mid-May cool

How time flies! Cassandra recovered fully giving us tons of milk again- until yesterday she was down again, very ill with a bloated stomach. No idea what she could have eaten, the others are fine, why couldn't horrid tempered, selfish Elmintrude get ill instead? We had a nice new vet out as the other we don't trust was busy elsewhere. Which reminds me, I think I forgot to mention that both dogs are now not only had their annual compulsory inoculations, but also the compulsory chip. Now if they run away we just beep at them or something. Anyway, Cassy is not much better today, if not worse, we can kiss goodbye to all that milk, probably. The other only gives under a liter per day, which is enough for us, but not for cheese... well, less work is the silver lining. Got new ducks besides the indian runner babies that we have 3 and a half (one of them is a bit stupid and staying tiny) these are muscovites, adults, 3 layers and one drake, they are very beautiful, getting on with the geese ok, and were very cheap. Not easy to catch, we went to an Újpetre farmhouse to collect them. First thing Alan trimmed their wings. The 10 new youg chicks are running free in the front lawn with one hermit adult that was literally picked on by the others. The stables had been cleaned up and the private room, but no sign of any more bookings since the two we'd had so far. No photos, the camera is somehow disabled to connect to the computer, I take it to a camera place in Pécs to find out what is wrong. So I got a photo of Eszter's daughter Ella with the first grandchild, called Abris, don't you think they are just beautiful?

work work and suddenly summer

Kids gone home ages ago, and hard craft by Alan, Jolie and Ron, who was an overlap wwoofer with his family was done on the land. It all looks good, heavy stuff by Ron included cleaning out goat room 1, and digging a big hole for Alan's winter green house experiment. He arrived with wife Kata and Béke (3) and Csongor (1), a bit of a shock to the system, as these little ones are being brought up interestingly. All lawns are cut, flowers about, though had to do some cooking... We all took part in the mayday village picnic, Erzsi was the main chef to create a cabbage-meat- dumpling meal for our team of about 15. It was very tasty, even though it came only fourth in the cooking competition. Jenő won the bawling (3-pin, the Hungarian version called teke) It was a very hot day, after the pleasant communal meal I decided to cool down at home rather than beating everybody again in table-tennis. Other farm news: had our first sorrel harvest, most things are planted, figtree and grapewine look pretty, though the raspberry that was murdered by Charlie probably wont produce fruit this year. I have high hopes for cherries. Elmintrude stabbed Cassandra's udder, was a bit frightening, we had the vet out, but with injection and treatment the recovery was swift, we do have near 3 liters of milk per day. Time of cheese making. Photos are mostly of the picnic plus the baby grass snake that managed to sneak in the house - I did meet an adult of this snake family living in the outbuilding of the hostel house. Don't worry, they are more frightened of us, and are beautiful, useful and harmless... They eat mice and other non-preferable life-forms.

lovely springdays cont.

So kidlings are doing a lot of work and enjoying the sunshine, and of course we treasure their time here. We didn't go out much due to that work, but managed a bit of Villány - very quiet yet on a Thursday night, had to try the only open venue - the posh Gere pince restaurant, very good food. We also discovered the Kodály centre in Pécs, seen an Afrikan singing group of six, fairly entertaining if a bit repetative. But the concert hall is really impressive - more so inside. Tonight the plan is Siklós - the baths and the railway eatery. The ducklings and chicks are going fast as you can see below. Everything is just fine for the moment - oh, and new wwoofer Jolie arrived all the way from New York, and she's done tons on her first day. She said it was the hardest workday of her life... well, she can have a rest and enjoy this gorgeous lazy Sunday... the cake portrait has the flodni extravaganza Szonya brought from Budapest and the London hot cross buns, all gone ages ago...

