In prayer it is better to have a heart without words than words with out a heart.
John Bunyan
4 Comments CherryPie on Apr 3rd 2016
Built in the 18th century as villa for the local Jesuit hierarchy, Tivoli Mansion stands at the top of a stone staricase guarded by sculptures of fierce looking dogs. The mansion subsequently served as the summer residence of the Ljubljana archbishops before it was presented in 1852 to the 86-year-old hero of Habsburg military campaigns, Field Marshal Josef Radetzky.
Radetzky was a much-loved symbol of Austrian patriotism, as status imortalized by Johann Strauss the Elder’s famous tune Radetzkymarsch.
The mansion now houses the International Graphic Arts Centre (Mednarodni graficni likvni centre). *
*From the Eyewitness Travel Guide to Slovenia
8 Comments CherryPie on Apr 2nd 2016
The patio furniture has now been moved off the lawn and back it its former location. I have not placed all the tubs in their final locations yet, I haven’t quite decided what I want where. I don’t want all the bins cluttering up the garden so I need to clear a space for two of them in the garage. The small wall where the pots are currently situated will continue around the patio and a flower border will be dug on the opposite side of it.
I also need to replace the bench that unfortunately got broken whilst moving things around after the patio had been laid. The new bench will be placed underneath the window on the narrow part of the patio. I have a bench in mind, I just need to measure it to make sure that it isn’t too tall.
As I mentioned in my previous post, two garden fairies have set to work tidying up the borders for me. The garden is looking much better already 
10 Comments CherryPie on Mar 31st 2016
Although our tired tarmac driveway has needed replacing for a number of years we kept putting off replacing it until recently. A local builder was laying driveways in our area and we decided at long last that we would have ours replaced including the path up the side of our house. The path up the side of the house was less than ideal for getting the wheelie bins up and down. The slabs were too narrow and there were pebbles to either side of it causing the wheels to snag. As the pathway progressed we decided to extend it round the back of the house, enlarging our patio area slightly and replacing the the existing slabs.
Whilst the builders were laying the pavings at the back of the house they unearthed a drain access cover that we didn’t know was there!! It had been slabbed over by the previous occupants.
Now that the patio area is looking neat and tidy, two garden fairies have arrived and started to give the garden a bit of TLC that has been long overdue…
10 Comments CherryPie on Mar 30th 2016
Filed under Faith Foundations, Holidays, Piran & Ljubljana 2015
Franciscan Church of the Annunciation
The Franciscan Church of the Annunciation (Slovene: Frančiškanska cerkev Marijinega oznanjenja or commonly Frančiškanska cerkev) is a Franciscan church located on Prešeren Square in Ljubljana, the capital ofSlovenia. It is the parish church of Ljubljana – Annunciation Parish. Its red colour is symbolic of the Franciscan monastic order.[1] Since 2008, the church has been protected as a cultural monument of national significance of Slovenia.[2]
Built between 1646 and 1660 (the bell towers following later), it replaced an older church on the same site. The early-Baroque layout takes the form of a basilica with one nave and two rows of side-chapels. The Baroque mainaltar was executed by the sculptor Francesco Robba. Many of the original frescoes were ruined by the cracks in the ceiling caused by the Ljubljana earthquake in 1895. The new frescoes were painted in 1936 by the Sloveneimpressionist painter Matej Sternen.[1]
The front facade of the church was built in the Baroque style in 1703–1706 and redesigned in the 19th century. It has two parts, featuring pilasters with the Ionic capitals in the lower part and pilasters with Corinthian capitals in the upper part. The sides of the upper part are decorated with volutes and at the top of the front facade stands the statue of Our Lady of Loretto, i.e. Madonna with Child. It has been made of beaten copper by Matej Schreinerupon a plan drawn by Franz Kurz zum Thurn und Goldenstein. The faces and the hands were modelled by Franc Ksaver Zajec. The statue replaced an older wooden statue of a Black Madonna in 1858. The facade also has three niches with sculptures of God the Father above the main stone portal, and an angel and the Virgin Mary in the side niches, work by the Baroque sculptor Paolo Callalo. There is a stone entrance staircase in front of the church. The wooden door with reliefs of women’s heads dates to the 19th century.
12 Comments CherryPie on Mar 29th 2016
Located between Ljubljana’s Old Town and the 19th-century districts on the west bank of the ljubljanica river, Prešernov trg is, in many ways, the symbolic heart of the city. It is named after France Prešeren, the Romantic poet whose patriotic verses were central to the development of a Slovenian national consciousness. The poet is immortalized by a monument in the middle of the square, with a poetry book in hand, accompanied by a scantily clad muse wielding a sprig of laurel.*
* From the Eyewitness Travel Guide to Slovenia
4 Comments CherryPie on Mar 28th 2016
9 As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.
10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.
11 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.
12 This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.
John 15: 9-12 (KJV)
16 Comments CherryPie on Mar 27th 2016
