This has been quite a busy week, again. As we were very tired from the nearly three weeks with the family, the first few days back in the village we stayed in, but it doesn't mean that we were not active. The plum picking was still going on, and I am happy to report that the third barrel is full too. I rang the plum man, and he suggested that I ring mid-September. We will probably buy 120 kilos, 100 for the fourth barrel and 20 for making jam.
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| A dozen little jars of plum jam |
Talking of jam, we have made some jam this last week too. You may recall Roy's idea about putting the unripe fruit in a paper bag, in our case a big cardboard box and paper, and an apple, which will make it ripen up. It did, so I picked out the best looking ones, about 3 kg of it, and we made jam out of those. It finally gave us 12 small jars and a tiny one. We have already opened one and it really tastes great. The rest went into the mash and finished the third barrel.
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| A strange yoga pose |
I am still doing my yoga daily, but cancelled it today, as planned, due to the non-offer price being too high from the second month onwards. I can still do it until 3rd September, when my month is up. I think I can carry on after that, based of what I learnt this time and what I remember from a long ago, when I used to attend yoga classes. Interestingly, one of my English friends, who now lives in the Carribbean, wrote to ask about the app. He wants to try it. He is better off than we are, so if he likes it, I'm sure it'll do him a lot of good.
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| And her son David |
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| Zsuzsa, my long lost friend |
Another interesting story of last week was that some old friends have come out of the woodwork, and I am looking forward to seeing them sometime. Zsuzsa Schabedly whom we came to know after we ran into her and her then husband on a road in Hungary approximately 40 years ago. We both stopped for a rest on the side of the road. Roy and I were in a car, they were on a motorbike. When it turned out that we all live in Brighton, we definitely decided to exchange names and addresses. She has moved to Hungary about 15 years ago and her son, David joined her. It will be fascinating to hear their story since we last saw them both, but they are away for a fortnight, so we'll talk when they get back.
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| Suranne Jones in the Hostage |
I watched some Netflix this last week too, as I found something that was quite enjoyable to watch. It was called Hostage, and Suranne Jones was pretty brilliant, as she always is. I have last seen her in either Scott and Bailey or possibly in Vigil. She is now a producer too, and both the story and its execution was riveting. That was on a day when I felt really shaky, my arthritis torturing me, so I watched all five episodes in one go, and that gave my some physical rest. Mind you, just sitting or even lying is not necessarily the best for your joint health, moving is also essential.
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| The spring where the first sick cache was |
In order to overcome feeling stir crazy towards the end of the week, we both decided that some activity away from home and preferably in nature was called for. As Roy is not very good on hiking, but doesn't mind to hang around in the car while I am geocaching, I started thinking of where to go. The solution was very obvious, as I had 3 "sick" geocaches: one had the path leading to it dug up, so people can't get to it, one was nicked, the hide, a bird box, and the actual cache box were both taken, and the third one had the misfortune of the tree the bird box was on breaking and falling down. Thankfully, the trunk did not crash on the bird box and the friend who fetched it in when she was there geocaching brought it home and that was why Roy and I went out to Budakeszi a week or so ago to fetch it.
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| The new hide for the cache under the tree stump |
On Sunday we went to Buják where the one that I was fairly sure that it got nicked should have been, to see what the situation was. I did take a new cache box and it was definitely the case, as it wasn't there. I went to find another hiding place, and I think I found one quite safe. Unless, of course, animals dig it up, but more about later. There was an old, dried up tree stump that I thought might do the trick. I dug a little hole for the box by a lovely bit tree trunk, put the box in it an put the stump on top of all of it as a hide. It is the perfect solution, but keep your fingers crossed for me that it won't get dug up.
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| The valley under the spring |
We were about a quarter of the way home in the car, when we stopped for a drink at a pub we knew was there in one of the villages en route, but have never stopped to visit. Getting out of the car I was looking for my string bag as I don't like leaving anything of value in the car, but we could find it. The penny dropped quite quickly, that I have put it down in the forest, and obviously didn't pick it up. Roy was definitely driving like he never does, although the road within the forest was so full of potholes that he had to slow down there. I was right, it was there, nothing missing, although it was not exactly where I put it down. I reckon this was already a small animal, that was curious, but only dragged it a few meters.
