The fly screen

Today was a busy day and it is not over yet. I just needed a break, so I thought of posting on the blog in the way of relaxation. I got up at 6am to take Nelly to Hatvan market and Tesco. When we got back we started doing jobs that needed finishing. Roy was still fiddling with the fly screen, but later on I went and helped to put the actual screen on the frame. As you can see from the pictures that turned out fantastic. At the end we had enough screen material left over to do some more screens, like the little funny shaped window next to the door.

For lunch I fixed myself another tofu feast and now I am fairly sure I will have a snooze as I feel a bit faint. I had some funny refractions of light in my right eye which can be the first sign of a migraine, so I think I am retiring to bed in a minute.

Later we will also have to do some more cherry picking and then start the mixed fruit preserved in booze I have been planning for years. The first layer will be cherries, followed by peaches. Yum, yum!!

The fruit harvest started

Now that the high heat of the day is gone we have started mowing again and looking for fruit to pick. My little morello cherry trees are full of fruit again, like last year. The only difference is that the fruit is smaller this year. Good job we have finally managed to buy a fermenting barrel for the palinka, as this year's fruit crop should give us a good few bottles. Mind you, the morello cherries are going into my tum or into bottles, not the palinka barrel. I have also decided to have a go at something my mother used to do in th past. Starting with June, she would lay down layers of fruit as they come into season in a large glass bottle with a tight fitting top and then cover it with brandy. When full, it should be very tightly covered up and put away to have at Christmas. Cheap brandy will have to do but I think it is the fruit that will be the start of the exercise.

The pictures: Morello cherries, one branch of the pear tree and (for Alex's benefit!) the lemon balm bed.

MRI appointment, Church of the Roses and a new bedroom

I had to go and get an MRI appointment for my back in person, as the Health Service in these parts is not exceedingly user friendly. All investigations requiring expensive equipment (CT,MRI,X-ray,various scans, etc.) have been privatised. These firms do what they like and this particular one has decided that it will only give appointments one month ahead and only on the 20th of the previous month. Predictably, it is nigh on impossible to get through to them on the telephone on that day, as I found out last month when I tried. Then I was in the country, so the personal visit was not an option. So, even though I was informed that they open at 8am, I was there about 7.25am and (needless to say) they were already open. However, the actual getting the appointment bit was surprisingly painless. Roy was amazed that I was home less than an hour after I left with words of: "I am going out and may be a while!"

Sorry about the whaffle, it was just the background to the first few pictures. En route home from the clinic I felt like taking pictures and the church on the Square of the Roses proved quite photogenic with its spire and the roses planted round it.

The rest of the pictures (apologies for the bad quality, but I left the camera behind in BP so I had to use my phone) have been taken to document the move we have done a couple of weeks ago between our old bedroom and the guest room. So, we are now at the back of the house looking out on the garden. Our old bedroom in the front has been turned into a proper guestroom with the double bed, a table and chairs, a little TV and a spare fold up bed. Further plans include another couple of single beds, so more that one couple can stay in it, but currently we are too busy to go bed/bedding shopping.

We are here until next Monday, unless Jutka has some time for us earlier, in which case we will probably go in 2-3 days early to see her. Roy is currently mowing the lawn, which being about 2/3 of an acre is not a quick job. The mole is still very active, so we will have to be strong, forget our environmental principles and kill the bugger. I still don't think I can do it, but Roy might. The roses need attention, some fruits need harvesting - morello cherries mostly etc. etc.

The weather is thankfully cool at the moment, but the MET office is promising a return to the heatwave from mid-week.

This weekend's video conference with Callum

What would I do without Skype? Callum was in his element this morning. After a slightly dopey start he was forever chattering and running around, having books read to him, then reading them himself, looking for pussycats in the garden through the window, playing with Igglepiggle and Upsy Daisy or just making a lot of squeeking noises. The first picture is Daddy's Father's Day present, created by the fair hands of Callum. Isn't it nice? I am sure he will wear it with great pride!!

Otherwise the week went past really fast. Ed had a busy week, visited lots of interesting places, met up with the teacher and some fellow students from his Hungarian class back home, took the train to Eger and is now preparing to go home tomorrow.

