupt social icons. We lean heavily (without denying other functions to the word) in the direction that defines conscience as an aide to humankind in a self-help fashion to develop behavior that passes as responsibile.

Monday, September 20, 2010

21 Here is a BBC documentary on Angor Wat, the largest temple in the world.

And here is a picture of one of the smallest in Braslavas pagasts, Alojas novads, Latvia. We call our temple "Melnays Jahnis" or Black John.

Black John is Green John turned black and all its limbs cut off. Black John recalls the forests of a land fast becoming deforested. Just yesterday a builder of log houses, which he exports to Norway, complained on a television program that his concern is running up against the problem of insufficient quality timber.

Like the jays and squirrels in the fall gather acorns to store them in their winter barns (whereever these may be), we, too, are gathering acorns and sowing them to grow into mighty (we hope) oaks.

We encourage you or your acquaintances to consider building your own private outdoor temple. Why? Because we all hold something sacred and nature best represents the sense of the sacred in our time.

When enough people build their own outdoor temples with the intent to resacralize the forest, we will have sown a seed that has a future as certain as nature is green.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

20 I recently came across (browsing the web) Angela Palmer’s exhibit of tree roots at Trafalgar Square, London. The exhibit was installed on November 2009.


I recommend for my readers to read Ms Palmer’s statement to learn of the artist’s activities. Currently the show is being exhibited on the lawn of Oxford University’s Museum of Natural History and the Pitt Rivers Museum in central Oxford and will be shown there until July 31, 2011.

While Angela Palmer calls her exhibit a “Ghost Tree Exhibition” and I dedicate my “Temple to Johns” to axed forests, I believe that our concerns are the same.

As irony would have it, even as I posted my two previous blogs, a small forest next to my property was torn down by the owner of the property abuts mine. I say “torn”, because modern technology can quite manage without the chain saw handled by human hands. While a saw cuts the stump, the operation actually resembles Jack the Ripper at his worst. Of course, I am speaking from the point of view of one who believes the forests to be holy places even from a quite practical point of view. Are the floods in Pakistan not the result of a lack of forests to absorb the rains?

Incidentally, I believe that Ms. Palmer’s exhibit is in its own fashion a temple. If you live in England, it might be worth visiting it and writing a letter to this blog about your impression.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

19 As per a previous post, on August 13, the Temple to Melnays Jānis held a fundraising dance with the musical group "Kantoris 04" performing. The temple was visited by about one hundred people, seventy-eight of them paying guests. The next public get-together is being planned for about the middle of September.

Just a day before the dance, we finished painting the temple floor. Here are some pictures of it. If you come visiting, we do not for fear of damaging the design encourage anyone stepping on to the floor. However, we will provide a carpets to lead you up the temple steps for a closer look.

Some visitors have asked whether the temple floor will survive the harsh conditions of the winter. We do not know that it will, because in very cold weather, the cold will penetrate far below the surface layers and cause cracking. Like the Tibetan monks do with their sandpainting, we will fix or redo what needs fixing and redoing.

Sunday, August 15, 2010


18  Temple MELNAYS JĀNIS. August 14.

In its Saturday, August 14th issue, the Latvian newspaper "Diena" [suspect for some time to be the voice of the neo-capitalist right wing (Šķēle, Šlesers, Ulmanis, et al)], published a "questionnaire” under the heading "Politics with a tune for religion” (Politika ar reliģisku pieskaņu). All six men interviewed, politicians of as many political parties, came out for politics in religion and religion in politics. The most cited reason for collaboration is that collaboration of church with state has a long tradition. The first politicians, one Cilevičs, describes this “tradition” as one where one “should not build a fence” [between the state and religion]. The last helped the newspaper “Diena” to identify itself with the Bible. Said Šmits: “We will encourage the teaching of the Bible until High School.” (Rosināsim obligātu Bībeles mācību līdz pat vidusskolai). The politicians are:


Boriss Cilevičs (SC)
Dzintars Rasnačs (VL-TB/LNNK)
Juris Sokolovskis (LPCTVL)
Aleksejs Loskutovs (V)
Staņislavs Šķesteris (ZZS)
Jānis Šmits (PPL)
Not least among the above named is the editorial board of "Diena" standing up for the Bible and not separating politics from religion.