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| The old retired copper in the pub |
After all this excitement we returned to the pub, which was a really rough spit and sawdust type of old place with a good few drunkards out on the terrace. I offered to drive home from there, which amazingly Roy accepted, so he put two pints away to my two glasses of soda water. The fun started when we started chatting to the locals round the table where we were sitting. We found an old retired copper, who knew our ex-policeman friend in Bér from the old days. there was one loudmouth, (there is always one), who was giving us advice about pálinka stills and many other things and the remaining three on the other side of the table were not 3, but 33 sheets to the wind, so they didn't make much sense.
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| The drunk section of the locals |
Roy loves these encounters, as he really wants to mix with the locals, but unfortunately, as Bér no longer has a pub, he doesn't get the chance too often. As I was there to translate, we got into a really good chinwag with those who were still compos mentis. By this time it was well past our lunchtime, so eventually we had to stand up and walk off, but Roy really enjoyed himself in that pub, no matter how tatty it was.
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| Interesting shaped tree |
Monday was another rest day, notwithstanding Roy's fidgety nature, picking up plums, digging out weeds, mending the back patio, where the internal leak in the library comes from. He discovered a totally rotten bottom part of a post out there, underneath which was plenty of chance for rain coming in through the hole and along the space between the upstairs floor and the downstairs ceiling. This, of course, means that we should have gone to the hardware shop/builders' merchant, to purchase further stuff, but we'll have to do it later. This visit is also necessitated by the slow but sure approach of the time of Manet's visit, when the two or three of us will be painting. Thank goodness the paint is fine. It is only 5 years old, but we need brushes, a bottle of brush cleaner, plastic wood as a filler and a few other stuff.
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| The devastated hiking path after felling |
On Tuesday, we had another outing, obviously to do with the other one or two "sick" caches, a need for food shopping, as the fridge was getting empty, as well as a builders' merchants or DIY shop. We did have a fantastic time yesterday, but needless to say, not all things planned worked out. We started with a moving cache, not a frequent event in Nógrád, which was a bit of a hassle, but finally I found it. Then, we went to the place where the box and the hide was rescued by my friend, but we had to find a new tree to put it on. We also had to place the moving cache somewhere, and that place seemed perfect. We did both, I took some photos and then we left on a long leg to the next cache which I had to find.
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| Roy on the bench waiting for me |
This was put out about 6 months ago and took me back to a place I haven't been for over 15 years. It is a rocky outcrop of impressive stature, but thankfully not very far from a village. Roy stayed in the car and I walked up. The last hundred yards was pretty hard, making me realise how much older I am and how much strength I have lost in the last 15 years. I still did it, with the help of my trusty hiking poles, I got to the top. There a breath taking panorama waited. Seriously photogenic, I loved it. I soon got back to Roy, who was waiting patiently, but I spotted that there was a blackberry bush at the edge of the car park, and had to pick a few. They were tiny, but lovely and sweet.
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| from the Witches' Rock |
Next stop was Lidl, where we managed to spend £120 for 10 days' food. Such is life, and we can't complain, as there are millions in the world who are worse off than we are. At home for lunch I had the left over curry with rice, chutney, dhal and poppadoms. Roy had his Bavarian sausages, which reminded him of chipolatas of old, with some left over salsa and tortilla chips.
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| Salgó Castle with maximum zoom |
After that I cut Roy's hair, which somehow ended up extremely short. I think it was my stupidity, as I usually do it on setting 9, except at the back of his neck, where it is 6. I bet I forgot to set it back to 9 when I finished the whole thing. Still, he does say that it is comfortable and will quickly grow, so he will not look like a freshly enlisted squaddie at his age for too long.
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| The views towards Slovakia |
And finally I have to let you know that I have managed to get as far as the 120th bird on my Merlin bird recognition software life list. It's called Dunlin, which is a wader. I have never heard of it, but now I have 120. Things are going slowly, but they are always welcome, whenever they come. In September we will go away for a few days, so hopefully I will find some different birds in different parts of the country.
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| A hundred year old oak |
Next post next Wednesday, as usual, and I think we will still be here in Bér.
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| The Southern top of the Witches' Rock |
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