Megali Prespa and Mikri Prespa are the Balkans’ highest tectonic lakes, and now an international park formed by Greece, North Macedonia and Albania. It has a turbulent history which we won’t begin to describe, but here is a remnant: Ag Achillios Island houses the ruined basilica of Ag Achillios which you see in the opening picture. It was established in the 10th century by Tsar Samuel (who?? – apparently the last emperor of the Western Bulgarian Empire – so now you know!) and then the usual story of takeover after takeover ensued for the next n centuries.
The solar panel seems to be sat on top of a 12v battery so it’s charging that. Fortunately you didn’t ask what the battery was for.
You don’t have legal training do you? Of course we want to know what the bloody battery is for! (We have one or two theories – but they’re pretty crap.)
Woah! The gigantic flourishing elephant bean sounds more alarming than the bears and wolves.
You may well be right though they looked, more or less, like butter beans ( such a charming description now I notice it for the first time).
Working on the bee/battery question (lockdown permits such fancies), I came across an Egyptian study researching the “possibility of producing electricity from honey bee hives utilizing the kinetic energy of bees”! One proposal is for a device with “small balls that can be pushed by bees during their normal movements inside the hives…the balls are connected to a movable tube which is connected to a small dynamo to generate electricity”. Do we really have to make bees work even harder for us??
The solar panel and battery may be opportunists – simply using the hive as a sun-catching platform.
I love the idea of this research – the wild, pointless whimsy of envisaging bees – tireless as they are – mindlessly – or forgetfully – pushing tiny balls around in order to generate minuscule amounts of bee energy. There are puns to be had here I feel….
Paul (ever the realist) suggests that the battery may power a surveillance device (motion sensor or camera), to guard against bee hive theft (big problem).
I don’t think surveillance would pick up bears though. Am confident facial recognition technology does NOT WORK on furry faces…
That must be the bean with the grandest name in the world. Have had a chance to try any?
We’ll, yes and no. We’ve eaten gigantic beans ( not even a bit gigantic – just plump) but not in this region. We had the chance to buy a packet of them at the place they were grown – minimum 500 grams I suspect- and then carry them around before throwing them away in London but we’ve resisted.
The bee keeper uses the battery to charge his phone 🙂
Yes! Seems by far the likeliest explanation!
My first thought was the phone charge option but opportunism also works.
I loved your first comment – ever the logician!