The tyranny of reactionary religious thought (I describe it as the projection of an attitude that claims for itself to be „I am my own state and social service and no law against it however I understand it”) highlighted by its collaboration with a corrupt state has troubled Latvia with its exclusionarism for a very long time. This once beautiful countryside, where once the endearing word ruled everyday speech of the people who lived there, has become a mind-oppressive closed-end bottom of the spiritual barrel. The men listed above are not the only ones for keeping Latvians there. The Latvian Prezident Zatlers, too, is a not so hidden Christian mole in government. Who speaks for the “religious” who do not identify themselves with the neo-Christian movement that arch-Christianity has been forced to become?

The Temple Melnays Janis invites the reader to build more private temples to challenge the prejudiced state of their state. It is time to shake off the iconoclasts that would prevent nature from becoming our garden again.


Sunday, August 1, 2010

17 A Hindu temple in London  costing 16 million British pounds is a long way from our humble attempt here in Latvia to build a private temple. However, looking at the BBC post, I am reminded that the Hindu Ganesh (the God with the elephant trunk) is a cognate of the name John and the Latvian “Jahnis”. As I have pointed out in other posts, the consonant G may slip slide and become a J (as in John) or Y (as in Janis). While the Latvians have for the most part forgotten about Janis as one of the godheads of their ancestors, reading about Ganesh may bring back some long forgotten associations. Oh, yes, our Jānis--as you can see--has four trunks.

We are presently planning an evening of dance with the well known "shlager" band known as Kantoris 04. The event will take place on August 13th at 21:00. Tickets Ls 2.50. The event will take place at "Melnays Jānis", the only temple in Latvia dedicated to Jānis (the Latvian version of Ganesh).

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

16  One good reason for building your own private outdoor temple is the fact that many countries, especially those located in Eastern Europe, are against the freedom of conscience. We at the temple of "Melnays Jahnis" see this attempt to limit our choices as a form of spiritual corruption. 

See article at http://www.voltairenet.org/article166468.html

This site has no objections to a temple dedicated to Buddha, Jesus, Shiva, Krishna, or whomever one choses to dedicate it to. However, we believe that our times require and will be more receptive to a temple that is located in nature and is dedicated to no more than a sense of the sacred. As the reader may see from the entries and photos below, we are--as we claim to be--a private temple to our sense of the sacred.

While we welcome the public to share with us our sense of the sacred, we insist on the private nature of our temple. If there develops an interest in such temples among others, we may of course form a league of like minded for freedom of conscience.

Saturday, July 24, 2010

15 Our private temle, “Melnays Jahnis”  (Black John) takes the idea of the temple garden into the 21st century. Of course ours is a different time. We no longer live in the days of the ancient Greeks, or Romans, or Chinese, or Japanese. But this does not mean that the idea of a sacred place does not have a place in our time or in our lives. We believe that the idea of the temple—even if it originates as a private affair—connects to a much larger public. This is why “we” by inviting “the larger public” to visit us dare claim this private temple to be “ours”.


Our “Melnays Jahnis” is a temple still in its developmental stages. One of our “developments” are the trees. We have planted and are still planting trees all around the property. Some of the trees are still under the grass, so to speak, but in ten and twenty years time, the appearance of the temple should change substantially.


Our private temple is dedicated to our private faith, each his and her alone. This writer has his own, and it is inevitable that I will share with the reader some of my ideas and theology. A private temple is, after all, also a personal temple. On the other hand, no visitor is in any way asked to “buy” my beliefs or orientation even as the management may be so rude and ask you for a donation or entrance fee. “Melnays Jahnis” is a temple garden which makes (or if you will, makes-believe) the land it occupies to be sacred. We validate our claim by dedicating it to Nature, more specifically to Trees, Trees which are alive and Trees which are no more, Trees which are growing as we speak and Trees which have been sawed down and not replanted.

