Category Archives: Vojnik

An Extreme Form of Gardening

English language posts, Life in Slovenia, Natural ponds, Neanderslavia, Ponding, Slovenia, Slovenian language posts, True Stories, Videos, Vojnik, Wetlands, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

If you want to make a huge difference to countless millions of lives, you absolutely can.

All you have to do is create a wildlife pond. It doesn’t have to be big. A micro pond in a bucket can mean the world to tiny lives looking for a place to do their thing.

A wildlife pond doesn’t have to take much money. It does take a whole lot of time but that’s mostly because you’ll be spending hours upon hours marveling at your creation.

The amount of joy you’ll get in return is tremendous. If you’re not careful, you’ll also get backache – but if you do, you’ll know it was totally worth it.

Ponds are like fingerprints – each one is unique. Mine is a young retention pond on a sunny terrace. And it is prone to drama, as it befits a fledgling body of water. At the filming of this video, I was dealing with a charming but unruly guest who’s overstayed its welcome, for more than one reason. I can still hear the delicious crunch it makes when you rip it from the pond bottom. Good times!  

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Ribniki so kot prstni odtisi – vsak je drugačen!

Skupno jim je to, da v njih najdejo zatočišče premnoga drobna življenjca, ki se najraje kar sama povabijo. Pa tudi kakšno malce večje se najde med njimi.

In potem tam živijo, se lovijo in množijo, za obilo presenečenj poskrbijo in skrbnega opazovalca marsičesa naučijo. Lastniki v ribnikih najdemo srečo, pa tudi precej dela. V ribniku in okolici se zmeraj kaj dogaja 😅

A taste for flesh but with a twist

Animals, English language posts, European Hornet, Insectlife, Insects, Life in Slovenia, Neanderslavia, Slovenia, Slovenian language posts, Vojnik, Wetlands, Zhuzhana the Hornet, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Hornets are famous for their love of picnics which they happily pillage for food, drinks and your screams of horror. If you’ve ever picked up a piece of steak in your trembling hands and inspected it for damage after a hornet raiding party, you probably noticed that they had taken sizeable chunks out of it.

Hornets have powerful jaws and a taste for flesh. But there’s a catch. The adults don’t actually eat meat themselves. Instead, they chew it up and feed it to their young. The babies in turn ooze out a sweet liquid that the adults then happily consume.

Case in point, our accidental pet hornet ZhuZhana, the worker-turned-queen who spent the last dozen or so of her hornet years with us, would graciously accept our offerings of sugar water. (She notably dropped some of her enthusiasm for assorted fruits once she had gotten a whiff of pure white sugar.)

But she never ever deigned to accept any kind of meat. Hornets may possess only a few ganglia but our ZhuZhana clearly knew she could no longer return to her nest to feed the baby hornets. Her cozy new home, complete with an endless supply of sugary treats and our adoring stares, was all she had left and she decided to make the most of it.

Dearly missed by us, she is survived by her family in our old hollow apple tree.

Sršeni slovijo kot navdušeni roparji piknikov, kjer se lotijo vsega od sadja, pijače in mesa, pa tudi človeških branilcev pikniških dobrot, če po sršenje presodijo, da se preveč razburjajo. Če človek ni preveč zaposlen z vreščanjem in klatenjem po sršenjih gostih, pa utegne opaziti, da so že ob prvi najavi njihovega prihoda iznenada poniknile vse druge žuželke, ki so do tedaj obletavale pijačo in jedačo.

Sršen je pač mogočen žužon, ki vliva strahospoštovanje širni okolici, še zlasti manjšim žuželkam, ki jih mimogrede hrustne na pol. Prav zato je v osnovi precej mirna žuža, ki se ne pusti hitro razburiti, kadar je na obisku pri tebi.

Malce drugačna zgodba pa je, če si ti na obisku pri njih. Če te zagledajo blizu sršenjaka, jim to kar precej pospeši srčni utrip. Pa še takrat hitro pokapirajo, kdo od ljudi je domač in ne skriva v sebi kakšnih dezinsektorskih namenov.

Če hočeš zanesljivega odganjalca komarjev, moljev in muh skozi vse poletje, si težko omisliš boljšega od sršenjaka pod napuščem. Domači sršeni ti ne bodo storili ničesar, razen če ti prvi začneš, premnoge krilate in tudi kakšne nogate vsiljivce pa bodo odločno napotili drugam.

The friend who fell from the skies

Animals, English language posts, European Hornet, Insectlife, Insects, Life in Slovenia, Neanderslavia, Slovenia, Videos, Vojnik, Wetlands, Zhuzhana the Hornet, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

One fateful Saturday, a pair of sky warriors crashed to the ground, locked in battle.

