allegedly spring

Was promised by the weather office for today but alas, we have to wait longer, even when after what seems yonks the sun did come out this afternoon, the temperature failed to make it over 5C. But we do have some tentative flowers that look like violet, which would be weird as they tend to come here much later. Our little lamb is growing fast and full with that love of games and enthusiasm about life which is so encouraging to the old curmudgeons we rapidly becoming. On our Wednesdays I am now taken on another student in Pécs, as we go in anyway that day; she's the lovely woman who helps us out with accounts and other paperwork, as she wouldn't take the fair amount I think she's due, I offered English lessons, which idea she jumped on bringing her friends 12 years old son, but insists on paying for - this is one way to recruit business... by the way we've got out first booking for the hostel - some nice returning Polish people for the end of June. Also we are quite well off with wwoofers, the first one, Bogdan, is arriving via hitch-hike from Romania around the 18th of March. Alan has been very busy - spreading muck, clearing, getting the flower-pots ready etc. . we received a lovely e-mail - I just copy it for you... sorry, I cannot figure out how to do breaks and paragraph since this blog editor was modified. bit dense, but keep with it... Hannah Selmes Feb 21 (7 days ago) to me Hi Alan and Eva, I was lying in bed thinking about what my answer to the question that I keep getting: "what was the best part of Europe?". And it suddenly hit me.... although some of my answers change every now and then, the one that is always in my top three is "making goats cheese from scratch! and yes, I even milked the goat". I would like to thank you again for the great experience that you gave Andrew and me. It really was a highlight of our trip, in so many ways! Yesterday were even laughing about that ridiculously cheap red wine we accidentally got drunk on in Kiskossa... we're too scared to drink more than a glass or two now! That hangover is way too sharp in my memory! (personal stuff omitted) I hope all is well with you two and that things on the farm are going well. How was your winter? Is spring on it's way yet? I'll go back to bed now. Let me know if you ever make another trip to the east coast of Australia! Xx Hannah P.s. I've planed Sorrel in the garden! I love it! Thank you for exposing me to that delicious leafy vegetable!

and now the pictures

first of all the little lamb that is doing very well, even jumping playfully already! And picking up hay, positively a cute genius. And, we have - first time - brussel sprouts, survived the big minuses, snow, rain and goats. All the others rotted a bit or been eaten or just had the buds half open/too small. But these were nice! We had them for tea with omelet yesterday. there is also Cassandra, in case you've forgotten how goats look like. Also our usual spring landside - a sign of the end of winter is nigh! A piece tend to fall down from our hill after every decent winter. You can acquaint with our happily coupled geese at last - definitely a more relaxed pair now.

new arrival!

a little lamb for Mopsie!! No picture for strictly superstitious reasons. Tomorrow! Bit it does look big and strong... and it doas all the things half day old lambs are supposed to do...

Good Tuesday

Everything somehow worked fine today - maybe there are lots of days like this, but this time we noticed; probably because we expected much hassle. We drove to Siklós, was worried about freezing rain, but it just ended up a bit of a rain, that stopped anyway. First job was to replace the main car-ownership papers - we somehow managed to mislay the folder with all our records and documents deemed important about Hyppo (silver lining: we tidied up all the places where we haven't found them) so we were told by our insurance agent, that we should report it to the police - but we've just gone the the council offices and they were really good, just had to sign a statement that we lost it and were told to collect the new one in a few weeks...! Then I went to the hospital to look at my lung screening report from the October check-up, lung stuff worries me as I have a cough sort of nearly every day, and I had worked in some unhealthy labs in pre health and safety times, anyway - the results were given to me in no time - negative, even my heart is the right size and in the right place apparently. Then we got salt-lick for the goats and sheep and some more posh food for cat 2 who lately seems to be frightened of her food and only seems to enjoy milk and a bit of pate sometimes. They were very nice to us everywhere today... Then we had a bit of a walk, went to the little market that was open today, got fruit and salad stuff and meat from the butcher that seemed closed for good last time... We had lunch in the Railway restaurant, which was full of people, the set menu was a tasty and large portion of potato+veg soup, then meat pancake (hortobágyi palacsinta) for Alan and pork schnitzel (two large tasty non-fat pieces) with chips, rice (I left most of these!! - remember - we are on diet) and gherkin for me. With the (proper Romanian) orange juice and tonic water and coffee 2100HUF (cca 6UKpounds), with an apple and little piece of chocolate extras! And a wrapper of the said little choc in Alan's espresso - one of the young waiters nicked a choc and the wrapper ended up in the cup... poor lad was given a proper (if quiet) bollocking by the manager... then on the way home we had a call from Erzsi, that she managed to arrange a swap one of our curmudgeon gander for a lady goose, at last - and turned out that she was calling from the Újpetre just when we approached and could give her a lift. And we received our supply of honey from the local bee-man. Also had an enjoyable lesson with Zoltán, and now we are ready for today's Scrabble duel...

been double pirated, not nice

First our website was sold from under us, to, puzzlingly, a Japanese site concerned with workers accumulated libidos and pictures of rather under-aged looking girls. So we are now www.ecohun.org, if it still works. Also, all my contacts got an e-mail from me containing just a link - don't open it, it is a slimming wonder advertisement, I did not send it, honest. And all the comments I get to the blog seem to be spams, as well. Seems as the hay-day of the internet is about grinding to a halt making it less and less useful and more and more annoying, like they did with TV and all things that can be ruined by the introduction of money... Anyway, we are back in mad Orbán country and the weather so far is awful, even if the wind is not as bone-splitting as it was in England. We got Hyppo back, with two brand new batteries shining amongst the older bits. All is well, Erzsi made our kitchen sparkle and the fire glowing for our arrival, lovely. We are settling in to the old routine, with the added excitement of trying to lose weight with the wonder-slimming method: eating less, and less carbohydrates, mostly, less bread and no cakes whatsoever. So by the time Lois arrives we'll be as thin as we've been in Sydney in 1976... well, or just 5 kilos less than now, that would be nice on so many levels. We had our first day today, no bread and no cakes even though we had a (hot) drink in the cake place on the synagogue square. I steam cooked 5 different veggies (from the freezer, of course, sin potato) and put the lot in the kitchen blender - and got a rather nice and thick soup which we enjoyed with hajdina (buck wheat) sauté-d and cooked. In the evening we had a salad. And fruit. So far so good. We are hungry, so the diet is working...