As circumstances will have it, we are located in what is known as a "biosphere reserve"  . The biosphere reserves are under the auspices of UNESCO. Specifically, we are within the boundaries of the North Vidzeme Biosphere Reserve.


We plan to keep you informed of our developments, ideas, and events.


“Melnays Jahnis” is located at the “Ceļmalnieki” estate. You may reach us by way of Valmiera. Take the road from Valmiera to Matishi. When in Matishi take the road to Aloya (left). When at Vilzeni (a small village with a crossroad) turn right and drive about 6 km toward the Old Braslava center. You will soon reach an oak lined alley. Several hundred meters down this alley you will see (on the right) a sign that reads “Matishi” and “MELNAYS JĀNIS”. Drive about a 1½ km. We are on the right hand side of the road. Please park on the road. Enter under the sign that reads Melnays Jānis….



If you live in Latvia or come to Latvia, please be sure to visit us. We prefer Saturday and Sunday visits. There is a gong (or soon will be) near the entrance. Please hit it several times with the hammer provided if no one is around. Some information about Melnays Jānis may be found at the entrance sign.

Forest News
For the curious: We take the name of our temple from the name Jahnis. This is a cognate of John, Johann, Ivan, Huan, Giovanni, etc. While there is no definite proof of it, we believe that the name "pagan" originates from Jahnis prefixed with a "pa-" + Janis, re "pa-gan". The word "gans" in Latvian means herder. Thus, pa-gan (originally pa-jahnis) is meant to belittle John by making him a lesser John, a lesser herder. Lesser to whom? You figure it out.

Full or partial entries of my blogs may be found at LatviansOnline+ Forum Home + Open Forum – The-Not-Voter. If you copy this blog for your files, or copy to forward, or otherwise mention its content, please credit the author http://esoschronicles.blogspot.com/, http://melnaysjanis.blogspot.com/, or http://the-not-voter.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Cut it down, cut it down!
Yesterday, July 13, 2010, traveling from Riga to Valmiera, I noted that the deforestation which I noted last fall and this spring, is turning these areas--thanks to the +30C heat--into a desert of grey sand an dry brush.

Sitting high in my bus seat, and thus able to look beyond and through the row of trees that flank the highway, one can see vast areas of just such a desert.

This morning this revealing article at the DELFI fortal (in Latvian) about the further deforestation of Latvia.

Note the letters accompanying the article. At least a half are from people who wish to see Latvia deforested, that is to say, these letters are more or less plants (no not real trees) to confuse the reader's mind. The Temple of Black John (Melnays Jānis) is opposed this "strip mining" of Latvia.

The photo below is our symbol of the saw-(ac)ross the tree's heart.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

The "private temple" that I am suggesting that Latvians build to develop their tourist industry has its roots not only in the history of temples of earlier times, but also in the garden as a temple. Here is a story in the NYT about Sissinghurst Castle in England. It is worth while to read also the comments of the readers.

Latvians should find it worth their while to remember their Wandering Teachers, the Johns, in whose honor they celebrate Johns Eve on Midsummer's Eve. Might not the remembrance be honored with a temple, designed in contemporary style?

It is a mystery to this blogger why Latvians should think that visiting old buildings of long forgotten barons is of more interests to foreign tourists or, for that matter, to themselves than building temples to Johns to renew not only the economic foundations of their country, but something of their own heritage. Else, the victory belongs to Pop culture, and the Latvian people prove themselves to be broke in more ways than one.

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

The director of the tourist branch of the Latvian Ministry of Economics, Marina Pankova, does not think that Latvia will attract as many tourists as, say, Turkey. Says Pankova: "We [Latvia] will never be the goal of tourists." See here.

How sad to see and hear such assertions from bureaucrats without an imagination. This is why this question to the reader:

Would Latvia attract tourists if Latvia has a thousand temples?
We say: Of course, it would.

Would a thousand temples in Latvia built as sacred places honoring nature attract tourists to Latvia? Of course tourists would come to see. We at Black Johns (Melnays Jānis) believe that they would in fact come in great numbers.

But it takes a ministry filled with lively people rather than dundurheads to make it happen.

