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!

**********

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...

Cutting The Last Logs for This Winter...

As the days become warmer and longer, the mornings are lighter earlier, so Spring is really in the air!

My jogging track is all nice and dry again and am back to the normal 5-6 mornings a week of 3klm each day.
I really miss getting out of routine and it will be lovely to stay virtually in one place for a year.

Apart from many little weekly jaunts off into the neighbouring countries without having to do a 38,000 klm journey each time, it will be a week in Greece, a week in Slovakia and Austria, a week in Germany, a week in UK and Wales and so on.
 Can't wait to don the old back pack again. Itchy feet need scratching  soon!

Meanwhile,back on the farm...Just cutting the last of the wood for the fire for this winter and then it will be back to cooking on the electric hotplates or barbie!

The last few logs being cut up for this winter. Snow all gone, temps around 15C in the day now, sun very hot, grass getting longer and all is in readiness for spring to burst forth.

As soon as Imre completes the insides of both the house and tool shed, hopefully by the end of April, he is to start on the outside and will get the house front repaired and painted. He'll paint all the windows and doors too...more decisions-what colours?- and the place will look awesome this season.

I really like having the wood stove going in the background and being able to cook my meals, cook the dog's food and boil the kettle throughout the day. I gave my big wood heater away last year as it was a monster that ate so much wood, but this little one a friend loaned me has been an eye opener.

With limited wood supplies and then not readily available or cheap, it was an easy decision last year to give the heater away. But now I'm learning how things work over here in the countryside in the amazingly busy 6 months of activity and 6 months of virtual hibernation, I'll just buy a lot more wood in June/July and store it, let it dry out better and buy a smaller heater plus a wood stove for the kitchen.

This is where being on my son's property in OZ would really be handy with all the dead trees on his 260 acres!

Anyways, now I comprehend the seasons a lot better, I'll get 2 wood burning heaters for next winter!
There is a very noticeable difference in the heat from the wood stove compared to all other heating available.

Will still get the gas connected...(going in to apply in April for that), which will heat the washing, bathing water and water radiators which will be connected throughout later in the year.

The place will then have wood fires, gas heating, both town and bottled gas, plus electric heaters for a fast fan forced heating burst, plus the water heated radiators!.

These types of cooking stoves with side ovens are readily available...about $300Ausd.

A smaller cooker stove. I like the bigger, longer version with more cooking space on top. I like the big top so you can make gravy properly in the big baking dish after cooking a roast meal.

 Imre just completed the mesh and goop layers in the front room, now he has to rub it all down and smooth it off on Monday, apply a few coats of gyps/plaster finish and finally rub it down again and create his lovely baby bottom finish.

Can hardly wait as it has dragged on for too long.
Not his fault, but mine as I tell my friends how great he is and they borrow him a couple of days a week now to get their projects moving along!

I have him 3 days this coming week and next, so the front room will be completed for sure.
Then we dismantle the kitchen "benches" in the middle room which has the dining table and chairs and it even has my bed poked away in a corner- while he's been doing the front room!

That room should be relatively fast to complete as it will be empty and did not have water or melted snow coming in to cause any flood problems!

The neighbour does not want a dog now, so I'll keep Bear and Dog for the timebeing and get Dog to the vet for her desexing op before I go to Greece in April.
Then, depending on how Imre handles looking after both animals, I'll review keeping them both.

Having Bear reminds me of the eating machines I experienced with my 3 boys!
They'd stand in the fridge door after school and you'd see bags flying into the sink, bones going all over the place, food scraps flying everywhere!!!
It was really amazing how much they could eat after school...then they'd turn up for tea an hour or so later...hungry as bears!

Bear is just like that and I laugh a lot at him as he reminds me so much of how the boys were as teenagers!

It was ladies day the other day and Imre bought me a gift of some bubbly and a pot of flowers from him and his family! How sweet hey? It's for all ladies in your world. A lovely thought.

Finally made it back to Budapest with my friends on Thursday afternoon. Too busy running around to get any more pics as Maria was running late for a 4pm hair appointment!

Very clever. An electrical shop that specalises in bulbs!  How about this...brilliant, pardon the pun!

Made some stuffed mushrooms and stuffed capsicums. Mushroom and red capsicum stuffed with minced steak, onion, garlic and finely cut capsicum leftovers. Green capsicums stuffed with mashed potato, topped with grated cheese and tomato. It looks like a couple of eggs, but isn't! Red capsicum has some grated cheese on top of the mince for variety. The green capsicums were really nice with the mashed potato. Try it when you have some left over mash. Great tastes.

So happy to have finally found some steaming hot gluewein in Budapest while Maria was getting her hair done and Eniko was having her muscle therapy! Then, not so happy when my fave shoes came apart! The waiter eventually brought me the entire roll of gaff tape to repair my poor shoe, which did a very ugly looking job, but got me home in one piece, amazingly!

There's Imre on the last of the front room goop applications. Once that dries over the weekend, he comes in and sands it all back on Monday, then applies his baby bottom top coat on Tuesday, which is thankfully white...allows it to dry, then sands it back and paints it on Friday! Maria has him on Wednesday and Thursday this week!

This is bulb man from the street. We decided to see if his man parts were all lit up too...cheeky little thing Maria is!You can barely see her standing next to him inside the shop! She's gorgeous...is a tad taller than me, is a real blonde, has a wicked sense of humour, ( just like my sister), is a school teacher and retires in a couple of years. Eniko is her daughter. Maria wants me to go in and teach English at her school in their English lesson sessions. I'll get organised and do it after the summer 3 month break here, coming up soon.

Just starting the chop of the final block of wood for this winter.

Trying to grow my hair long so my "Downton Abbey" hair dresser lady can do my hair up in the mornings when it's down past my shoulders. I don't know if I'll be patient enough to grow it much longer though. It is such a burden!

My computer was playing up all week so I took it in to the repair shop and it was my mouse again!

The mouse was a new Cannon, a medium brand over here and while it wasn't the cheapest in the shop, it was possibly the worst one I could have bought for my lifestyle apparently.

The repair guy put a "Ferrari", a MARS gaming mouse in and tested it and everything resolved itself! Amazing.
Only 2,500 ft...a taxi fare home or $12.50...so that was a relief for sure.

He said this mouse is a gaming one, one that gets a lot of action, has 6 knobs on it, is ergonomically designed, completely rubber coated, has Teflon legs and has lights and holes all over it. So with all the traveling I do, it should last a while and take a lot of crashing, banging and dropping!

The old one I had for just on 4 years, I bought in Ireland in 2012 in Killarney.
It did a marvelous job, then it started its death spiral in OZ over Xmas 2016 and I bought a new Cannon in mid Feb this year.

It lasted about 3 weeks as I dropped it on the floor here, badly apparently.
The Irish one took many a drop, a crash, being squashed and so on over 4 years, but the Cannon at the first obstacle...crashed and died!
This time the sensor on it was shattered and that's why it jumped all over the place the past week or so.
So, am back in the writing business again.

Will just get this off now as it's Monday already and it's dusty and messy here again with Imre sandpapering the front room.
So, I'm closing off now.
Bye and see you all next week.
Cheers,
M
xxxx

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