Before I write about this weekend, just a few words about the group photo of Stephen, Lucy, Roy and me in front of the Pavilion. I realised when I downloaded all my photos and looked at most other people's on Facebook that I became somewhat invisible at the wedding. I was so busy taking pictures that I forgot to have Roy take a few of me for posterity. While Roy was appearing in lots of other people's I seemed to have been missed by practically everybody. So when Helen (bride's mother) posted this group photo I was really pleased to have it. She even sent me the full size version so that I could have some printed later. Unfortunately, this caused a bit of a disaster when I nearly ended up with a virus worm on my machine (thanks to AVG that I didn't!!). When I put the picture through my friend Andor's machine, so that he could improve it with his Photoshop for printing, my pen drive picked up the worm from his machine. When I put it back into my computer for downloading the improved version there was this big DANGER sign, which thankfully enabled me to put it into the virus vault for removal later. I am still undecided what to do with the pen drive: shall I chuck it, or is it safe now that the virus has been moved into the virus vault? Anybody out there knows? I am not too keen to put it into the computer again just to check!!
Now for this weekend: Andor came with a smallish crowd (only 6 of them) as the weather forecast was abysmal. However, the hardy souls who braved it were rewarded for their bravery with beautiful weather and not even Sunday, which was overcast, produced a drop of rain. Andor came on Friday and we cooked the big goulash out in the garden in the big couldron on a wood fire. Even the twigs and branches Roy had collected in the previous weeks and then left out in the rain were burnt absolutely successfully. Andor is truly a good scout!!
On Saturday all but Marica arrived on time. She got lost (as usual) but turned up eventually. We headed to the Mátra where we attempted a short (only 7km) hike but with a lot of climb. We also wanted to see some very high rocks and an enormous rock wall, which I have spotted in the spring at an orienteering event there. The unexpected bonus that day was the myriad of wildlife we saw, including the salamander in the picture, which unfortunately would not keep still, so it is a bit blurred. We had a rest on top of the rock wall (see piccie!) and then found the proper path to the top. There we found a hostel with a nice pub/restaurant and hundreds of pussycats. Poor darlings were obviously not very well fed and leaving your sandwiches around was fatal. The route back down took us through the gorge of the "Csörgõ patak" (rattling stream) which was really an adventure. The signs to the path through the gorge were painted out and we soon realised why. There had been so many storms and downpours over the last few winters that it was blocked in many places by fallen timber and large rocks. We still managed to get through and the pictures prove that the effort was worth it. On our return we made a big hole in the goulash soup and had an early night prior to another hike on the Sunday.
In the morning it looked terribly like rain, but it stayed dry and fairly warm all day. We went to the nearby woods to pick mushrooms which turned out to be a great pastime. The torrential rain last week coupled with fairly mild weather brought out a carpet of beautiful and enormous mushrooms. Roughly translated they are called "dear's leg" mushrooms due to their very thin and long stems. I couldn't have any, but the rest of them had a very good late lunch having their large caps fried in batter. All in all it was an excellent weekend, all the more enjoyable for the small numbers. Andor says that he prefers the group small as well, but in the past the word got round and he could not stop them coming for fear of offending anyone. I told him that he can blame it on me, but I never want those hordes here again. This time we could not only have leisurely, nice chats, but got to know our guests extremely well. Zoli even told us about his family history and got Roy fired up researching some more of it for him. The small group found it easier to include Roy in the conversation and that made it much more enjoyable for him as well.
Now we are off to BP tomorrow for a house committee meeting and then Sheila arrives on Wednesday.
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