what happened to the white stuff?

Alan will be surprised when he's back on Thursday - all that snow managed to mostly disappear, only a few bits and pieces left. Johanna nicely cleared the paths - but it is all muddy now...
She's having all her exams from tomorrow at her university in Vienna, and she said they were getting rid off 70% of the 700 first year students. Who, by the way, can study free in Austria. Until they're kicked out...
She also promised to return to look after our place with her friend while we would be away
for the Olympics in London. We have two lots of tickets, one for table tennis, one for women's football.

We had a couple of days of balmy spring (+15+) weather, we'll back to normal +5C-ish for now.
As for Criz's comment - well, luckily I spent those days of big minuses inside - the silver lining of that sciatica. But Alan was amazed - we've never had such cold before, even though we let down the water in the other house, it still froze but luckily after heating there for couple of days the water was flowing alright when turned back on, no pipe-burst anywhere, which was a big problem for a lot of not-well-heated rooms in the village.

The deputy mayor and a council rep walked through the village every night to make sure all the vulnerable people had the means to keep warm.

Attila is growing rapidly, he'll be a big goat! When Alan is back, we can start to think about milking. Chickens started to lay 3/4 per day at the moment, nice. Have I mentioned that we had 8 duck-eggs that are in our new incubator at Erzsi's, as she has experience in turning them and helping little ducks to "be born"...

The specialist nicely tapped me over with her little hammer, written a full page about me - mainly being happy with mostly functioning bits - and had no idea what's up and sent me for MRI - got an appointment to a Pécs clinic for 21st of March. I am still doing well, even my wobbly leg-bits seems better today.

Had the pensioners' club yesterday, only 4 ladies turned up, which had allowed more personal stories. They talked about the village weddings in the good old days - when the whole community prepared together for such events.
nothing much else is happening, which is good...

on the mend

well, not everyone... we lost one of the little goats, got too cold... we brought them both into the kitchen when it turned to -25C... the female light coloured one failed to get her strength back, but black Attila is back with his mum and hopefully will pull through. He was quite well-behaved but still, it is nice not having a goat (however nice) inside...

Luckily and touch wood, no other little goats appeared yet, and keep your fingers crossed that those mummy-goats will keep them safe inside until Alan gets back from England. He'll be away 21st - 1st of March. We have a nice wwoofer Johanna to help, but she has to go back to Vienna to sit her exams next Saturday, so for 6 days I have to cope on my own, though Erzsi and family will help, of course. My back is much better, if I sit down often enough I can cope with most of the inside jobs such as cooking. My right lower leg is still numb in places, and The back can be painful at times, so I am to see a specialist on Wednesday in Siklós.

The last 3/4 days the temperatures during the day were upto +5C, and all that snow did a lot of melting. Johanna and Alan did tons of work outside tidying and stuff. Alan has seedlings growing well, so we are ready for some spring...
I have new students, 2 girls from the village, 11 and 15, bright and nice kids, I'll enjoy the lessons with them, too.
pictures show front of house with snow and less snow, Attila with cat and Alan, Johanna making bread. And my sister's wonderful grandkids.
except the sequence is all wrong again - first it was more snow, then less...!

news extra

see the surprise early arrivals plus a pic of village winter commuters. Snow is even bigger now, though the sun emerged, actually it would be lovely to go out a bit...
Alan says they look strong

winter village

I intended to show snow from the kitchen window with a few hours difference in size. A village view and happy hour(s) in the village shop.
I am glad I had to stay in lately... Alan says ducks put their feet under their wings, they are not happy. Dogs have warm places to stay, don't worry.

itchy arse

this is how Alan translates "isiász" which is what I got since Monday and it is
sciatica damnit, so my favourite things sitting and lying down are difficult and my right foot from above the right ankle feels peculiar. It's because the cold table-tennis room I'm sure, the heating was on for hours but it is a big room and it is cold around here, the last couple of days it hit -15C, even with bright sunshine it only gets to cca -5C during the day. I am sitting here with the elastic wool thingy round my belly/bottom that Alan purchased in Pécs yesterday, slightly worried in case this pain/discomfort ever goes away. Internet says, 90% of the time it does, and the bottom/back part is maybe a bit better but the leg is definitely not. First I thought it was a muscle-ache from the table tennis, but it got worse... Doc came and gave me a painkiller into the cheek in question (right) which lasted just about an hour while we chatted over tea with the doc... He didn't diagnosed as well as Alan from the internet... It is an ancient ailment and still nobody seems to know what to do, you can see very varied advice from the multitude of sufferers.
Doc is free here, but due to the stupid Hungarian setup, they are paid so little, that if they don't get tips from that part of the public who can afford it, they starve - well, no, they just go and work abroad for 10x + more money)
Ducks started to lay eggs, and we are buying an incubator for cca £50 and Erzsi (Timi's mum) who has the expertise, will deel with it all in her house, as she'll have duck eggs, too. Between us with some chicken-eggs we'll fill the 60egg tray. Apparently, you have to help these special Indian running ducks out of their shell.
Nothing much else to report besides the KiskassaBlues getting more and more thought to it, though no money yet.
Last week we found a new restaurant to savour in Pécs, the Bohemian Kitchen,
everything is cooked in beer, Alan loves it, But I liked what I had, too. It was a large portion that I resolutely won't eat anymore, I have to loose weight if I start to get these age/weight related horrid things.
I can't remember if I mentioned the chain-saw, Alan got one and between us, after a safety lesson from Zoltán, we cut up quite a lot of wood without chopping off important body bits.
Goats/ cats/dogs and us all are getting fed up with the winter, that's about it...