4th day of spring

tentative flowering - but most trees are still bare. But we had a few gorgeous days, so who am I to complain. We got our little chicks and ducklings growing by the minute, though they look a bit tatty on the photo for some reason. We had the village poetry day, little kids were very good, and I wasn't bad either, (I recited József Attila's Thomas Mann's Greeting, I hope I managed to smuggle in a bit of anti-fascist education) got my special praise from the jury and a book of poetry specially meant for me... Wwoofer Bogdan made it to his next place, again by hitch-hike, to Croatia. Alan has been very busy, managed to plow the upper field, but something fallen off again the little tractor, so he's waiting for some welding before doing down here, but you could read in the papers - because of this slow spring, farmers have to do two months' work in one... and we are getting about 2 liters milk per day, cheese/kőrözött making is getting into a stride. Szonya and Drew arrived today for a working week, we try to provide the peace and quiet they need as much as possible, but when they are not working on that book and research papers, they do a bit of wwoofing, they already planted a few stuff we bought on the big Pécs market to give us some even earlier salad stuff, though I am proud to say, we have lettuces under Alan's special manure-heated glass covered beds. You can see Bogdan spreading muck, the lame duckling we thought could have grown a very fat duck as it wasn't running a lot, but sadly after 4 day effort on both our parts it died; my new mat, cattoo and some other, as I am now seem to be able to put on more than 5 photos, I can't remember them all... oh, the goose eggs now are in the incubator with more chicken eggs, keep your fingers crossed for little goslings.

depressingly non-spring

but was worse this morning, rain and wind stopped and it was cca 10C this afternoon, so we took out the crowd (3 big one little goat and 2 big one little sheep) and they were ever so happy, even Elmintrude had some silly running about. The buds are there on the cherry trees ready to burst, and we collected a handful of our own medvehagyma. The sorrel doesn't look so well, tiny leaves with brown edges. Well, we'll see. Still couldn't plant anything except the onions (still hunted by stupid pigeons that just pull them out for fun) it was really dismal all week. Alan put up loads of his rustic shelves, and we have a proper wood box in the kitchen as well as lots of coat/hat space. Little ducks and chicks are doing their best to come out of their eggs as we speak in the incubator at Erzsi's. We have 11 goose eggs now, but at this point the female goose seems to have lost interest, so we might put the eggs with the next lot to be incubated. Which reminds me, the Easter egg-collection started ok - there was a lull in the rain - but as soon as most eggs were found by the youngsters and their eager helpers - it really came down bad, so goatkid and lamb-stroking was forgotten after the cake and the elderberryflower tea and palinka (for parents!). Bogdan, the first wwoofer of the year is leaving on Monday for a Croatian wwoofer placement, he was a big help and didn't complain (much) about all the rather heavy/dirty jobs he ended up doing (well). I haven't been feeling like making photos - I will when the sun comes out, if indeed it ever will...

good omen(s)

so, Cassandra picked the coldest day of the horrid returned weird end-of-March winter, but this time Alan helped with the new little one (beautiful but male called curry) making a warm corner (dug up a special lamp from old Hornung - we still discover fascinating old farm implements) and with rubbing and nugding when necessary. It is still around zero, but the lamp is switched off - mother and kid prefer sleeping in the hay, and doing well. I wait with the photo being superstitious just a little in a strictly skeptic way. As for omens - a pair of robin redbreasts decided to take up abode in Alan's workshop - even though he was busy in the last 3 days cleaning and re-organising the place. He wants to have a warm snuggery there suitable for early goat deliveries for the future, I bet we'll have another 5 years without such silly arctic weather attacks.) And today, when Alan opened the door to the polytunnel, he found a redstart family of 5 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redstart) flying about there. Cannot figure out how they got in. Strange bird-behaviour, must be due to the funny (not ha-ha) climate. Bogdan is working very hard, last weekend he had his first days off and went to Pécs - by hitch hike again- and was duly returned Sunday afternoon by the nice owners of Ananász hostel in Pécs, who were curious about us for ages apparently and they sent guests here even before checking us out. We had a lovely time at Jenő's and Guni's on Thursday, they have a most impressing collection of ethnic percussion instruments to complement their tibetan sound therapy set of bowls. It was great fun trying them all out. And we had cake and wine to help us with our bing-bonging and ting-tanging and csilingel-ing. We moved all the food from Pali's freezer from the Old Stables, which is also getting tidied up, and so we have a full freezerful to go through before we start to harvest any new produce. Though as things stand now with the forecast of more rain, I have my doubts if any veg-growing will happen this year. However, we have 5 goose-eggs carefully hidden deep in the nesting box straw by our very conscientious new goose lady, and Ermintrude is producing nearly two liter milk on her own, with Cassandra not yet being milked for weeks. I made the seasons first kőrözött, and it is rather good, if I may say so, and I plan to make a proper hard cheese from the lot I am dripping at the moment. We had an English - or is it Welsh - leek-n-bacon soup today followed by Hungarian style (with onion and paprika) tökfőzelék (so much like I remember from my nursery days nearly 60 years ago...) with sausage and fried eggs... Cause I haven't been talking about food for ages... Pictures next time! But don't expect bird portraits - I am not an adept photographer. But hope to manage a few cute ones of the village toddlers' Sunday's Easter egg collection, where lamb and goat-kid acquaintings are planned, as per usual, in the front lawn nicely tidied by the sheep.

