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Odzun and Haghpat

 

Not far from the Akhtala Monastery, in the Lori Province, is the village of Odzun where we stopped at an enterprising family's house for lunch. The family prepares traditional local food for coach loads of tourists and keeps bees in their garden as an attraction - to help keep the guests amused. And so we were. The family was charming; the meal was very nice; and the bees - well - they were European honey bees - just like the ones apiarists keep in Australia - except the hives were painted blue/green instead of white and seemed a little smaller. Apparently it's where honey comes from!

Here it was very evident that people have been living from hand to mouth for years, as our local guide told us: since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the dreadful mismanagement that followed.

 

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In the village of Odzun it was very evident that people - and animals - have been 'doing it tough'
Someone was living in that house

 

Quite nearby, still in the in the Lori Province, is another 10th century Byzantine Monastery: the UNESCO World Heritage site of Haghpat.   Wikipedia tells me that the monastery at Haghpat was chosen as an UNESCO World Heritage Site because the monastic complex: 

represents the highest flowering of Armenian religious architecture, whose unique style developed from a blending of elements of Byzantine ecclesiastical architecture and the traditional vernacular architecture of the Caucasian region.'

 

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Haghpat Monastery:  'the highest flowering of Armenian religious architecture,
whose unique style developed from a blending of elements of Byzantine ecclesiastical architecture
and the traditional vernacular architecture of the Caucasian region
'

 

Unlike the earlier monastery it did not seem to have been fortified. I found this interesting and was motivated to look it up in Wikipedia.  Read more...

It certainly enjoys a spectacular setting - countryside that was also enjoyed by our comfortably commodious hotel for the night.

 

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The views from the balconies of our hotel suite
The meals (evening and breakfast) were also very satisfactory

 

 

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Travel

Cambodia and Vietnam

 

 

 In April 2010 we travelled to the previous French territories of Cambodia and Vietnam: ‘French Indochina’, as they had been called when I started school; until 1954. Since then many things have changed.  But of course, this has been a region of change for tens of thousands of years. Our trip ‘filled in’ areas of the map between our previous trips to India and China and did not disappoint.  There is certainly a sense in which Indochina is a blend of China and India; with differences tangential to both. Both have recovered from recent conflicts of which there is still evidence everywhere, like the smell of gunpowder after fireworks.

Read more: Cambodia and Vietnam

Fiction, Recollections & News

Electricity Shocks

 

 

 

I've always thought that would be a good headline. 

Now that I have your attention I have to report that Emily McKie, my daughter, is the author of a new e-book on Smart Grid technology in her sustainable cities series.

 

 

 

Read more: Electricity Shocks

Opinions and Philosophy

Issues Arising from the Greenhouse Hypothesis

This paper was first written in 1990 - nearly 30 years ago - yet little has changed.

Except of course, that a lot of politicians and bureaucrats have put in a lot of air miles and stayed in some excellent hotels in interesting places around the world like Kyoto, Amsterdam and Cancun. 

In the interim technology has come to our aid.  Wind turbines, dismissed here, have become larger and much more economic as have PV solar panels.  Renewable energy options are discussed in more detail elsewhere on this website.

 


 

Climate Change

Issues Arising from the Greenhouse Hypothesis

 

Climate change has wide ranging implications for the World, ranging from its impacts on agriculture (through drought, floods, water availability, land degradation and carbon credits) mining (by limiting markets for coal and minerals processing) manufacturing and transport (through energy costs) to property damage resulting from storms.  The issues are complex, ranging from disputes about the impact of human activities on global warming, to arguments about what should be done and the consequences of the various actions proposed.  The following paper explores some of the issues and their potential impact.

 

Read more: Issues Arising from the Greenhouse Hypothesis

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