picture update

surprise cherries on the year old trees! behind the space nicely cleared by Erzsi -

and on the other side the pretty poppies she had no heart to chop. And a bit behind: the new grape-field! It's hot with daily thunder in the afternoon - sometimes even rain. Winter and Dagmar did tons of good work. Alan's allergy flared up yesterday, but it's getting better.

It was various carelessness - not taking the tablets and working in the heat... hm - tons of

other stuff happened - but I cannot recall it in front of the PC - better take notes... (Eva)

ps

ps I forgot to mention (I think) that Alan 's allergy is under control with the tablets
we got from the Pécs allergy clinic. So far so good.

not much...

not a lot happened really... Winter and Dag collected loads of hay from
a neighbouring field, that was donated to us, they also did amazing amount of corn and sunflower weeding, and we had a very serious storm with a useful amount of rain and no damage this afternoon. Tomorrow it's outing to Pécs, we'll hunt for aubragine plants - they just wouldn't grow from seeds - have a bit of shopping other stuff at the market, hand hang out, Alan will play pool and come home later, while I'll try to get those hopefully obtained plants home on the 2 o'clock bus. We got a letter from Carolyn!!! Now we should really answer it- meanwhile we hope you read this Carolyn!! We are pleased you are back on some normalcy, and that overall you are still happy about the hungarian experience... if I understood correctly...
We wish you further recuperation and strenghening!

my average day...

an hour up the field trying to find the sweetcorn amongst the weeds,
then a bit of lunchmaking, lunch with the 3 wwoofers, (pea-soup, rakottkáposzta,
wallnutty/poppy noodles - this was the food, wwoofers are Winter and Dag and Erzsi)
siesta, english lesson, belly-dancing...
We have now cucumbers, tons of lettuces, redish, strawberry, besides the parsly and everpresent sorrel. We also had 7 eggs yesterday - not bad from 9 rejected ex-factory hens!
Oh, and ofcourse, the goat-milk, but not that much at present, as the little goats are getting big, probably weaned soon.
Still no mosquitoes, amazing. Because the swallows and frogs came first, due to the incredibly dry winter and spring. The silver lining... Next time pictures of the belly-dancing, I promise!

of cherries

I forgot to mention, that we have for weeks now "cut and come again" lettuces

(Is there a shorter name for these?) but we had some ginormous lettuces that

sort of happened on the field from last year and Alan put them in the polytunnel.

The cherries actually were a present from Gita and Ferry, who have this early-cherry tree, and it has unbelievable amount on. They are little, but nice. We do have our own strawberries though, which is again, very early. And the corn and sunflower started to show on the "lower field" we were a bit worried, that we'll have nothing growing... but now, there'll be plenty to do for upcoming wwoofers!

another oops

well, the winyard fall through... The people who were to sell it took out the holding posts, so we detected the lack of good will... besides, we would have taken on too much work, especially if attempted sans chemicals... it was a nice idea... maybe next time. some update pictures of animals as recorded by Steve. (Eva)

storm!

unfortunately no pictures of yours truly with The Master heroically replacing
rooftiles that were torn via mini tornado this very afternoon! All fairly well done before the proper rain came, though as security measure the the double airbed was laid under the replaced tiles area... and proper roofmen are coming on thursday from the house-insurance. The rain was most welcome.
My Budapest weekend break was lovely, been in the new concert hall next to the Danube, very impressive, and the concert was fascinating to me, who not all that often been to such events altogether, especially classical music... My mum and dad (86 and 87) and the great-grand-daughter, Hanna (9 and a bit months) , are in fine fettle (touch wood in a skeptic fashion) then on returning, lunch with Alan and Steve (thanks for everything, Steve, wow, t-shirts, especially the Rochdale Samba band one!) then English, than I chickened out of belly dancing (bad back and had to feed animals as boys stayed in town)
so Gita and Doris used this as an excuse to run away, too! Thursday, we'll be DEFINITELY going, we'll show to them young ones - you need a bit of belly etc, for belly dancing!!

city girl's discovery...

Yes, hens get up with the sun, like other birds, and if they are
let out in that unfriendly hour, they lay loads more eggs.
So, that’s why my fellow villagers greet me with “jó napot!” (=good day)
to my sleepy “Jó reggelt!” (=good morning) even if I magage to make it to the shop
before 7…

The picture should say: the future… we were given this big piece of cured ham,
Never handled one like this, it was quite a puzzle where to start, and what to do thereafter… we hanged (hung?) it back on it’s nail in the larder for the time being.

Should have made a glorious photo of our brave and belly-dancers (but naturally, I forgot to take the camera with me).
They (3 of them with beautiful tingling attire) demonstrated their skill today at the tea-house get-together. Well, next time…
I decided to have a go, it’s far more entertaining than aerobic, and at least as sporty.
Timea, our qualified village belly-dance teacher, plays more tribal , original music from Egypt, than the stuff I am familiar with, but it’s ok.
There was a bit of competition between the English speakers trying out their Hungarian language skills, and the more reluctant or shy Hungarian students warming up slowly to speak their English… And I am being proud of both lot, as I am their teacher… The English tea and biscuits went down well, as per usual, but we had some additional nice cakes on offer.

The vet came out to see Clary, who’s got some discharge, and for piglets, that needed
worming. We did notice, that their tails were not curling in the expected fashion,
and that meant something was amiss! All patients had their medication via injections,
with minimal amount of chasing about…

The weeds had a tremendous comeback since the rain, we do need those wwoofers –
None expected until the 18th, due to our cautious approach this year. The freezer is still full, we’d better get eaten all them peas, carrots, sorrel, spinach, etc, etc…
I am off to Budapest to see my mum and dad for a few days, so Alan and mate Steve who is visiting from England, can enjoy a bit of peace and quiet…(Eva)

village wedding

yes, we had one! Just one picture - from the groom's house, where best man and crowd turns up to ask him to go to the house of the bride to ask her... with band all accross the village with cakes and wine for every onlooker. Great stuff. Also, on Mayday, there are Maypoles planted to the fron tof houses where unwed maidens are to be found. Used to be the lads that fancied said girls, but in today's soft world, it's the caring dads who plant the "poles" to come down at witsuntime.

good news and bad news

we are now proud winyard owners! More about it later.
Alan got his eyes swollen again with his horrid allergy, should have started to
take the pills at the first tingle but he would not. Let's hope they work.

rain!

just as Alan ordered it, we have gentle, warm and lasting rain.

I try to catch up with pictures I failed with yesterday.

majális

Second try – all lost this morning, tried to pack too many pictures…
So this time I attempt in two goes.
Majális is May Day community outing – originally a town-folk thing I think, who needs more being out in the fresh air, than us village-folk. However, it is still a novelty, to spend time in a big field, surrounded by woods and green fields,
Eating, playing games, walking about, messing about. Mostly it was gulyás, the
real stuff, cooked in big pots in several family groups, on the communal one that looked a bit like Stone Henge, there was mostly bacon and onions stuck on sticks hold over the ember, and the juices thus created collected on fresh bread. Quite nice actually… Some pictures were made from the cca 15meter hunters’ tower.
Also I forgot to introduce to you goatkid no.2, who is thankfully a female, therefore she has a name, and she is called Carolyne… and a swallow-tailed butterfly Alan caught in the yard. Don’t worry, after the photo-session it was let go.