p.s. relax!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBzon0p4BH4&feature=player_embedded

easter sunday

Yes, we had the egg-search, but there were a disappointingly low number of toddlers, sweet as they were.
all the other age-groups were much more numerous, searching for eggs on wilder terrains, where horrid adult folk hid eggs
amongst the nastiest nettles. I managed to donate 60 eggs!!
There was a professional egg-painting artist helping with
the egg-colouring, curtesy of the german minority league.

The goat curry was a big success yesterday, when old friends arrived for the weekend. Today we enjoyed walks and more food in Pécs.

No pictures - you've seen them all, no point in repeat pictures of Pécs or strawberry plants or naughty dogs...

Tomorrow it is easter sunday, when girls/women get sprinkled with water or smelly parfumes, for which honour they have to pay with painted eggs, cakes, drinks and even money. No chance of this latest,
economic crisis... they'll have some sweets and that's all, and if they come at a silly early hour they'll get b.'all.

we had a bit of panic as - as per usual when expecting important guests, we had no mainline phone, no internet and no hot water in the guest-house - but as per usual, it all worked out in time.

There'll be The Great Voluntary Work Day in the village - next saturday - starting at 7am sharp. There will be major building work - replacing the front path to the council building (very slippy stones there at the moment very dangerous) concrete play area for
a type of game played with football called "lábtengo" for older kids, laid on the playground, general cleaning and flower-planting everywhere; there'd better be a mass -turnout or else!!
in the late afternoon there'll be communal food cooked by the pensioner's club for the tired workers in a big bogrács.

happy birthday Marc-Barc and Juci!!!!

p.s. It is a bit of reflection of the changing media here -
it was reported as part of the news what Jesus did on
easter Sunday. I was a tad surprised, facts and religion mashed together - need I say more...
also we were told by a friend today, that in Pecs university psychology department students reported that some authority figures started to teach that being gay is a curable illness... unbelievable stuff. Heading right back to the dark ages. And the so-called socialist party still doing nothing to figure out the reason for their abysmal showing, namely, refusing being even a little bit socialist, privatising and being the vanguard of fairly vicious capitalism when they were in power, even if not as much and not as much demagoguely as the present lot. But the hoards leaving Fidesz have nowhere to go - people who don't want (ever?) to vote again are now 50% in Hungary, we should be lucky they did not go straight to the arms of the fascists. There is no real "left" to go to - same as everywhere else.

down still...

sorry about being scarce, I was just back home from visiting my mum,
when she was taken to hospital due to a stroke, which turned out to be relatively mild, but you can imagine how frightened we all were. My mum is back home today - the hospital wasn't exactly top notch, things gone much worse than I remember, with very few nurses and no standard supplies for bathroom, etc.
anyway, mum's control of her mouth is the only function effected,
and even in these few days she's been improving. At first she could only say "no" clearly, everything else came out garbled. But today I could talk to her on the phone, the first few words now intelligible, then it goes off a bit. But she is not as frustrated and upset as everyone else was... She has her laugh, which is very comforting.

back at the farm there were major escapes, we had no dogs, none, for about 3 days. 3 girls from the village came to our gate telling us about the wherabouts of our deserters. It is not a nice feeling when all these years your dogs pretend to adore you, and then they can just not do anything else but escape as soon as they can.
when I went up with the girls to this last house of the village, they were in that yard with other loose dogs. At least they did come to me when I called them, and with the girls we managed to take them home. I was carrying Bonzo, and Gus was pulled on a leash.
Elderberry drinks and chocolates were the reward, and we had a nice chat about the school, so I managed to gain inside information - apparently there is a teacher hitting the kids which I am sure is illegal, and I am now on the schoolboard thing as the rep from the village.

We called out the vet as the dogs were in a bad shape full of tics, and Bonzo having bits of him missing. They had painful injections and been tied up ever since. Bonzo seems happy enough - he's got a new place next to the garage, and he is used to being tied up now. But Gus is miserable and was crying for days, stopped now.
we have no choice, if they climb through everything. They can be shot by the local hunters guarding the wild life, also the other dogs are quite aggressive, the girls said.
we'll try to buy the type of fencing that bends backwards, see if we manage to find out where to get these.
the sheep and the goats are happy however, the electric fence is working (touch wood - well that would be shorting!) and they are out eating good lucerne etc. Things started to grow, though Alan is always convinced this time of the year that things won't grow...
the strawberry is flowering, the tulips are doing well, and had to cut the grass...
getting ready for easter, expecting friends and there will be the usual easter egg search in our front lawn on Easter Sunday by the toddlers of the village.
weather is lovely - bit chilly in the morning and 20+ during the day.