Want to Sit and Watch The Grass Grow?

Yes, it's that time of the year again when you finish mowing the paddock and it has grown almost half an inch from when you first mowed that morning!

Amazing.

All is good here, Imre is almost finished rendering the inside walls in the tool shed.
He put in the windows, cleaned up the footings cement ooze from last year, made the new door way, put in the door and tidied up the ceiling gaps from the original old animal pens.

When we put up the new thermal brick walls, the shed became a foot wider inside and of course with me trying to hang onto the old original ceiling, it ended up being a foot too short where it met the new walls.

So, Imre to the rescue again and with a wave of his magic hammer and saw, a few bits of patching sorted out that big gap! Well, it was a foot wide and 15 feet long actually, in the tool shed, so some sort a gap it was.

When it's all painted next week, you won't know there was ever a mess there.

Am a bit sorry I didn't realize that the new walls would have made the entire old shed larger inside, otherwise I'd have made it into a caretakers cottage. It is amply large enough for that and is the size of a big caravan, without the end area which we haven't done anything with yet.

There were 3 pig pens originally and I knocked the wall out between 2 of them and made the tool shed and Zoltan dug down about 9 inches and gained the extra height needed. The end pig pen is supposed to be a junkshed or something as I really wont have any room for just stuff! I need my son Peter here to bring in a shipping container to make a great shed just for stuff!

A sunset last month from my back fence...

But in hindsight, I should have taken out the old ceiling made of timber with 6 inches of mud and reeds on it and added a few extra rows of bricks that way.

Never mind, it is fine thus far.

Dog has been given away and Bear goes on the weekend to the same family, hopefully.
They had 6 female dogs and one died last month, so they wanted to replace it.

Dog was the perfect answer. Then when he came to get to meet Dog, he fell in love with Bear too!
Hoping for a happy outcome there on Sunday next.

Then I can get in and clean up the yard and replant all the gladiola bulbs that Bear seems to have sniffed out and dug up. He thinks they are truffles or something exotic!

We begin work on the honeymoon Cottage shortly and am just getting the materials in place now.

Have you ever seen a side opening tip truck?

I hadn't noticed them before but they use them for loads of sand and gravel in one delivery and are able to tip one type of material at a time so they don't get mixed together.

They tip one and then move away, back up to another spot and either back tip or side tip that load. Very interesting...well, for me anyways!

The awesome side tipping truck in action...

Great idea...

Giving the sand a bit of help there...

Not bad hey?

Found a great idea for over on the big deck...not sure if I'll use it, but it looks really nice and cozy with walls around it and the BBQ inside and all..

This one had the whitewashed flooring in gloss, not a flat or semi flat finish like I'm thinking.

Anyways, that's all for a very short blog this week, so see you next weekend.

Hope all are well.
Cheers,
Mary
xxx

A Funny Thing Happened On ...

Yeah, well....

I guess there is many a slip twixt the bus and the trip!

Arrived at the travel agency in Belgrade at 12 m'day on Wednesday to check in for the 6pm departure to Greece that evening, only to be told it had left at 7am that morning...

...without me!

Shock, horror, how dare they?

It seems they tried to contact my friend re the sudden time change, but she was at work and I was in transit and she can not use a private phone at work! So...

Got my money back and proceeded to have a nice 3 day stay in Belgrade instead, even though it sleeted, snowed and then poured with rain for 2 days!

One of the 2 types of breakfasts served at the Astoria Hotel in Belgrade! I preferred this one as the English Breakfast has a bowl of chips, 8 pieces of French toast, an amazing type of sausage as variance to the  vegies, cheese and "vegetable stuff" in the left hand dish.

Went touring on the one sunny day, shopping for some Xmas things for my grand daughters, bought a navy dress jacket, new PJ's etc and tried on lots of coats and shoes, but nothing fitted as I wanted it to. I only shop while away, so it was fun to look at things.

A 500 billion Dinar note from 1993 in the hyper inflation days in Serbia. Worth about 3 euros...less than  5 Aussie dollars.

Found lots of great building ideas for the new big room, like vanity basin and cupboards etc. Found awesome tiles like I have never seen in Hungary, probably due to the Greek and Turkish influences from down that way.
Found a super flooring shop too that has all the decking, parquetry etc I simply can not find in  Budapest. All the people in the shops spoke great English, so I was able to accomplish a lot.

Some of the older buildings have been preserved like this one, in the streets, has bullet holes in it from the street fighting in the recent Serbian battles for freedom. So much stuff we from OZ take for granted.

