It Ayen't No Oncoming Train!

Well, it is actually happening...

The light at the end of the long, very long tunnel.

After a few false starts this new year, finally the lights are bright.

Dog and pups are outside and 3 of the pups have been given away.

Somehow poor old Bear is the remaining one, but he is such a sweet natured pup, I'm rather liking him a lot now.
Mother fretted like mad for a week, when Dora, her favourite was given away.

But today, a week later, I notice she is playing with Bear. She completely ignored him all week and even got up, snarled at him and walked away when he came close to her!
Snooty little thing she was!!!

Who could resist this little face?

When the snow started melting I had no idea it could or would come into the front room via the gas heater vent!

But a mini flood later and we soon discovered it does indeed come in...lots of it...
Melting snow makes lots of water in fact!

So, upon cleaning it up, Imre found that all the bottom foot of walls were soggy and wet, as the water had been in the front room over a week...I didn't go in there much, obviously!

So out came the 2 bottom mud bricks, all the way around the room to be replaced with ordinary bricks that wont turn to mush when soggy wet!

Then I decided to have all the power points put in at the same time...and while he was at it, why not scrape back all the ceiling and walls and get it all done once and for all?

So, "patiently"? going through all of this, the end is drawing nigh for the front room...at long and weary last.

I'll also get Imre to build me a big robe behind the front room door which is a dead space, so that will free up one of the 3 robes here in the house. I'll get him to make a linen press out of the plainest looking, but roomiest robe I have and that will be great as it can go wherever it needs to!

The beginning of the home stretch for the front room...

Ceiling having its special coating applied before the baby bottom coatings....

Power points arrived, so in they go...all 10 of them. Am tired of a million cords everywhere! This will fix one room anyways... You can see the new bricks drying out too.

Love it when I hear the "Goop machine" churning away in the front room...Means more goop going on!

3 ceiling areas done, 3 to go...then the walls, which will be a lot easier for him. You can see the gauze he puts on first, over a coat of goop, then he applies another coat of goop, then when it's dry, a few coats of stuff that makes it smooth as!

Now we are really on the home run!  Imre has started on the walls. I've only had him 2 days the last 2 weeks due to his car blowing up and a friend needing him urgently for most of the time. No probs, as I had plenty to do. I tested a lot of fresh, natural food ideas for the menus here.

Blueberry tart made with only a few ingredients and is very yummy!

Char grilled chicken basil salad with roasted pine nuts on a bed of rocket drizzled with the best balsamic dressing ever!

Far too many pieces of blueberry tart topped with yogurt,  blackberries and blueberries...

Curry soup, made from fresh veggies and blended. Made some marinated tofu and put that in/on the side and used up the last of the salad greens. Lots of cracked pepper and it was delicious.

Dear little Bear posing for his portrait!

 Dug up a lot of the garden and pulled out all the dead morning glory from around the fences and set out the gardens for new plants next week.

Eniko and I are getting the fruit tree and plants this week, so by the end of next week, everything should be in and on its way!
Am only going to grow tomatoes, capsicum and cucumbers this year I think.

Can hardly wait to have Imre do all the little things I can't do. Things that make so much difference too.

Well, that's it for this past 2 weeks!
Have been dragging the chain a bit, but am feeling almost back to normal again after a far too hot, for me, summer in OZ.

I will not do it any more, so am looking at other options now for Xmas with the family.

Will have to explore something that works for me as it takes 3-4 months out of my life, trying to get back on top again.
Something amazing will eventuate, I know, so am not worrying about it just now.

Booked and paid for my trip to Greece on the 12th April but the other tour to Italy was booked out.
Any wonder at the crazy prices they had.

I paid 49 Euro ($68.00 Ausd) for the 6 day tour, 5 nights, 3 in hotels and 2 on the bus coming and going from Belgrade.

A few tours are thrown in too, plus you pay your own meals, other than breakfast.
They also offer a $10 a day meal package at local restaurants if you want to buy it!
Crazy prices.

This is what I'm going especially to see in Greece. Someone said it is somewhere near Thessaloniki I think!

But I'll probably do my own thing as it is hard to find real food. I don't eat fried and especially all the Greek type foods...no way. But if they have Mediterranean salads, I'll be in like Flynn!

Anyways, that's all booked and paid for so the month long trip away I'd planned for Belgrade etc, will be shorter than I expected.
Will go to the Tatras in Slovakia, instead for a few days, via Budapest and Bratislava and spend a day in each and go on up to the Ginger Monkey to find out how to get to the ski place I missed out on this year due to Dog and her pups.

Up in the High Tatras in Slovakia...

Really high up in the Tatras in Slovakia...

 See you all next week, hopefully with the front room all powered up and baby bottom smooth.

Not sure if he'll paint it at the same time now as the weather is very warm, so he may do it all at once!

It was 18C this weekend and 21C in Belgrade.

Bye for now,
Cheers,
M
xxx