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| A troubled looking Lewis Hamilton |
The Sundays at both ends of last week had F1 races in them, so I have been spoilt. Unfortunately Lewis did not win either of them, but he managed a 2nd and a 3rd, so I am not complaining. Both races were fascinating, exciting and full of overtaking, so irrespective of results, they were worth watching.
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| A red beauty from the courtyard |
In Bér we had a lot of stuff to do, partly because the grapes and several fruit trees needed harvesting, partly because we both had a fair amount of admin to deal with and also because we were having guests from Anna. Roy managed to mow the grass again, plus pick up and burn walnut leaves and rotting fruit. It really looks great now, although we had a couple of days of torrential rain, so it has started growing again.
Anna's guests were of the virtual types, i.e. we didn't see or hear them. I managed to buy some travel insurance for the cruise over the phone and also deal with Leigh by e-mail re: the August cruise. I think we found the one we want, it is a 7-night cruise out of Venice on the Rhapsody of the Seas, to Kotor and the Greek Islands and back. This will leave us some flexibility to perhaps spend a couple of days in Venice afterwards as well, but we'll see. We can't book it until Meaghan knows her holiday dates.
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| The Rhapsody of the Seas |
I spoke to Szabolcs about building us 3 new desktop computers, and he agreed. Dylan, who is now the sole owner of the business, rang back and on Thursday I popped along to pay for the first one. They are building it as I write this and I hope to pick it up, along with a brand new monitor, when we are in town next.
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| Something like this, I think |
On Thursday last week I had to pop back to town on my own, as there was a house meeting, as well as the visit to Dylan's and to the bank. The house meeting was important as it was time to decide about allowing air conditioners on the courtyard wall and a permit to have AirB&B's in the block. Both were voted in, which I am glad about as global warming is robbing me of my sleep in all the summers when I have to be in town. Next year we are having air conditioning in the flat, which knowing our luck will result in a cold and rainy summer.
I have also managed to catch someone in at the Buják Forestry Office, to ask about the forester whose memorial I spotted by a path some years ago, and where I was thinking of putting a cache. Unfortunately, in this country, where the concept of maintenance is not very well known or practiced, one can be sure of not finding something a few years after seeing it in the first place. Apparently, the memorial is no longer there, as it had fallen down due to lack of maintenance. No cache there, then!
And then we come to the main events of this week, which were the grape harvest, the apple harvest and Lyle's op. Starting with the last one: Lyle was having a Whipple procedure, which is a complicated and long operation dealing with a tumor on one's pancreas, also growing into other organs nearby. Well, I am happy to report that the op took "only" 4 hours, instead of the expected 8 and the last time I heard he was recovering well.
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| First half of our apples this zear |
The harvesting, which Roy and I did the last two days, was a bit exhausting, but great fun. We picked all our grapes and about half of our apples. The grapes were trodden by me into liquid and put in the cefre, the apples were sorted into: 1. good enough to wrap in paper and put away for winter, 2. to be eaten now and 3. either thrown away or given to someone in the village. There were about 20 kilos to deal with, about 2/3 was put away, a kilo or so is awaiting us to eat them and the rest was partly put on the compost heap and about a sackful was given our neighbour across the road. Ostensibly for their pigs, but who knows, they might even bake with some of them or preserve them. Some people even use apples for pálinka, I don't care, but I am glad to be shot of them.
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| In lieu of a press |
Finally, I have two reports to make: one about the weather, the other about my knee. The weather has finally turned cold. We have been having night time temperatures in the low tens and last night there was even a couple of hours when it was 9 degrees Celsius outside. Let us hope that our very persistent heatwave is well and truly finished. As for our knee, the news are less good. It hurts more now, than it did before the Szekszárd trip. The main reason is probably that it was too soon to spend so much time on it while away from home. Also, I do have dodgy knees even when they are not injured, so it could have been exarcebated by that, plus I started having sneezes and coughs and a blocked nose last week, so if that was a viral cold, that might have had a go at it as well. Anyway, I am a bit upset, as it was getting so good and it is bad again.
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| White grapes on top of the red |
And finally, finally, on Monday we had a visit from Rosa and her father, who turned out to be a lovely guy. They couldn't stay for too long, but we enjoyed their company for about an hour or so and next week we are having Rosa's yoga camp in the Bunkhouse, so we will see more of her then.
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| Wrapped safely for winter |
We are off to town tomorrow afternoon, as I am having a couple of days away on Friday and Saturday with Mariann, Gabi and Gyuri at the geocaching festival and competition. We are not competing, just caching in the area and will drop in on Saturday to show our faces and log the event cache. The car is going for its annual service on Monday and at the end of that day we should hopefully be back in Bér.
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