They say every fight you can walk away from is a good fight. I guess that means our new friend had a good one indeed.

Her opponent, however, flew off. Because this is what victorious hornets do, after successfully shredding their rival’s wings.

So there she was – bruised and battered and suddenly pedestrian.

Under any ordinary circumstances, this would have meant she would be torn apart, limb by limb, by an army of gleeful ants. Unless she were lucky and a hungry bird got to her first.

But these were no ordinary circumstances. Because the turf on which she landed was ours.

She may have lost the duel but she won our love, along with a life-time supply of sugar water.

Zhuzhana, as we named her, was born a worker. But she ended up living like a queen.

#hornet #europeanhornet #Vespacrabro #pethornet #rescuedhornet #injuredhornet #rescue #feedinghornet #handfeeding #insectfeeding #insectrescue #insectlife #petinsect #zhuzhana #srsen #wetlands #vojnik #slovenia #neanderslavia

The Snail

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  • Garden snails are native to the Mediterranean
  • But they’ve travelled as far as California and Australia
  • (People being followed by snails is a real thing.)
  • Growing snails on purpose is called heliciculture
  • Growing them by accident is called good biodiversity
  • If snails threaten your garden, make it firefly-friendly
  • Because fireflies eat snails and slugs
  • So do frogs, lizards and birds
  • Or you can eat the snails yourself
  • They’re a good source of protein – and parasitic worms
  • I prefer biodiversity to gastronomy, but you do you

You’ll want some clover before you scratch your nose

Animals, Insectlife, Insects, Life in Slovenia, Neanderslavia, Photos, Slovenia, Vojnik, Wetlands, , , , , , , , , , ,
An angry rescued female stag beetle
An angry rescued female stag beetle (Lucanus cervus)

I was walking on hot asphalt and so was this lovely lady.

Cars were about to join us.

Concerned for the lady’s safety, I volunteered my relocation services.

She objected by running.

Obviously, I insisted by picking her up.

She responded by spraying my fingers with a memorable fragrance.

Stunned but undeterred, I moved her to a safe location.

Just as we went our separate ways, I had a wild realization. (Can you imagine.)

The thing is, I’ve picked up many a stag beetle in the tiny little nature reserve that I run.

(Usually because they got indoors and wouldn’t leave.)

But they rarely ever ran from me, much less sprayed me.

Yet the lady I met today went full battle mode.

I couldn’t shake the thought that stag beetles behave differently around the people they know.

I feel deeply honored.

I would consider nicknaming my beetles if I hadn’t already done so.

PS. Clover is your lucky plant if you need to get rid of angry beetle perfume.

Possibly, nah definitely a leech

Animals, English language posts, Life in Slovenia, Natural ponds, Ponding, Slovenia, Videos, Vojnik, Wetlands, , , , ,

One of the best things about creating a wildlife pond is watching new critters move in. This spry little slinkie – unfairly known, as I’ve learned, as the horse leech – has managed to find my magic little lake. And quite possibly, my new friend is exactly what these waters needed… because right now, they’re ruled by voracious dragonfly larvae who could use a good old-fashioned fear of God put into them… Dragonflies can murder their way through a sizeable batch of tadpoles in a disturbingly short time – a relatively well-known fact in the ponding world. But they will also actively stalk small fish, which is much less known about them. Supposedly, horse leeches hunt dragonfly larvae, so maybe nature will balance itself out.

Metal Day Vojnik

Charity, Fundraiser, Life in Slovenia, Slovenia, Videos, Vojnik, Waste management, , , , ,

(I found a way to combine my love of charity and garbage. We Slovenians are weird like that.)

Če človek sam zbira odpadne kovine, ga prehitro vse mine! Tudi jaz sem se vdala, preden sem dovolj pločevink nabrala, da bi jih z dobičkom na odpad peljala. Če pa se zbiranja lotimo vsi, zlahka v zlato pretopimo smeti! Dober teden smo si dali, da bomo kovinske odpadke ločevali, kaj dlje bi s kupom praznih konzerv le stežka zdržali. Kovinske pokrovčke, konzerve, žice, tudi kak star plug – vse to bomo zbrali ter 23. septembra na kup pripeljali. Nato se bomo vsi skupaj veselili, saj se ne bomo le navlake znebili, ampak tudi mnogo dobrega storili! Izkupiček bomo namreč za šport in duševno zdravje otrok namenili, pa še okolje bomo lepše za sabo pustili!

Drži ali ne drži?

“Metal dej, povej naprej! Za šport, okolje in zdravje gre zdej!”

Spremljaj nas na facebook.com/metaldayvojnik

Kako pa ti zbiraš kovinske odpadke? Objavi foto ali video pod ključnikom #metaldayvojnik

Music “Power of Darq Ice” by  @DarqIce