Spring is in The Air....

Yahoo!

The core and hardest part of the renovation of the front room is finally completed!

It was probably not necessary to strip things back to the first application of whitewash applied just on 100 years ago, but once I saw how lovely a job Imre does on the original plastered walls, I was hooked!

It was an on and off again, painstaking process for me, as my friends all began wanting to use this super tradesman inside their homes too.

So Imre has had a full agenda this past month as everyone prepares for spring after the hibernation of 4 or more months of winter.

So strange, I still can not get used to it!

However I'm going to have to put my foot down and protect my days, now I see how things are going!

He has other small odd jobs from a few longtime clientele in the village from years past too.

So after meeting another long standing odd job client yesterday, I realise there are only so many days in a week that he can work and for the foreseeable future, I need 3 a week of those days!

Imre will not work on the weekends as his 2 kids, aged about 7yrs and 9yrs, have sports, karate, soccer etc and of course, no Sunday work at all.

But, after all the 1 day here and 2 days there over this past month, the final top coats of white wash are being applied as I speak!...(heaving big sighs of relief…).

It will be completed long before I get this blog up this afternoon, hopefully, so the final pics will be coming to-day.

   

Another perfect ending to another perfect day...

Sunrise as I set out on my jogging trip.

The first blooms of the season...It is a cherry tree I think!

My little fruit trees in blossom!

Starting the paving for the spa deck...an impulse idea that only took 2 more days to complete too!

Being wind blown in front of the Parliament buildings...

A statue in honour of a famous philosopher...

The Margurite Bridge...

Very sad sight...Where the Nazi's shot the Jews and dumped them in the Danube...These shoes are metal reminders. The white things are candles that people light in remembrance.

Our orange drink stop...

Having fun...

Must go for a ride on this next visit too...

A lovely day for sight seeing...

Everything is just beautiful here in Europe...

Lots of tourists and the season hasn't started yet...

Beautiful tablecloths for sale.

People lined up in the street waiting to get their special ice cream...

Delicious Gelati ice creams...

Pick your flavour ice cream and design a flower!

Amazing art work...

A Cathedral in Budapest...

Lovely Maria...

Got a bit of work to do here now...

Now back into the paving job again!

Bear enjoying his bones!

All the storks flew in at the same time...on the 24th March, all on the one day. Amazing!

Just found out you can make a hedge from this lovely yellow bush.

It is almost completed! A few coats of whitewash go on after this application dries, while the beams get wood filler applied then they get their final rub back and a few coats of whitewash too.

Imre fixing the bigger door hole as the other one did not let the cement mixer in!

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I went to my friend in town the other day and she called the internet people to work out what could my internet, or lack thereof, problem be.

I do have unlimited internet...check!

Computer and mouse OK now on other wifi connections...check!

Lights all working on both modem thingies only half the time...check!

So, they are coming out to check everything works ok.

Can hardly wait as the past year of supposed data supply has been terrible.

But I suppose for just on $30 a month for unlimited, one should not complain.

It was great for the first 2 years ...I had a 2 yr contract but since May of last year it has been playing up dreadfully.

It probably is the modem things to be honest, as they both are probably full of mud brick and whitewash dust and if they took in a bit of humidity at all, they probably both have a cement like glug set inside of them by now!

******

Spring is such a lovely time here and it's time to get planting again.

Have to have all the trees, spring plants and veggies in by the weekend, so that will be another job out of the way.

Have half of the plants in and will get the last gardens ready for the almighty growth spurt that happens here in  such a short time!

I'm sure when God made the weather here, He forgot to add these words...disciplined restraint or gradual growth!

Everything is extreme.

• When it's hot, it's cooking hot outside
• When it's cold, it freezes your water pipes and smashes the glass on the metre itself, requiring a new metre

• When Spring comes, it literally bursts forth and goes at an exhausting pace, like it is turbo boosted for 4-5 months
• When it stops about late August, it turns russet, gold and the glorious colours of autumn so quickly, you must look every day to take in the beauty as it all falls to the ground in about 2-4 weeks
• Then it's all bare trees and shrubs and a black and white landscape for about 5 months, unless you have conifers!
• When the snow falls, at various times between November and February, it is deliciously indescribably beautiful...for a week to a month or so until it melts into slush and is gone...
• Then it starts all over again.

It is really harsh on the people's life, in more ways than one.

I admire the people here, living like this their entire lives, never knowing of the difference of a more stable and even type of temperature, one allowing a year round lifestyle.

Simply amazing indeed.

Am really blessed to have had the privilege of living here to experience something people north of Victoria, in OZ, have virtually no idea about.

Am thinking it probably takes a Queenslander about 4-5 years to really acclimatise to the opposite pole of weather where the sun rises in the “west and sets in the east”, you can't find north by just standing still and checking where the sun is headed and having Xmas in a foot of snow and not melting in a heatwave!

Yeah, about 5 years to sort all that out in your mind!

I still automatically can't find North!

Anyways, as Stage 1 of 3 of the little Lodge repairs and renos draw to a close, it brings with it a new adventure as we head forth into the building mode Stage 2 of 3 of this project which has been an exciting adventure for sure.

Went to Budapest with friends on Thursday and had a great day touring around. 

Next time we go we are touring the Parliament building and taking a cruise down the Danube. 

These were the pics from the past month of not much, if any power to upload, so there are lots!

I will only post half and do the rest next blog.

Bye now,
Cheers,
M
xxxx

Lovely spring sunsets and sunrises...