the good news...

... are that Alan is much better though he needed another course of antibiotics, nearly back to normal though tires easily; and that the years first wwoofer Bogdán arrived, and he's a nice lad from Romania, from the town of Hunyad originally, he've been living in Temesvár for the last few years while at university and working. He sent a wwoofer photo before departing 4am yesterday to successfully hitch-hike here by 4pm. And the geese started to lay. Maybe there will be enough laid and the lady geese will sit on them, and we'll have little geese, we;ll see!! I know, I know, now you want the bad news... well, Ermintrude managed to drop her nice two little goats just when the sudden cold snap snapped, and next morning they were dead. The truth is, that I didn't let Alan attending to them, as he was not well yet, and it was very cold. So, that is sad, but hopefully we'll still have milk and Cassandra wisely waited with hers so far. The weather was far from being as hideous as in the rest of the country where motorways were closed down by snow with hundreds of cars stranded and electricity and connection to little villages failed for days. We had the sudden -10C with horrid northern winds and a bit of snow, but nothing worse. Erzsi put 23 indian running duck eggs in the incubator and 20 chicken eggs, so we'll try to raise these when the time comes. The factory hens arrival was delayed due to the weather, they'll come next week. Tibi came to help to saw up the wood, and and Bogdán helped tons with this and other stuff an his first day. I made rakottkáposzta to make him feel at home, but he's never ever had anything quite like it. He needs feeding well, he is very skinny.

bummer

just when we were happy about the success of our locarb (basically no bread and no cakes - not easy!) and eating less diet - Alan lost nearly 4 kilos, I 2 over 4 weeks, and Tuesday Alan was rushed to hospital with a severe pain that turned out to be a gall bladder infection. Which occurs to people who diet apparently. He was allowed home in a few hours and with the aftereffects of painkiller and other medication it seemed it was all over, but life wasn't meant to me that easy, and he had a hard day yesterday, but the initial really horrid pains did not re-surface which is good. This morning he was markedly better, the main thing is to take it slowly, as we learned, and now we have to make up our mind how to do low carb as well as low fat... but this not eating for three days did a world of good for further destroyed kilos, even I lost some more due to stress and having to cope with animals. I am taking the sheep to the front lawn - they are at their best behavior, no goat-like silliness. Goats have to stay inside for now, they are dropping little ones soon anyway, - hopefully waiting until Alan is better. It looks like that I have to appear tomorrow at the village traditional International Women's Day quiz without Alan (I am baking a cherry/walnutty cake) especially sad as tomorrow marks our 40th wedding anniversary, as they say, longer than a life sentence...