First comes the idea, then the encouragement to realize it (say, tax relief), then the building of it.

The Latvian countryside would benefit 1000 x!

So, why can the Prince of Wales support the English countryside, but Latvians cannot promote theirs?

As the man said to the new recruit: You are here so that I can change your attitude.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

The Temple of Melnays Jānis

The Temple of Black Johns


Would you not like to see a world of 1000 new temples? or would you rather see a thousand oil-smeared pelicans dying?


 At the Temple of Black Johns, we hope to see a thousand new temples, rather than the natural world dying. So, please, think of yourself as one who has been invited to build a private temple.





 
No doubt, we live in a world that is different from yesterday. Old faiths are gone and their messages go unlearnt. Nevertheless, we hold some things sacred. Is not nature a part of our sacred? Think of how you would build a temple that is both your living space and a place that not only you, but others call a Temple.




We present the Temple of Black Johns as an example of what a temple in our day may look like.







Here is our Cross”:
The Saw-(ac)cross.
It shows a saw cutting upwards a tree.
The image suggests that the sawing-upward of the tree can stop at any time we realize how cruel the act and those who do it are and stop the act.
 
Please stay in the areas where the grass has been cut. The pond is for the fish and not you to swim in.

What is beyond the lawn belongs to nature, but both the lawn and what is the owner’s ultimately belong to the Great All.






The Temple of Black Johns



The Temple of Melnays Janis


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
You are welcome to come visit us. Address is somewhere among the posts below. We would like to see a thousand temples who use the Saw-(ac)ross A Trees Heart as their logo. The pictures should tell you about the idea visually. Below is some text you may wish to read to follow our thought. Welcome to our private temle.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

The Johns Eve bonfire at Braslavas Park, Alojas novads on 22.06.2010. An estimated 400-500 people attended the event.









Johns Eve is being celebrated at the Braskava Park for the 13th year this year. Yours truly restarted the tradition that many years ago. Our bonfire teams (2) construct the bonfire on alternate years and compete in creative design.






Many people from Braslavas pagasts, now part of Alojas novads, participate in making our Johns Eve festival a success. We are known for being off the beaten path, therefore, very much a community affair. In this picture three women from Vilzeni are making a wreath to decorate a nearby small stage.




Some years ago, our bonfire team built the bonfire from large roots which we gathered from trees fallen during a then recent storm. We faced the roots outward, and the design turned out to be like a spider's net, a web of connections or, better, communal bonds.





This year our bonfire resembled a small house, one perhaps which Hansel (Yansel) un Gretel lived in. Some years ago our team began to use colorful paints to enhance the appearance of our outdoor art works.






The forebears of Latvians, being a people of the forest, had plenty of wood to make their fires from. However, in our day, with much public land now in private hands, it is not so easy to access wood for burning. Thus, Alojas novads provided us with old railroad ties. Our builders were worried over the smoke this would cause. Fortunately, there was no wind, and the heavy smoke rose straight into the air and soon left but a huge torch to light the evening.

Perhaps this fire presents our community's will to live and prosper.










Of the 77 years that this author has sojourned on planet Earth, 26 years have been spent in Latvia. The first 11 years were in Latvia, followed 5 years as a refugee in Germany, then 46 years in the United States of America, and then again the last 15 years in Latvia. I am proud and humbled to be honored with the medal of "Lachplehsis" (Lāčplēsis) by the Latvian defense fund Lachplesis. May Latvia, blessed with the strength of Lachplehsis and the spirit of the Johns, live on and create a most worthy and prosperous community. May we live to present the world with the best of possible examples of pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Prose translation in English of poem below. It is to be sung by the Latvian melody of “Kas tie tādi, kas dziedāja?”


1. ”Who are the ones who sing by the Johns fire? They are all the Children of Johns who no longer acknowledge themselves.

2. What is the song they are singing? Does the song sing of Johns? Yes, the song sings of Johns, but the song sounds as if it comes from orphans.

3. History has been forgot, which is why the song of Johns is mute. Who are these Children of Johns, who no longer know themselves.

