I decided to have one of the new sausages for tea so I got them out of the freezer this morning to let them thaw. Unfortunately, I'd forgotten to wrap them up before freezing so they were frozen into one solid mass to the plate I'd put them on. I put a big knife to the bottom of the heap to break them loose but, of course, the lot just skipped along the top of the table.

So I braced them up against my stomach and got ready to have another go. It suddenly occurred to me that, minus the sausages, I was in a perfect seppuku position! Ah, better idea, brace them against something other than my stomach when I'm going to smack a really sharp object into them with some force!

Eventually broke them all apart, with the help of a kitchen steel used as a lever but broke one of the sausages into 3. Well that saved me picking one, the broke one was first to be cooked. I had it with potatoes and pickled red cabbage, which I think is traditional here or my translation was off.

Saturday

Interesting morning. Yesterday we had a bit of a power cut and I forgot to reset the alarm. I still woke up at 6am due to a terrible noise coming from across the street. I've only heard it twice before and its the noise a pig makes when it knows the next 5 minutes aren't in its best interests. Bloody dog was barking like a good 'un too.

I think it was the bang that finally persuaded me that I wasn't going to have a lay on so up I got. At least the dog stopped barking.

I cleaned the verge in front of the house of grass clippings. The grass had been cut a couple of days ago and I decided the let them dry a bit before picking them up. I noticed that not all the houses did the same but seeing how much grass was in the drainage ditch I thought that it was best to clear it out as the was easy enough to cause a blockage if we had rain.

It never occured to me until the evening but Lajos the carpenters mum lives opposite but when he came to the back door with a load of sausages (thats the hungarian name, they're actually a species of black pudding) that I connected with the pig killing this morning. Very fresh sausages indeed!

Bin Day

Set both alarms so I wouldn't sleep late and got the bin out in time. For some reason I managed to fill it this time. Normally its only half full and I chuck in some packing from old parcels in to make it up.

Mowed the lawn. that was a pain. Took ages to get the petrol mower going and the strimmer completely failed to start. Had to use my electric one which is a bit fiddley and seems more like a toy compared to the petrol one.

I also racked off my cider into bottles. Funny I thought I had more than 3. I expect I'll find them in a box in the barn when I take a look tomorrow. Still, it left me with the problem of what to do with the last pint of cider at the bottom of the carboy...

Rhubarb

Rhubarb
Originally uploaded by A John Walters

Out of the 21 seeds I had last year, this is the only survivor. Only half actually germinated and the rest died when i re-potted them. Been meaning to post this for a while so here it is.

10/10/10

Won't have another day like this for a hundred years!

Racked off my 1st beer brew for ages into my keg. I had to sample it :)

Brew Day

I'd sterilised one of my new fermenting bins so I started off another brew. (I also dry hopped the one I started last week) I now have 10 gallons of beer on the go and a gallon of cider.

I'll bottle the 1st batch of beer next Monday and the week after I'll put todays new brew in the barrel/keg. I'll probably bottle the cider too but I'm not too sure how long it needs to ferment.

Körmend

Went shopping in Körmend today. One of the things I wanted was some apple juice.

I was reading up on something called "turbo cider" which is cider made from apple juice and bakers yeast. Since I only had 3 pints of the real stuff I thought I'd just as well add some stuff from a carton just to bulk it out.

I got a 2L carton for just over a pound and added that to the carboy with my juice in it and it started bubbling quite nicely.

Chores

Chucked it down today so did inside chores.

Juiced all the apples I'd collected of the trees but only had a little over 3 pints. Well down on last year, even though I've more than double the number of trees, but its been very poor for fruit trees this year. My pear tree didn't fruit at all.

Interesting Day

I caught the early bus into Körmend today, the 8:30 one. I was short of cash all weekend and had a lot to do.

I got the money then wandered down to the Monday market. I bought some socks but I have no idea if they'll fit. Funny thing, all the Hungarian phrase books I carry around with me and no of them have a conversion table for English to European sizes! I later found one in the tourist guide to Budapest.