allegedly spring

Was promised by the weather office for today but alas, we have to wait longer, even when after what seems yonks the sun did come out this afternoon, the temperature failed to make it over 5C. But we do have some tentative flowers that look like violet, which would be weird as they tend to come here much later. Our little lamb is growing fast and full with that love of games and enthusiasm about life which is so encouraging to the old curmudgeons we rapidly becoming. On our Wednesdays I am now taken on another student in Pécs, as we go in anyway that day; she's the lovely woman who helps us out with accounts and other paperwork, as she wouldn't take the fair amount I think she's due, I offered English lessons, which idea she jumped on bringing her friends 12 years old son, but insists on paying for - this is one way to recruit business... by the way we've got out first booking for the hostel - some nice returning Polish people for the end of June. Also we are quite well off with wwoofers, the first one, Bogdan, is arriving via hitch-hike from Romania around the 18th of March. Alan has been very busy - spreading muck, clearing, getting the flower-pots ready etc. . we received a lovely e-mail - I just copy it for you... sorry, I cannot figure out how to do breaks and paragraph since this blog editor was modified. bit dense, but keep with it... Hannah Selmes Feb 21 (7 days ago) to me Hi Alan and Eva, I was lying in bed thinking about what my answer to the question that I keep getting: "what was the best part of Europe?". And it suddenly hit me.... although some of my answers change every now and then, the one that is always in my top three is "making goats cheese from scratch! and yes, I even milked the goat". I would like to thank you again for the great experience that you gave Andrew and me. It really was a highlight of our trip, in so many ways! Yesterday were even laughing about that ridiculously cheap red wine we accidentally got drunk on in Kiskossa... we're too scared to drink more than a glass or two now! That hangover is way too sharp in my memory! (personal stuff omitted) I hope all is well with you two and that things on the farm are going well. How was your winter? Is spring on it's way yet? I'll go back to bed now. Let me know if you ever make another trip to the east coast of Australia! Xx Hannah P.s. I've planed Sorrel in the garden! I love it! Thank you for exposing me to that delicious leafy vegetable!

and now the pictures

first of all the little lamb that is doing very well, even jumping playfully already! And picking up hay, positively a cute genius. And, we have - first time - brussel sprouts, survived the big minuses, snow, rain and goats. All the others rotted a bit or been eaten or just had the buds half open/too small. But these were nice! We had them for tea with omelet yesterday. there is also Cassandra, in case you've forgotten how goats look like. Also our usual spring landside - a sign of the end of winter is nigh! A piece tend to fall down from our hill after every decent winter. You can acquaint with our happily coupled geese at last - definitely a more relaxed pair now.

new arrival!

a little lamb for Mopsie!! No picture for strictly superstitious reasons. Tomorrow! Bit it does look big and strong... and it doas all the things half day old lambs are supposed to do...

Good Tuesday

Everything somehow worked fine today - maybe there are lots of days like this, but this time we noticed; probably because we expected much hassle. We drove to Siklós, was worried about freezing rain, but it just ended up a bit of a rain, that stopped anyway. First job was to replace the main car-ownership papers - we somehow managed to mislay the folder with all our records and documents deemed important about Hyppo (silver lining: we tidied up all the places where we haven't found them) so we were told by our insurance agent, that we should report it to the police - but we've just gone the the council offices and they were really good, just had to sign a statement that we lost it and were told to collect the new one in a few weeks...! Then I went to the hospital to look at my lung screening report from the October check-up, lung stuff worries me as I have a cough sort of nearly every day, and I had worked in some unhealthy labs in pre health and safety times, anyway - the results were given to me in no time - negative, even my heart is the right size and in the right place apparently. Then we got salt-lick for the goats and sheep and some more posh food for cat 2 who lately seems to be frightened of her food and only seems to enjoy milk and a bit of pate sometimes. They were very nice to us everywhere today... Then we had a bit of a walk, went to the little market that was open today, got fruit and salad stuff and meat from the butcher that seemed closed for good last time... We had lunch in the Railway restaurant, which was full of people, the set menu was a tasty and large portion of potato+veg soup, then meat pancake (hortobágyi palacsinta) for Alan and pork schnitzel (two large tasty non-fat pieces) with chips, rice (I left most of these!! - remember - we are on diet) and gherkin for me. With the (proper Romanian) orange juice and tonic water and coffee 2100HUF (cca 6UKpounds), with an apple and little piece of chocolate extras! And a wrapper of the said little choc in Alan's espresso - one of the young waiters nicked a choc and the wrapper ended up in the cup... poor lad was given a proper (if quiet) bollocking by the manager... then on the way home we had a call from Erzsi, that she managed to arrange a swap one of our curmudgeon gander for a lady goose, at last - and turned out that she was calling from the Újpetre just when we approached and could give her a lift. And we received our supply of honey from the local bee-man. Also had an enjoyable lesson with Zoltán, and now we are ready for today's Scrabble duel...