4. Raimond Pauls [the oneLatvians call ‘the maestro’] makes a concert for himself. He will mention no tomorrow for John. The Children of Johns open their ears (to the concert), but hear little mention of Johns.

5. Tomorrow morning, early, early, the Children of Johns will be asleep. A griffon arrives with the wings of a raven and hides the wreath of the Sun.

Kas tie tādi,
Kas dziedāja
Pie Jānīša uguntiņ?
Tie ir visi Jāņu bērni,
Kas vairs sevi neatzin.


Kas tā dziema,
Ko tie dzieda?
Vai tā dziesma
Jāņus teic?
Gan tā dziesma ir par Jāni,
Bet skan bāru valodiņ.


Vēsturīte
sen aizmirsta,
Jāņu dziesma
mēma šalc.
Kas tie tādi Jāņu bērni,
Kas vairs sevi neatmin?


Raimonds Pauls sev
koncertu taisa,
brāķē Jāņu rītdieniņ.
Jāņu bērni sanākuši,
Ausis ver, bet
Jāni nesadzird..


Rīt no rīta
Agri,agri
Jāņu bērni dziļi snauž.
Atnāk griffins
lietusarga spārniem,
aizsedz Saules vainadziņ.

Monday, June 14, 2010

Kāpēc “Templis Melnays Jānis” izcirstiem mežiem?
Rakstiņš viens no pirmiem blogiem rakstu virknes apakšā!




An Invitation!
Sunday, June 20th at 15:00
Temple Black John
Of Disappeared Forests
the First Private Outdoor Temple in Latvia

located at „Celmalnieki”, Braslavas pagasts, Alojas novads
For directions see blog entries below

invites you to share with us in a bite of Johns Cheese
and a sing-along of Songs of Johns.
Participants include The Puikule Drama Assemble,
The Puikule Choir Ansemble Kolorīts.
The sing-along will be directed by Digna Virkstene.

Sunday, June 13, 2010

The Latvian version of this text is the first blogs of this series.
Why “Temple John of Disappeared Forests”?

© E.A. Benjamins, 2010

The name “John” is one of the most widely known cognates in Europe and beyond. We may meet “John” in such names as Johann, Huan, Jean, Ivan, Giovanni, etc. If we know that the consonant J may with time slip slide and become a G, H, D, V, X, etc., and that it may even disappear as in, say, Angus, then the number of words of “John” at their root may reach hundreds. In Latvian the word may also be verbalized, re “jonjot” (joņot) and become an adjective, re “jancihga” (jancīga), a person with something of a chip on the shoulder.

In the days of proto-Latvians (those who lived before Latvians had their own nation), the word John, Jahnis, was pronounced with a G, re Ganis or Gans (a herder of cows, pigs, geese, sheep, etc.). Do we now see that John, Gans, is the same as a king, that is to say, a herder of nations? In the days of yore some societies (the Turks for example) had two kings. One of the kings was the spiritual king, the other was his executive. Words such as gendarme, jannisery received their name as a result of being the king’s right (executive) hand.

Let us also remember that John the Baptist was not only a herder, but a healer and a shaman. John the Herder was the one who came in touch with plants and got to know their characteristics. It is likely that the word “gens” (man) was originally identified with “herder”. This is also why “John” is at the root of so many other words.

We can now better understand why the Children of Johns, a Latvian religious sect from the times of the Bogomils and the Cathars et all (known from about the 11th and 12th centuries of our era on), were thought of as a community. This was a time when our planet was still overgrown with forests. The Johns, itinerant teachers all, went from one clearing in the forest to another and brought to the people news from other parts of the world. Incidentally, the Latvian verb “jonjot” (to run fast) may have a distant echo in the English word “jog”, which j may at one time have been pronounced as a y.

John the Jogger was also known as the son of the Sun, because he was always (or most of the time) on the road and, thus, always in sight of the Sun. At the the time of the great solstices, Midsummer and Midwinter, the Children of Johns lit fires atop tall poles to lead the Johns to their villages in the forests. Of course, in the winter the hearth with its Yule log enticed the Johns to come into the house.
Let us turn now to a controversial thought, to wit, that the Johns came to be identified as protectors of the forests.

