Ecofarmer

re-settled in Hungary from Rochdale, Lancs, England, and into a little village, doing a bit of greenish farming hoping for a quiet life... but stuff just happens...

Sunday, July 27, 2014

work and work, summer days in paradise...

so I'm lazy - or too busy - take your choice - no photos, and a copy from an e-mail I've just sent to Lois... Alan had a bit of the allergy, but extra portion of pill and staying in for a day seems to have done the trick so far. New rule: have to pick the raspberries before 7:30am, when the wasps are still too sleepy to be nasty. One got me on the arm yesterday. Fig-hunting is safer so far, but less productive - about one ripe fig every second day - the problem is that birdies find them much easier. We lost one of the little rabbits the other day - suddenly 8 instead of 9, still don't know how it got out. Found it a day later happily munching grass on the front near the gate. Managed to corner it and put it back with siblings, still puzzled. Runner ducks are earning their keep at last - all eight of them seem to have survived the first few days of being free in the back veg garden which has some very junglish bits. Cabbages are already free of white flies. The lion trap is producing wonderful and plentiful tomatoes, the star of the polytunnel this year is the white paprika - conserved/frozen tons. The aubergines are of a strange shape this year - totally round. 4 of the old hens gone into chicken-soup heaven, two Muscovies should appear any day now with a bunch of ducklings. So - busy-busy, I managed to lose a kilo when did the lawn with our still suviving electric cutter in front of the other house - 90minutes sweaty work as the weather is fairly hot - around 30C - which is not to bad, as we remember those unforgettable 40Cs. Sweet corns are doing well, Szonya should have nice food when she comes on Thursday for 4 days - in the times when we are not cooling under the trees at the Siklós railway restaurant... or in the thermal baths... Also this is the weekend of the village saint's day (Anna), there was a concert in the church, then we watched a 9minute film made artfully of the village and the church artifacts, quite well done, I try to get a copy for the blog. WEnt to the dance for a couple of hours. good turn-out and merry atmosphere, all the locals dance so well! though music again too loud and too much the same stuff. Toe is still outsized, but normal colour and not more weird/numb than the other old soldiers... should make pics of the little rabbits, they very sweet and beautiful. I will when there will be a demand from the multitude of my blog-readers... also news: we are getting 2 kittens... I didn't want to as we plan to be away quite a lot, but Erzsi solemnly promised to look after them, too. Might not blog for a while as After Szonya's gone we are off to Guca to the trumpet festival for 5/6 days, then Jutka is coming with her two older grandkids, Fecó and Hani... then back to our dear veggies that all want us to do with them something...

Sunday, July 13, 2014

ouch - day off

so I managed to kick a low pavement here in the front with my second toe next to the big one on the right. The good news is, that it wasn't the big toe. The other good news is, probably not broken. Alan gentlemanly took me to the emergency place in the relevant hospital in pécs (Honvéd) but they had their hands full with a tad more serious cases with not enough sitting places in the waiting area... a terrible smell, as until we arrived nobody thought to inform the staff that something horrible was sitting under one of the chairs (was cleaned up quite sharpish when I did inform them) so it was not a nice experience and we left sharpish. Alan says, the previous two occasions to visit said department happened with short waiting period and efficiency... anyway, Erzsi got one of her magic potions professionally applied with a telling off, that she should have been the first call. I can walk without pain, so if I don't kick anything else in the near future, it should be ok. So we might pick green beans and chop the dead bush in front of the other house that's been bugging me for ages. Otherwise it is a day off... the lambs are both girls, and we got 9 little rabbits now looking sweet and diligently chewing kohlrabi leaves and other greens with their mummy. We had some serious winds and rains, some of the giant decorative sunflowers fallen over and were dragged to the sheep appreciated as a delicacy. Photos show my unfortunate toe, notice the colour matching the nail varnish colour beautifully; Pali's Dark Dog pub in Újpetre, (getting to be a splendid, clean, decent place including a bakery at one end and the alcohol/tobacconist shop on the other, though no wonky pooltable) where after my toe-comforting cakes on the way home from Pécs (Kovács cukrászda, Kozármisleny) we'd taken further relaxation. we ended up for more relaxation.

Wednesday, July 02, 2014

high summer


Kassa and old Bob were very enjoyable, our hostel comfy. On the way home we managed to look at a few other Slovakian towns such as Rozsnyó and Losonc - the former had an amazing medieval town square with tower and very nice cakes. So my first time in the Northern neighbour was favourable. Unfortunately again the camera stayed home, so photos are only on the not-so-smart phone - not accessible to our kifli or PC. Anyways, clean and tidy and beautiful (due to Erzsi) home waited for us, with the best part of the farm-year - so many things to pick! Paprikas-tomatos in polytunnel and lion-trap, kohlrabis, blackcherry, apricot, sweet corns, peas, green beans, etc etc... I made my first chard-curry today - I think my best effort so far in the indian cuisine - very much like spinach done that way. Raspberries turned into a jungle - full of fruit, although the bigger ones are not as tasty as in previous years. so just all the home pictures to update you - the runner ducks starring - they are grown up, and all 8 of them made it so far. New batch of chicken growing fast, Béla the buck rabbit arrived - Erzsi has given up on the rabbit endeavour - her adults made it to paprikás, the nine new ones will have the same fate when big enough. Our white giant's litter seems ok, we still have no idea how many - more than 6 me think. A muscovy is sitting on eggs - see what happens. The lambs are big - Alan thinks both rams but again, we failed to check... we are really enjoying the last few days, just two of us doing all the picking and processing with the weather perfect, warm days, cool nights, cool houses. So again, photos of all above plus of the garden and the house, as usual. The grapes are going mad, and already the red type is turning red, that will be very early, too, if all goes well.