been double pirated, not nice

First our website was sold from under us, to, puzzlingly, a Japanese site concerned with workers accumulated libidos and pictures of rather under-aged looking girls. So we are now www.ecohun.org, if it still works. Also, all my contacts got an e-mail from me containing just a link - don't open it, it is a slimming wonder advertisement, I did not send it, honest. And all the comments I get to the blog seem to be spams, as well. Seems as the hay-day of the internet is about grinding to a halt making it less and less useful and more and more annoying, like they did with TV and all things that can be ruined by the introduction of money... Anyway, we are back in mad Orbán country and the weather so far is awful, even if the wind is not as bone-splitting as it was in England. We got Hyppo back, with two brand new batteries shining amongst the older bits. All is well, Erzsi made our kitchen sparkle and the fire glowing for our arrival, lovely. We are settling in to the old routine, with the added excitement of trying to lose weight with the wonder-slimming method: eating less, and less carbohydrates, mostly, less bread and no cakes whatsoever. So by the time Lois arrives we'll be as thin as we've been in Sydney in 1976... well, or just 5 kilos less than now, that would be nice on so many levels. We had our first day today, no bread and no cakes even though we had a (hot) drink in the cake place on the synagogue square. I steam cooked 5 different veggies (from the freezer, of course, sin potato) and put the lot in the kitchen blender - and got a rather nice and thick soup which we enjoyed with hajdina (buck wheat) sauté-d and cooked. In the evening we had a salad. And fruit. So far so good. We are hungry, so the diet is working...

a bid bedder... still in Mildro

The snow's gone, my cold is still here sporadically, while Alan managed to catch it after a week of heroic resistance. But not too bad, no fever, decent appetite. he hopes to be well enough tonight to attend quiz. I am well enough, but elect to stay home keeping dad's company, I found those not taking part cannot hear the questions anyway, so for them it is boring, and I cannot chat to the others. We did have the curry last saturday, eleven of us, was very pleasant, only very few grumbles from Alan... No news from Kiskassa, lets hope that's good news. Erika the mayor e-mailed that the free wood arrived and was duly distributed to the families in need. It is snowing there, so it is good that the extra wood arrived in time. We hope to be back to our normal by Friday, we plan to spend the afternoon in Manchester and to meet Szonya at Piccadilly Station in the evening. We are arriving back to Budapest on Monday 4th feb and to Kiskassa on the 6th, picking up Hyppo from the toyota repair place in Pecs, it needed new batteries, I forgot to tell the story about Alan leaving on the fog-lamp... the call-out insurance thing worked well - so far.

see last post...

... which is much more interesting. I could attach a lovely xmas-card foto - there is thick snow here in Milnrow, near Manchester, UK, and bone-biting winds are getting through all cloths if you venture out. Which I refused to do today, letting Alan to face the elements and see friends on his own, as I managed to catch a bit of a cold I shouldn't pass on as an extra with the paprika infused presents. Ah well, can't everything go smoothly all the time. Back to camomile tea, telly with dad and kindle... Watching the snow-scape outside from the warm living room is ok, really.

... and off again...

well, you need a bit of bad news to be able better appreciate the good ones... all the Indian running ducks were killed - the opinions wary about the murderer - Gus was named, but just maybe they were not locked up that fatal night just before xmas... still, whatever, a lot of money and work wasted. We'll try again in the spring - Erzsi still have 3 we promised to have as further breeding stock. Alan is into a scheme to raise money from this global website for good causes - his being communal bio-brick production from waste paper, and tree planting. He made his promotional video today - and is quite happy with the outcome of the very first trial, the very first video he's ever made - not too bad. Have to figure out how to put it here and to youtube. Got it!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIi6P0suiBM Otherwise, Charlie left on Saturday and is flying back to Canada tomorrow; it is quick cleaning, packing, re-packing before our next trip - to Alan's Dad, Milnrow Lancashire, our flight to Manchester is on Friday, 18th, we'll return on the 6th of February, staying a few days at Marta's. Martin had his article published in Science and had interviews with the harvard astro blog as well as the Toronto Star - here is the photo made by the Star photographer.