When the people made a clearing in the forests, they did so not only to build them selves shelter, but to grow plants in soil that became extra fertile due to the ashes left by the burning of the roots and the brush. When this fertility was exhausted, the people moved on.

Alas, there came a new caste of men for whom the forest was an object of exploitation. This caste no longer identified their living space with the forest, but cut down the forests to build themselves castles, castle walls, ships of war, and huge furnaces where they baked clay into bricks. The caste of princes did not allow the cleared forest to grow over, but sowed the clearings over with seeds of grain. They made thus more money. While a tree takes fifty years or more to grow into a harvestable product grains take only one season.
The Children of Johns and their Sacred kings, the Johns, tried to fight the princes off. There were wars. At first the Children of Johns were successful in defending themselves, because every tree in the forest acted as a shield. However, the princes gained the upper hand, because they turned to wholesale destruction of the forests. The Latvians have retained from these times but the tradition on Johns Eve and Day decorating their heads with oak leaf or grasses. While this tradition persists, the Latvians no longer know why they are doing this.

The process of “desertification” of Latvia allows us to recall that John the Baptist (or Savior) of the New Testament is portrayed as a man who lives in the desert and eats grasshoppers. In the days of the New Testament John there were still Children of Johns. Many went to see John (maybe also known as the Water Curer) who had come to the River Jordan. However, John was soon captured and executed.

The name of Johns (John) disappeared. One way to disappear the name among the Latvians is to replace the Johns Festival with names such as Midsummer Festival, the Lihgo Festival, Family Festival, and the like. This process is well on its way of receiving the Nobel Prize for Destruction.

The desertification of Latvia continues. Though forests in Latvia still cover a significant (46%) area, the figure reads false, because the deforested land is not replanted with trees, but allowed to overgrow with brush.

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Kāpēc “Templis Jānis” izcirstiem mežiem?
Skat. priekšpēdējo lpp.



The postcard to the right is available at our Johns Temple at Celmalnieki. The Saw Cross is our own unique design. The message on the card is: "Saw-(ac)ross a tree''s heart" and "Koki sapņo zāģu krustu!".


News about what is happening to Latvia's forests
(in Latvian)
re: Meža dienests apšauba
All is not as it seems. This only the smoke
to the fire behind the hill.

Was life perhaps better when we lived in the forest?
Here is an interesting link that I happened across recently.
Click HERE

Saturday, June 5, 2010

The Temple of Johns of Disappeared Forests

or as in Latvian "Jāņu templis izcirstiem mežiem"

The photos are of Lady or Leidīja, the unofficial mascot of our temple of Johns.
 
Pekse or Peksite may be my neighbor's dog, but I have seen her at other neighbors' houses who also have dogs. In short, she likes company. Peksite frequents the temple grounds, because something  usually goes on there, meaning there are people around. SPeksite always has a grin around her nose when we meet. When recently I walked around the pond, she followed me, and I just happened to have my camera along. No one feeds Pekse, but we do give her an occasional belly rub. Incidentally, for anyone who is curious, my grandfather's dog was named Peksis, and Peksite looks very much like Peksis.
 
Here Peksite wonders if to enter the pond for a swim and then does it.  
We soon walk back to the work site and Peksite dries off in the sun.
Come to visit us sometime soon. Who has heard of a "Temple of Johns of Disappeared Forests" in Latvia before? We believe along with our forebears that trees are sacred. We have some apple wood sculptures to prove that the flesh of a tree feels good to the touch.                          During our introductory phase, we may seem a little unsettled, but we are friendly and will try to meet you if you announce your visit ahead of time at "letters" of these blogs. We are a private property and have much concern for nature, therefore, please show respect for this little nature corner even if on occasion we are not available to meet you.
If you wish to find a place to celebrate Johns Eve as the locals do it, you are welcome to visit Braslavas Park on the eve of June 22nd. We are participating in the event by building the bonfire. Though the pagasts will be at the park, the Temple of Johns is only 1 km away, and on a nice evening it is a nice walk. For Directions see one of the blogs below.