From the market I made my way to Tescos. On the way there, someone stopped to ask directions. I've been dreading this but the first thing they said was "Sprechen Sie Deutch" (sp?) I replied in my virtually non existant German "no, I'm english" but with there map and me pointing a lot I was able to tell them to turn around and go right at the round about. (I wasn't entirely sure if this was the right way but it would send them to Zala County where half the towns, including the one they wanted, started with Zala-. On the bus back I checked that the town they were after was, in fact, on a signboard)

In Tescos, I got a pizza dish and some odds and sods.

Left me with 2 hours before catching the bus. Hmmm, what to do? After a few nano seconds I decided on 'Pub' and went to one on the corner near the subway in Körmend. Had a coffee 1st. Saw more of these lunch-pails. Seems to be a common thing. Some people paid, others just collected them.

Ouch!

I had a bit of a hangover today but, thankfully, no where near as bad as last year. 2000 ft seems to be a reasonable limit so will only take that much again next year.

I spotted Steve in the pub lunchtime but far to early in the d..., er, week for me so I didn't stop.

On the way home I got waylaid by Micky and ended up promising him some work. To be fair he did a reasonable job, although a bit pricey by village standards. It was only a few days later i realised he had only done half a job.

Buscu

Today was Bucsu day. I couldn't remember if there was an early start last year or not so I was paralysed with indecision whether or not to go at 5pm or a normal 6pm. In the end I went at 5:30. The place was empty! (Must remember to go at about half six next year)

There was some guy in the corner with a synth of some sort who belted out one song after another.



Last year the entertainment was outside but this year was too cold and wet.

Steve turned up and at some point in the evening, Hobo commandeered his camera and turned in David Bailey.

I had my 2000 HUF worth of beer and made my way home.

Rain

Have had a bit of a cold the past few days so not much done.

Today rained so did some maintenance on my mower.

Cooked a curry using up some of the last chicken stock I made. Have to make some more soon.

I also tried some of my pickled walnuts. Interesting. Tasted mostly of cloves and vinegar with texture, id est the walnut contributed crunchiness and zero flavour. I don't think I could eat a plateful at one sitting but one or two with some strong cheese would be fine. Of course Hungary is the land of not very strong cheese at all so I may have to wait a bit on that one. Still, this was a test run and next year I'll convert the whole harvest into pickles!

Apple tree

Apple tree
Originally uploaded by A John Walters

Pretty unusual, one of the apple trees has decided to flower again!

Return Home

Got the metro to the Deli Station to catch the train to Szombathely (Then catch a connection to Körmend)

Hobo had suggested getting a beer in the shops at the square but I said there'd be some at the station. Doh, of they sold beer, but as it was the station the prices were about 50% more!

We went into the station office proper and made our way to the ticket kiosks. In the Deli station the tickets are sold from a sort of rotunda. Hobo had a quick scout around and motioned me towards this particular ticket kiosk. He had a brief word with the woman and she put a "closed" sign up and disappeared. Following Hobo, found the woman standing at the staff entrance having a fag. Turns out to be some relative of Hobos. Didn't catch which one though. Sister maybe?

After chatting we went back around and waited at the closed sign. She opened it up and then gave us our tickets. Cool, the queues at the other kiosks were huge.

Went to one of the shops and got a sandwich and some cans.

We had an uneventful journey to Szombáthely. The train being direct meant we didn't have to swap, catch buses or anything.

Got to Szombáthely and just managed to get the connection to Körmend. (Had to buy another ticket though.)

Körmend at last! There was a bit of a wait 'til the next bus to Halogy so we ensconced ourselves at a pub quite close to the station. Its painted bright yellow so whatever its name is I'll always think of it as the yellow pub.

Had a few beers and that's when I started to notice that every so often someone would come in with a load of lunch-pails and hand them over. After a while they'd be handed back steaming. Wonder what that's all about? (Oh, the people were generally in the 'elderly' category.)

Oh, I also managed to fuse the place when I switched the light on in the toilet.

caught the bus and headed to the pub where Steve turned up after a while. Not sure what happened after that but "Kelly's Heroes" was on again!

My Flat VI

Spent last night in the flat watching Hungarian TV. Hobo finished of the last bits and pieces and we put the flat back together.