BÚÉK 2013

what a weird sound to 2013 - too much like sci-fi time-warp... (sorry Lois - this is called lazy blogging) Bit of anti-climaxish here, kids all' flown away yesterday and got the messages that they arrived safely and were too knackered to go out to celebrate. we went to the grand Silvester concert with Marta, and Alan, the birthday boy, who totally disliked it and I won't hear the end of it for a few years. I thought it was quite good and interesting if not memorable... Walking the downtown streets were not as I remembered - quite devoid of what could be called crowds, but a lot of small groups/couples roaming around looking for something of past jollyfications, like us. still, all not bad, and resolution is (mine) to only eat when hungry, food devoid of unhealthiness... hm except the poppyseed beigli that begged to be finished... there lingering here sulkily xmas cake, xmas pudding, beigli - and a decent portion of lentil, which has to be eaten on New Years Day to make one beautiful and rich... The last few days were a pleasantly lovely blur of drinks, food, ambling on the streets and lots of mulled wine. Went to see the new Ken Loach film Angels' Share, that was as good as usually is, enjoyable with -sorry if I mess it up for you - happy end for a change. Went to see the Cezanne exhibition with Sharon (great - except us being not so much interested in the scatches) and discovered on the way back from the Museum of fine arts a great Turkish coffee/tea house. We went to see my sister's on the 25th, having a real family xmas meal, minus any stress, all was just lovely, kids adults all having a good time. Hope to get fotos soon. Sharon was taken to her first cave-visit; went to the Pálvölgyi dripstone cave, that was quite impressive especially being practically in the middle of Buda, though much less dripsones/stalactite/stalagmite than I remembered. So as you can see, it was yet another joyous holiday, especially as kids+extra kids were here, marred with the eventual parting. oh yes! We treated (if they agree to that verb) the non-hungarian contingent (Sharon and Drew) to Fungarian - which is an hour of intensive lesson in Hungarian language and customs in the Katapult pub... we rescued them after a free extra 30 minutes by the very enthusiastic teacher, the students seemed a bit bewildered, but claimed that they enjoyed the experience and who are we to doubt their words. best wishes again for all who bothers peeping through these non=too-exciting and lately non-too farming bloggings. Fotos are again dominated by food as usual - I hope more being sent by Szonya and Sharon in the next few days. You can see tökfőzelék in the Kádár kifőzde, flódni, which is the cake with layers of poppyseed, wallnuts and apple filling, the Széna tér market (also food) and of course, xmas pudding (bought all the way from England)

bye bye 2012

no, it doesn't mean that I think tomorrow is the end of the world. No, tomorrow I'm visiting my auntie Edit and probably do a bit more walking around the colourful Budapest Christmas kiosks and eat too much, just as usual. Housesitter Charlie seems a bit quiet lately, I mean he hasn't communicated for 5 days now, but a villager had spied him getting on a bus yesterday, so we hope all is well, he did his hermit- days while we were in Greece and all was ok at the end sort of. we made - well, Martin made a decent foto of the Újbuda market we visited today - building up our wine/veg/fruit supply and having a fish/sousage/főzelék lunch, very pleasant except for the carrying heavy stuff back part. We've seen two films, Monte something Summer pleasant enough if smaltzy, and The Hobbit - expected to be disappointed and were plus got a headache from the different definition. We might give a miss to the rest - how silly is it to make three long films from one thin book. We spent some time with my sister's three grandchildren, they are so beautiful and clever - but it was a bit of a shock to the system... even though it was only for the last hour they were all three present. Drew's apartment is warm and comfortable, and we are looking forward to the arrival of the rest of the company and the festivities. On the 31st everybody flies away - we'll spend New Year Eve with Marta

at a percussion concert, champagne included in the big new culturehouse (Müpa) and walking the streets of partying Budapest home. Happy holidays everyone! Foto of us from last christmas time in the Cellarium in Pécs if I remember correctly.

