Búcsú!!

There was no internet for 3 days, so I'm out of my routine...
I think I was in Budapest last weekend and saw Mamma Mia with Rita,
and it was good summer fun. Had a pleasant family lunch and a visit to
a photo exhibition - and a nice walk along Kiraly utca.
The last 3 days had tons of unusual rain and temperature was down
to 14 at one point, but Alan is ingenius in finding work for
wwoofers regardless... we have Domentx from Basque land and Marta from Barcelona,
both lovely people, as usual;
we also had the odd nice hostelguests, staying extra days.
And we have the Bucsu weekend upon us!
Just in time the weather is getting back to normal with 30C promised for tomorrow's communal meal at Nora's. Alan and wwoofers gone to see the fireworks - accompanied
with music this year! I'm waiting for the 5 hostelguests who promised to arrived by 8pm... I do enjoy the peace and quiet the truth being told...
Got some nice pictures made by Eszter the weekend before, I like this one; a good line-up of the goats... Oh, an Alan tidied up the bedroom - where we have a nice ceiling fan-cum-light, and the freezer room, we are getting sort of, decent...
I might even make pictures of those for next time. Oh, and Cattoo, just in case Lois
forgotten her... Apropos, those hens of ours we thought being in retirement...
today we found about 30 eggs under one of the trees.

Happy birthday Szonya!!!

It was a lovely not-to-hot day spent with cooking the new veggies, such carrots, kohlrabi going into the peasoup, then the season's first lecsó, because the paprikas decided to grow to a decent size now. Washed the cloths used for milk filtering and cheesemaking, prepared for Alan sunday's English lesson as he'll do it instead of me; I'll be in Budapest for the weekend. I am waiting for the hopefully loads of jam/lekvár we are getting from Anna for providing space for animals and soon for 5liter jars of pickles - including as much csalamádé as we like. Cooperation is the progressive side of being
a human, as I always asserted... pictures show Alan after the haycollection with
Anna's tractor; the quibecois wwoofers, who are helping us a lot, the kolbásztök (sausage marrow) a bit out of focus; a bit of the still growing salad thingies with goats eating the hill behind them.

water melon!!!

Ok, it's so small we haven't actually noticed, but who would
have looked for it on Carole's tall plant thingie?? Jozsi pointed out to us - wnever ever managed growing any melons, and who would have thought looking
up there??
Jozsi says, if it doesn't grow big, it can be pickled...
We had a wonderful weekend with my old schoolfriends, Marta, Rita and Eszter.
Went to see the "East festival" in Egerag on saturday evening.
Unfortunately they messed it up a bit as they moved the event from the
village to the football-pitch - no atmosphere, no shade... nevertheless we managed to
get some plants and langos cooked in a kemence, and Hungary's only japanese drum group (they were good). Today Alan stayed home in the cool to listen to radio 4 cricket, us girls ventured to Orfű where we had a most pleasant swim in the lake surrounded by gentle green hills; then we had a meal in the Misina TV tower - a 60s construction not in the best repear and not too cool, but fab views and decent meal.
Lois - nothing changed there whatsoever, the lift worked however...

solar fruitdrier complete

Yes, this is what Alan has been working on, it is big, beautiful and ready!
We wait for some fruit crop to try it, at the moment safron petals are in it,
to be powdered when ready. The hot air warms up and due to some clever
temperature-differences it circulates, rising up in the tower bit, where the fruit is stacked. Industrial size!
English lesson went well, it settled on Sunday mornings.
Pictures of beetroot leak-test and aubragine plants in the polytunnel.
Otherwise not much to report, quiet days without guests, not too hot, quite pleasant in fact. Cheese-making re-commenced, the old cheeses stayed good, no mold, but got too hard, so have to either eat them fast ot find a way of stopping them going hard.
Besides the garlic this batch will have red onions in it.
Basil needs chopping up and freezing. Red cabbages done well, have to look it up how to pickle them. Stuff like that.

aubragines, cougettes, and other excitements

Yes, it is main season, today I picked 3 of our aubragines - which is more
than ever - for some reason this year they love the poly-tunnel, where the tomatoes and paprikas are rather small, especially as compared to last years' - well, it seems 2 years are never the same, all surprising stuff, maybe farmers haven't died of boredom due to this very phenomenon... anyway, I made my first creamed aubragines with onions, garlic and olive oil, to be eaten on toast, tried and tasted for tea, very nice if I may say so. Everything is ready for beetroot processing, should happen tomorrow.
The last few days we have some wind and the nights are quite cool. Temperatures were forcast to stay under 30C during the day, but we are the "mediterranian region" so they did no such thing.
Our short stay French wwoofers Jerome and Amandine left today on their wonderful bicycles, lovely people and did tons of work in the 3 days they had here. Unfortunately I forgot to make pictures of them, I hope they send us some... so here are just everyday july stuff...