We managed to get a lot of things done which have been outstanding for ages. We had the boiler serviced, the chimney inspected, I went to see my homeopath who has put me on an even more restricted diet than hitherto, but I am sure I will survive. I have to cut out dairy yoghurt and all things with gluten for a minimum of 2 months. So no bread, no pasta, no cereals other than corn and rice, off went my favourite dairy yoghurt but I can have soya yoghurt, which is just as nice. Talking of soya: yesterday I invented a new dish, which was basically just thrown together in a hurry, like most delicious dishes are. I bought some tofu, raided the fridge for vegetables, garlic and some salad bits and it turned out delicious. I first fried some onions and peppers in olive oil, then added the shredded garlic and finally the cubed tofu. I made sure that the little cubes of tofu got brown and crisp on all sides and served it with sliced spring onions, shredded parsley, tiny plum tomatoes and raw cauliflower florets as well as a couple of rice cakes with butter on. I made an absolute piggie of myself, although you will all have to forgive me for not showing it to you as I only thought of photographing it when there were only a few mouthfuls left. That was a shame as I always like to prove to people that even a vegan (and this was a vegan dish with the exception of the butter on the rice cakes and you can leave that out!!) can eat like a king and stay healthy with it.

Talking of butter and health and such matters: another long outstanding job was to get a new battery for the scales. Well, I blame the butter, but I am back nearly to my old weight, weighing in a hefty 66.5kg. In a way I shouldn't complain as I was only barely over 50kg just over a year ago, but I ought to stop gaining any more.

Next week we are back in the country and on the Monday after that Philip is arriving for WMOC.

Middle Distance Champs and Ed's arrival

This year's Middle Distance Championships were held on Zajnat, which is a notorious piece of forest full of unkempt, fire and storm damaged steep hills in which progress is extremely slow. As you can see from the map my course was rather short, but the steepness and roughness of the terrain (plus a rather serious cockup of the brain failure type) made me produce 20 minute km's. I still ended up with a medal (I hope!) and it could have been silver without the senior moment mentioned above. The uncertainty over the medal is due to us leaving before the results ceremony on account of our Canadian guest arriving (more about that later). The rules around here state that only citizens with an ID card and/or a passport attesting to full blown citizenship can become champions. This means that Klari who lives in Transylvania and is a Romanian citizen can't receive a medal. As she won, the medal should go to 2nd, 3rd and 4th (that's me), but I'll find out what happened when I next meet my friend whom I asked to take and keep safe my bronze medal, should I get one.

The brain fade occurred between 6 and 7, although it is not very visible on the route I have drawn on. I hope they'll put it on Route Gadget, then I can advertise my senility to all and sundry!! I took a stupid route out of 6 and ended up in a jungle of bramble (I am still carrying the scars!), then I regained the proper route and ended up in the rough open around the cairn. However, I couldn't see it, so I convinced myself that I have overshot it and turned left, result of which was to arrive back at the previous control. At that moment a long, thorny branch had knocked off my glasses which I could only finally find with the help of others round me. At that moment sanity returned and I executed the leg from 6 to 7 fast and accurately, but with 4-5 minutes gone, which was totally aggravating, considering that I only lost silver medal by and minute and a half. In fact, en route to 7 I managed to spot what I thought was a cairn on the map and which was a 4 inch high square concrete post exactly where I went barmy the first time round. Well, such is life. It is getting fairly obvious that I am going rapidly doolally as well as physically decrepit. Having said that, I am still amongst the better ones navigationally as 4th out of 10 was not that bad, and nearly 3rd on something as hard both technically and physically as this was.

Once we got home, thankfully I managed to have a shower and get myself together before Ed arrived. His uncle delivered him safely and he said a very emotional good bye to him. This is only his second visit to family from his Canadian homeland and he was quite touched by the notion that he never knows when, where and even if he will ever see them again. He managed to get a good night's sleep with my teddy bears in the box room and after finding out on the Internet about a variety of places to see and buying his coach ticket to the airport next Sunday, he set off for his sight seeing visit about an hour ago. I hope he has a good day out and will fill us in on his adventures tonight.

Arpi and Zita leave on their 2-3 year cycling honeymoon round the globe

This morning I went to say good bye to an amazingly inspirational young couple who have decided to jack their jobs in, bought two recumbent bikes and left this morning on an adventure of a lifetime. They thought that once they have a family, a mortgage and other adult responsibilities this would be impossible, so they are doing it as of today. The plan is to circumnavigate the globe by cycling at least 40,000 kilometres and live on 5 Euros a day. They estimate it to take somewhere between 2 and 3 years and as you can see from the pictures they looked very happy setting off. A small group of cycling friends have left with them to keep them company during the first few days. They are spending the first night at the geographical centre of Hungary, the last night in the country (the third) will be in Szeged and the fourth in Romania across the border.