interesting times

we've done all that washing etc, wood was chainsawed, and other domestic stuff, and then the snow and the cold came, brrr. I think the idea of staying away for 4 months in the winter was a good one, we'd better stat to organize it properly for next year... and now just to catch up some stories such as the GPS - thank you Pali! So we used a borrowed GPS with outdated maps, however, after the initial "what's the point we've got a new map" it turned out to be a real help. We first used it when ending up in the middle of Novi Sad (Serbia) which turned out to me a much bigger city than expected, after the initial panic and getting lost - when switching it on, it worked in the dark and had taken us out of town in minutes. We used it after that all the way - and besides showing us flying when we passed new parts to the motorway, it was just great, and entertaining, telling us how much thousands of miles left to our destination etc... weirdly, the battery had run down faster when plugged in the cigarette lighter socket, we just charged it every night and then used it without plugging it in the pickup. on the last day home we were a tad worried as it took us on tiny Croatian roads to the boarder crossing that was nearest to us, if the battery had run out at that point, we would have been in a mess in the dark - as it was, it was the shortest and quickest way. Though the Croatian customs people insisted me taking off my coat - I still wonder what they thought I was hiding... and on the Hungarian side the boarder guide I'm sure I'd never seen before knew that we are going to Kiskassa... (we worked out that one with some help) -10C and big snow here now, Charlie, the Canadian housesitter seems ok, looks after the animals even while we're home (wow) a bit sort of untidy and sort of not into cleaning much, but we'll cope... he bought himself a guitar (he writes songs, and sings well) and discovered parts of the guest house getting the wi-fi we were not aware. He's the first person I know to get drunk with a friend on facebook - not even skype) So in Budapest we'll stay in Drew/Szonya's apartment, it will be so exciting spending more than a couple of harried days in my still favorite city . Also kids and partners arrive all on different days, which adds to the oddity and make this xmas -hm - special. But we'll have time to set things comfortably. so - if you won't hear from me, that means that I couldn't find wi-fi in that apartment or that it is too dark to blog from Szimpla...and now, let's see if I find a good foto I haven't shown you from our wonderful Greece...

snow...

yes, we are blamed for bringing the winter - the weather was very good with the exception of one short colder period, in Hungary, too. We had to believe it, as I managed to eat 3 raspberries (!!) that escaped Charlie's pruning by hiding with the grapevine - where also a small bunch of edible grapes were found. And we should attend the dill, cabbages, broccoli and - excitement - the first successful crop of brussels sprouts for xmas. The last two days of travel were long and eventful, we arrived about 8pm Saturday - house was in darkness, everything locked, we had to assume, that Charlie was out. Only after a pleasant evening at Jenő's and Guni's when the last bus had no Charlie, Alan climbed through the back gate like a gazelle - after all that fine wine of Jenő's, and made a more serious attempt to raise our lovely house sitter, this time with success. He was there earlier, too, but watching a dvd... anyway, we are back, all is well in the village, nobody died... the house was cold, but with leaving on the central heating over night and running the fire in the kitchen, today is more comfortable, even though there is a sharp North breeze. An other EU food donation was distributed, there was a successful bid for new furniture for the doctor's waiting room, and 4 people employed in the public works; the old people's club was run very well without me. We have to organize ourselves sharpish, as we are off to Budapest at the end of next week for the xmas - new year period this year, for a change. We did post office, Siklós shopping today, Wednesday bank and other tasks in Pécs. Just washing all the stuff from the trip is a awful. Animals are fine, the same numbers, and hardly any hay was used, as the grass was so plentiful all this time. I catch up on fotos

: the front and back views of the Hotel Ilion in Nafplio; the view of castle no 1 there , winter views at breakfast in the restaurant we stopped for our last night in Greece; and our last glimpse of Greece - Mount Olympos with snow...