more hol pics + maybe billygoat

some of the boats, as Alan commanded. titles: Often Not Narrow Enough; Maple in Lock, Just Another Canal View; View from Acquaduct; Nantwich.

We may buy a large 5 years old billygoat on Saturday. Nobody "rents" them anymore it seems.

back from narrow boat life

All was maintained here nicely by Timi and Dodi, they forgot to eat the raspberries! But you want to know about the narrow boat adventure... Well, the boat was very uncomfortable for 7 adults, 5 of whom happen to be largish. But with our superior and multiplied intelligence, cooperation, grim determination and good humour, we'd overcome... Also, the 4 county ring we planned to do was closed - as they managed to inform us on the day of boarding... Do not use Middlewich Narrowboats, for such venture, they are crap.
Anyways, we went to Nantwich and to Chester, and crossed about 30 locks some of them stepped, all in one piece. The weather was unbelievable with NO RAIN at all, and only a couple of cool days. We saw tons of beautiful countryside, interesting birds, fab giant trees, cows and sheep, swans and ducks and manoeuvring, mooring, pulling and tying that long boat seemed to have amused most of us... We had pub meals, curry, fish-n-chips; met lots of very friendly folk, so all in all it was ok! More later by Alan, probably. The pictures included show the cabin we slept in with Alan, which, for some reason looks bigger than the pub lunch also shown, though it probably wasn't...

pre hol blog

yes, the last one till sometimes after the 20th, when I'll hopefully bore you with wonderful pictures of our canal adventure from all four counties.
The last three guests left early this morning, got nice write-ups in the book and tons of money. I washed bedding, leaving the cleaning for tomorrow. Found a shop in Pecs that sells size 42 shoes - which is size 7.5 really, which is what I was, so my feet didn't grow after all, just Hungarian sizes are silly. I got so excited in that shop of tons of 42s, that I probably didn't choose the best or prettiest, but the one I have on while I type this, pretty wonderfully comfortable.
I gave lots of homework to Zoltan, and I hope he'll say it all loud while he's doing them.
Nothing got out today. Pali was here and added the sugar to the cider, not as much as last time. Well, I guess, it's good bye for now! Oh, Tahar brought over some beautiful apples.

day 4?

loosing count... lovely warm late-summer day, collected more lovely "tomato-paprika" and yellow tomatoes. Sorted all the paperwork, for which I am very proud. Cleaned the house, but did quite a bit of reading that oz yarn. Had lesson with Timi and Dodi, they fixed the chicken wire, so hopefully no more escapes. Gus behaves now quite good when they do, he just barks and doesn't get as near to them as to frightening them to death as happened in the past.
The cats showed up briefly this morning, both of them being nervous, which is not at all like cattoo. I don't know what could have happened, I don't think now that they are fed elsewhere.
I kept Dodi and Timi for tea, as I made a "lay out" for Lucy anyways.
All guests are leaving early tomorrow morning, first time ever if I remember correctly, someone will catch the 04:30 bus!

day3 ok, I messed up

I picked tomatoes and marrows, so I undid the electric fence, and forgot to reconnect it. The goats must have been out only for a few minutes - but they destroyed our pride - the line of late sweetcorns
that were doing so well... I hope the fence is working well, otherwise ... by the way, the chickens got out, too, today, so I'll ask Dodi to nail up the chicken wire, like I thought it should be done ages ago, never mind. Gave tea for the 3 guests, a marrow theme, (tokfozelek, toklecso) a bit of tarhonya, salad, the Canadian girls are vegetarian, so everything was appreciated... did a few fasirt balls for the non-vegetarian Lucy from Taiwan. Oh, and tomato soup from those tomatoes picked in the morning, as mentioned above...
bother, bother. They (the goats) didn't eat the lettuces and - wonder wonder - the cabbages, as far as I could see. But I had to rush back to the cooking, so didn't quite measure up the damage. sorry and sorry.

day 2

bit headachy still even though it cleared up by the afternoon, with lovely warm, clear late-summer day, 25C+. German girls left lunchtimish, Canadians arrived by taxi, as couldn't find out about buses. An hour later Lucy, the taiwanese girl arrived by the bus.
She had tea with me. They're all nice, of course, and they all insisted on paying on the first day, which is unusual...
anyways, I changed/washed bedding, vac'd the guesthouse and stuff like that. Lucky I did marrow cooking (fozelek and lecso) yesterday,
I could provide interesting food for Lucy, I think she liked it.
Geese got out, managed to get them back. Did a bit of weeding, watched tennis, was crap at the crossword - that's about it - pictures: the promised one about the new bench, storm-frightened Gus, szecska being chopped for the mushroom fodder,and whatever else I can fit on. Haven't seen the cats for 2 days, I think the lady at Nora's who's here for a couple of months, must be tempting them with extra good food or something. Also now Gus can jump the fence, too, and spent all time in the front before being chastised, and so it was probably bothering the cats. I miss them, and bought so much cat food for our being away... still, they did this treason stuff before.

quick before front; day 1

all day it was very close very humid, Alan did well to get out of it, he said he had to put on coat at the airport outside viewing terrace; (he is on his way to Milnrow, he spends a week at his dad's before our canal narrowboat adventure);the cold front arrived to Budapest Ferihegy, but only some electrical storm visible without thunder at the moment here, thus the quick blog before I switch of the computer for safety.
the German girls who booked yesterday duly arrived with the 2 o'clock bus.
well, just a little summary of the last few days; we bought some proper traditional barrels - the cellar look better already - and a new batch of cider is in the making, Alan managed to put in a bit of body - he managed to grind in the top of his right thumb... so he left with a little bundle and a still painful hand, but no bone was broken... Hm, what else? Seems that tons happened, but I can't think any of it. Pictures of the new-to-us barrels next week, I can't be bothered now, I curl up with a book, one of the hundreds that Jutka delivered from Balatonalmadi - it had tons that were definitely not Durant family leftovers, never mind. This one is an Australian family yarn The Thorn Bird. We watched with Alan a 70s video series from the UK "Survivors" it didn't age very well, but we somehow couldn't stop and ended up going through all 13 episodes... yes, totally improbable happy end... night night