Today I went to Batumi Park. In the park there is a zoo, a lake with pedal boats in swan shape, and a dolphinariam. After walking around the lake, and through the zoo, taking photos, I attended a performance by the dolphins at the dolphinariam. Quite talented those dolphins. The “trainer” told us that you don’t actually train dolphins. You find out what they enjoy doing and then encourage them to do it at the time you want. He said that everything that was in their act, was things that they enjoy doing. They often come up with new stunts to add to their act all on their own.
1. The colonnades are located at the entrance to the park.
2. A statue if Amelia Earhart is located between the colonnades. She holds a replica of her plane in one hand.
3. A statue to a Batumi war hero is next. I can’t read Georgian so I can’t tell you more.
4. By this time I was tired so I bought a soft pretzel and a cup of coffee americano.
5. 6. 7. 8. 9. I took many photos of the hotel and high rise apartments that surround the lake.
10. The beach is covered with smooth stones. They cleverly used them to construct this fence.
A big shout out to the people who follow me. Unfortunately I’ve had to leave Russia. It became impossible to receive any funds from the US. I am currently living in Batumi, Georgia.
This is my family in the living room of my apartment in Kimovsk, Russia. I am a disabled Vietnam veteran. Seventy six years of age. My son Aleksandr (left), and my granddaughter Dasha (center) look in on me. Here, I had hoped to live out my retirement years.
A person's epiphany usually comes at the moment of death. Until the last moment, he is certain that the world belongs to him. But then he sees everything leaving him, everything turning out to be a dream, and he is left with only what he managed to acquire in his heart. That is why the memory of death is so hateful to the Devil.
A person must always expect death and constantly remember that every day could be his last. This is precisely why today, through repentance, can become his day of salvation.
For those who do not remember death, death comes to them suddenly as an enemy and takes them captive. For those who remember it and prepare for it, it comes to them as a liberator from labor and suffering, leading them to the land of eternal peace.
For a Christian, the memory of death, combined with prayer, is a fiery sword directed against the Devil. As long as a person remembers the impending end and the mystical experience of death makes their heart tremble, they cannot sin, just as they cannot, ...
In the memory of posterity, Tsar Feodor Ivanovich, son of Ivan the Terrible, remains an almost comical figure—a gentle, pious, "simple-minded" monarch whose reign was merely a prologue to the rise of Boris Godunov. This image of a benevolent ruler incapable of power, who preferred the ringing of bells to matters of state, is firmly ingrained in history. However, the actual circumstances of his rise to power shatter this stereotype. They are full of drama, fierce political intrigue, and surprising paradoxes. The first days of the reign of the last Rurikovich on the Moscow throne were not a quiet transfer of power, but a veritable political thriller. Let's uncover some of the most unexpected facts hidden behind the façade of official history.
1. "Child of the Great War": The Tsar Whose Childhood Was Spent to the Roar of Cannons
The year of Feodor's birth, 1557, was perhaps the "last year of tranquility" for the Muscovite state. The country stood at the height of its power, enjoying the fruits of recent victories. The ...