Also discovered a marble heating system that simply plugs in. No piping needed, no plumbing, no gas etc etc.
Jelena has 3 different sized panels installed in her apartment and they certainly did the job in the sudden drop from 20C to zero temps.
Very classy marble panels of any finish...bronze look, rough marble, polished and so on.

The oldest traditional building in Belgrade. Built by the Turks hundreds of years ago in the Turkish occupation.

All up it would cost me one fifth of the price of traditional heating I was going to do, to set my place up for next winter. The company is in Nis, a city out of Belgrade, so am hoping they can transport to my place here!
Installation takes about 20 mins a panel to fit, test, and as they drill the screw holes the guys vacuum the falling dust so nothing hits the floor or air around! Amazing.

And she said Serbian was really easy to read...it is pronounced just as you read it! Really?

I also ate out every meal, something I really don't do a lot and have never eaten 3 meals a day in restaurants or cafes or fast food outlets, even whilst traveling.
I like to make most of my own meals or buy fruit, nuts or yoghurt because I don't like artificial things in my food, that's why I always chose accom with kitchens.

My fave hang out in Belgrade...The Cigar and Champagne rooms at the Astoria...Love the lights!

Took my friend to the Astoria for a "lamenting no Greece trip" massive English breakfast/brunch and bubbly and it came to 18 dollars OZ for us both, not each, even with a picallo of bubbles each!

Ahhhh, right where I belong!

The Astoria Hotel has superb food and strangely enough it is half the price, or less, than the sidewalk cafes. I had all my meals, except the steak dish on the first day, at the Astoria, which is over the road and down a 100 mtrs from my accom, my dentist, the train station and only 200 mtrs from the centre of Belgrade.

Now, THAT'S a mug...My 2 most fave people in Belgrade...Zorena on the left and  Jelena on the right. Zorena is the manager of Home Sweet Home, so the owner told me.

So a bloated 3 days later, I arrived home unexpectedly to find the dogs had destroyed their bedding... which unfortunately included a few old feather and foam pillows!

'Nuff said!

You can imagine a windy morning, millions of feathers and bits of foam, blowing in whirly-winds around the inside garden fence...

Amazing...NOT!

Pansy wall. In Summer this wall is covered with petunias...

Entering the famous Bohemian centre...

A lovely day fior touring...Free 3 hour walking tours are a great way to orientate in all cities when traveling.

The big stones on the street, used as cobble stones, are not suitable for any type of shoe with a heel!

Entering the old city buildings area...

It pays to look up on occasion!

Entering the wonderful park to visit the massive fortress..

You can not imagine how really Yuuuggge this thing is!

Peeping through one of the gun slits in one of the outer bastion walls.

4 levels of bricked terraces...An enemy would not stand a chance with this set up!

Gateway into another part of the bastion. It was a city within walls and had a milatary set up in there too.

A very hot day when the sun was out, thankfully for taking pics. Next day it hit zero and sleeted, snowed a little then poured for the next 2 days.

Renos underway...

It is big! These are some of the old dungeons... Note how tiny the person on the bridge is.

Aiming high for great views.

Now, that's how you do it! The Sava and Danube meet here..

Lovely views...

Looking down you can see some of the old remains of homes within the massive complex.

Some more crumbling remains...

Jelena works in that big black building sky scraper...

Inside one of the old dungeon cells...no windows and taken thru the grate in the door, with a flash as it was pitch black inside.

The tour only went a certain way, without steps mostly, due to the age group range. So many oldies walk this tour, so lots of steps are mostly out for large groups like this.

Some of our group of over 50 people taking a break in the shade.

A display pic on the promenade of troops leaving for battle. This is from the other side of the complex.

My little castle still stands!

My sister calls these white flowers/weeds, living snow!

From the park you walk across the street into my fave strip in Belgrade...the fabulous cafe culture. Love it, but don't drink coffee in Europe. I make my own in the mornings and that's it for the day. So many people drink cocktails or juices/soft drinks. It's clouding over and getting colder by the minute, now the tour has finished!

Was walking past and noticed this unusual meal, so I ordered one, even though it was in an edible pastry top hat! hahaha...

Steak, capsicum, lettuce! 3ingredients and it was simply delicious with the mustard drizzle.

Waiting inside to pay for the meal and experimented taking a pic in the mirror without me being in it.

So many nice looking edibles, but Ican't ever remember being tempted. I just love looking at them.

Then it started to sleet on the way back to Home Sweet Home!

A nice warm place out of the cold and wet outside...

Went home on the Thursday 10 pm night train and arrived at my place at 10 am from Belgrade and Budapest...all 3 trains and the bus were fast connections this time.