I wished them all the best and will keep a close eye on their progress on Facebook and on their own blog/website. You can do the same on http://360fokbringa.hu/en

Farewell Lady

My sister Nelly's lovely golden retriever cross, Lady, has gone to a new home today. As I have mentioned before, after she broke her leg she couldn't really look after her properly and while it is quite a shock to her, even she knows that this is for the better for all concerned.

I am keeping my fingers crossed that Lady will be happy there, but from what I heard from my nephew, who has taken her there today, it seems a good place. She has a new master who is much more likely to be the top dog than my poor sister was, so Lady should learn to be less boisterous and more obedient. There is also another dog there, so she will have a playmate and friend, which will help her to adjust. It is also in the country and the house has a garden, so let us hope all will be well.

This weekend has been spent mostly in the garden, trying to get rid of the mole without lethal materials (no luck I'm afraid!), photographing roses (again) and looking after various guys who have arrived on maintenance jobs. Yesterday we finally had the stove guy and he managed to do everything that needed to be done. He had a hell of a job trying to remove the two tiles which gave access to the internal channels of the stove so that he could clean it. He managed to repair the back of the fire pit and - more importantly - the door. It has now all its little gubbins round the glass, it has a new insulating strip round it and we can lock it now. Yippeeeee! That cost about £65, which is fair enough, considering that is the first time we had him out since he built it 8 years ago.

Today, we had our talkative plumber to perform the annual service on the two central heating boilers. He was a lot quieter than in previous years and managed to finish in about 3 hours. He cost £60, which wasn't bad and he only tried to talk the hind legs of our non-existed donkey at the end before departure. We have another boiler that needs servicing in town, but I think I will try the service boss of Vailant, whom I made friends with some years ago up some mountain, before I get him travel that far.

Currently there is yet another storm brewing outside, I have even received an SMS from my insurance company reminding me to turn all electrical appliances off and close all windows. Well, it might turn round and go another way, but if not, I can turn everything off very quickly and the windows are closed.

Ta-ta until next time!

Roses, moles and basil

I hope nobody is too bored with my roses, but I can't resist photographing them as we were very concerned that none of them would survive the winter and now, at least some of them, are producing lovely blooms. As I wrote before, they are nowhere near their past glories, but when a pretty bloom comes out I am out there with the camera.

The first picture is a windowbox full of basil, which has an interesting story. This morning we went shopping with my sister for whom this was the first outing (other than going to the hospital for X-rays and check-ups) since she broke her leg on 1st March. We visited the market first where we stocked up on salad vegetables (hopefully without the latest designer hybrid e-coli bacillus), bought strawberries, cherries and then I came across peasant women selling herb plants. First I bought 5 basil plants for about 30p each, then spotted another lady who was selling them for 20p each. I bought her entire stock and decided that I would plant them in the old windowboxes which we have not been using since the demise of the pelagonia plants. The latter have passed away due to my illness last year during which we totally forgot to water them.

So, let us hope that these lovely basil plants will grow, get strong and provide me with my favourite fragrant herb to go into several of my favourite dishes. As I have got very fond of ricecakes (no gluten, but lots of lovely taste|!!) lately, I worked out that one mozzarella ball sliced thinly over 4 or 5 of these rice cakes, then covered in thinly sliced tomatoes, then with basil leaves, salt, pepper, lemon juice and olive oil makes a delicious snack. If they will grow happily just outside I will not have to buy them in Tesco's, yippeeee!!!

The mole is back, so I'm afraid he will be subjected to some nasties soon. We managed to buy some christals, which when wet produce a gas and that should be the end of the poor thing. I feel awful, but we have given him/her/them plenty of chances to go and dig somewhere else. We are now really seriously concerned about the stability of the driveway, so it is a death sentence I'm afraid. Neither of us really wants to do it, so we are still putting it off, but I feel it will have to be done in the next couple of days!! :-(

Today I finally managed to get hold of the stove builder guy who built our lovely pottery stove 7 or 8 years ago now. There is a need to clean it out and repair a few things (a few of the internal bricks have shifted, the door catch has broken and the seal round it has fallen off), so he is coming tomorrow. The only other guy I will have to try to ring is the central heating maintenance chap and if he comes and does his thing then we probably caught up with the outstanding repair/maintenance issues.

Our Canadian guest is arriving next Saturday, so it is still country living until then, especially that this weekend's O event has been cancelled, so we don't have to go anywhere until next Thursday or Friday.