So ends my Big Fat Greek trip!

Have a workaway guy coming for a few weeks next week so am madly rushing around to sort out the rooms.
Imre was to paint the front room windows and door trims while I was away, but it will still be done on the same days...just with me here now.

So, all the best and I hope you enjoyed the little trip into lovely Belgrade instead of Greece.

Cheers,
Mary

Blossoms Come and Blossoms Go!

Wow, I can not believe how quickly the trees come into bloom and how short a time they are in full bloom.
Then suddenly the blossoms are all gone, the ground below each tree is a carpet of pastel colours and within 2-3 days the trees have turned from full of blossoms to full of green leaves.

The turbo boosting components in the atmosphere here are stunning in their veracity!

Bought lots of plants for the garden...These are the extras I had to buy to fill in gaps!

So, with the lovely weather coming straight of from the sub zeros of winter, one would think there would be a gradual temperature increase...but not so here...

Winter's over, spring is here, so straight up to 36C in the shade this past week it goes!
Hahaha, one has to laugh as this weather is nothing to get bored about.

I planted over 30 pansies, purple and yellow...Plus about 40 gladiola behind the iris which self grew.

The spa deck paving is completed and this week I complete the water metre readers path, as I had to wait for Imre to trim a lot of the half bricks I'm paving it with.

Running short of full bricks, but found a lot of pretty good half bricks so Imre trimmed them up for me and they should look great when completed by Sunday arvo.

The garden will look nice in a month or so...

Using the old metal from the wine casks to stabilize the bottom of the drums, plus wooden struts.

A table made from an old wine vat bottom. and an old drum, plus a stool for the spa deck.!

Then on Monday Imre will finish the rails around the little spa deck and that will be a nice job out of the way and will improve the look of the front of the house a lot.

Imre has also cut seat tops for all the drum seats/stools and now all I have to do is make some round foam and cushion cover things, like the old milk jug covers, with the elastic around the edges to pop over the wooden seat and foam cushioning.

I need the girls from OZ to come back and paint 2 more seats I had Imre make out of another old drum I found laying around!

Front room ready for flooring...Will empty it after I get back from Greece and Imre will lay, glue, sand and seal the floor.

The front room is now ready to use, but I'll wait and get Imre to lay the timber flooring when I come back from Greece, now at the end of April, as the tour was put back a week, but all is good.

Yeahy...the tool shed has a locking door! Render has to be completed on the exterior too, but no probs! Washed some curtains I picked up at the markets to test drive. They look nice.

The tool shed has a lockable door at long last even with amber coloured glass in it. I bought a few old doors and a very nice sideboard from a neighbour last year for a few dollars and the 2 doors have come in handy...one for the tool shed and one for the bathroom.

Imre wanted to paint the tool shed door, but I'll keep it looking "antique" until next year as it is under a fairly big overhang and should be ok until then. We'll cement the path outside the tool shed when it's all been rendered outside, put on some gutters and a drain pipe, dig a dry well and fill it with old cement and bits of brick rubble, then another task will be completed.

So all Imre has to do in April to complete the tool shed is to tidy up the footings cement inside so he can line the brick walls neatly, line the ceiling, paint it all inside and put in 2 little windows, which we forgot to do when building the back wall of the 3 door/tool shed last year! Dohhh.

Will use the old, but in pretty good condition, lino from the front room for the tool shed floor and that will be another big job done. Can't wait to set up the tool shed bench, using my present kitchen set up and put away all the tools and stuff laying around everywhere outside together with a lot of small electric tools still in the house.

While I'm away in Vienna/Salzburg/Eagles' Nest next month, he'll paint all the window frames, doors and trims inside and out and the place will be ready for me to move into at least one really completed room. Then all the girlie stuff begins, like hanging curtains and finding or moving the light fitting.

Then we only have to  do the middle room, which is fairly OK, as I had a lot of the flaky plaster removed about 18 months ago, so it will be a quick job. Then into the end room, build the wall/rail around the stairs to the cellar, put in some power switches and do the wooden flooring, heave a massive sigh of relief...and start on the Summer Kitchen in June!
Can't wait.

So, with all of that flurry of work and growth happening outside, there is extra work now as, the lawns need to be mowed every week and then next month, every 4 days!

It grows so fast, so long and so thick these first 3 months...April, May and June and thankfully, in July when it's high summer and very hot, it slows down a bit.

Anyways, am off to mow now as it's past 2 pm on Sunday, so will race out and do it while the urge hits!

See you next week before I leave for Belgrade, via Budapest, on the way to Greece!

Cheers,
Mary