In the evening we watched "Kelly's Heroes" dubbed into Hungarian! The beer helped although not sure if I learned anything.

My Flat V

Checked out of the hotel this morning. Met Hobo at the usual pub and spent the day in the flat helping out.

My Flat IV

Another beery start at 8am.

Mid-morning i had to go get another bucket of paint. Cheap enough, as it was on sale, about half the price of similar stuff in Kormend. Another hard slog getting it back, without the benefit of stopping off for a rest in a bar too.

For lunch, I went to the Caladonia. I make it a point of visiting it whenever I go to Budapest. I'm not sure if the owner recognised me as my visits are once a year now but always have a quick chat with him. He used to live in Machen and drunk at my local!

I asked him to suggest an ale I as wanted Hobo to try a genuine British beer before we left.

My Flat Part III

Met with Hobo at 08:00 today so had time for breakfast. Hobo took me to a small bar near Deák Tér for a traditional Halogy breakfast of coffee, rum and beer. (This was to be the template of a standard morning in Budapest)

I went back to the paint store, with the tenants friend, to get a tiny roller for painting behind the radiators and other hard to reach places. From what he'd been told by Hobo, he expected the shop to be out on the outskirts. Its not quit that far, just feels like it when you're carrying a 25Kg bucket of paint!

I hung around the flat for the rest of the day, occasionally helping Hobo move furniture and stuff. I showed Hobo some of the photos I took after the 1st renovation, way back in 2003.

I realised there's no biting insects in Budapest so I resolved to put my shorts on when I got back to the hotel.

Apparently, the current tenant has been there for 3 years.

My Flat Part II

I met up with Hobo at 07:00 at the flat. I missed breakfast at the hotel, as it doesn't start until the time I was to meet Hobo, so went for a breakfast burger at MacDonald's in Déak Tér. Although the door was open there were a couple of blokes pushing delivery trolleys about saying "Zarva" or closed. So we did the next best thing and went to the coffee house next door. Bit of a tourist trap along the lines of a Starbucks. The coffee was OK but on the expensive side.

After coffee, we went looking for a paint-shop. Hobo asked some random bloke on the square where on was and he indicated up the street that runs past the Basilica. (Can't remember the name offhand). Well, we went up the street until we got to the square where Nyguti Station was. I suggested the mall there but, when Hobo asked the security guard, there weren't any there. We carried on up the street until we hit Árpad Bridge. While umming and arring what to do next Hobo spotted a painter across the road (at least he had paint spattered overalls on, so probably a painter)

Anyway, the guy was on the phone and then went into a pub so we followed him in. Hobo ordered some beers and then went and talked to the guy. Nope, he didn't know where any paint-shops were either. It was now 08:00 while I'm having my 1st beer of the day. Not started drinking that early since Xmas eve when I worked for Thomas Ness!

Hobo then remembered that his father had a paint-shop on a corner on Nagymeru u. which goes off the street we just walked up. I could see St Annes church down the street and told Hobo that it was on the same street as my flat. We hit Andrassy Avenue and Hobo rung one of his family to ask about paint-shops. Apparently there was one on my flats street but in the 70s or 80s!

We eventually found the shop and Hobo went around getting all the tools he needed and he spotted some paint on sale. His eyes lit up and he wanted two then and there. They were 28L buckets and I thought buying two was asking for trouble so I suggested to hobo buy one today and get the other one later. Good job, they were bloody heavy! We struggled half a block before Hobo needed to rest, conveniently just by a pub. We had a couple of beers before struggling to my flat going in relays with the bucket of paint. (I had visions of it spilling all over the street but thankfully neither of us dropped it!)

Surprisingly, there was someone at the door to meet us. A friend of the tenant who'd been given the task of checking on the work. Quite a nice bloke too. Speaks quite a number of languages and bought us beer!

Helped hobo clear the little rooms and went back to the hotel, being about 6 in the evening by then. I extended my stay to four days and then went to the bar and asked for a beer in my best Hungarian. She said that there was no beer on tap but they had bottles. I was quite pleased as normally, in Budapest, they switch to English as soon as I've finished talking (or, worse, German.) On the other hand, I'm an old hand at asking for beer in Hungarian nowadays!

My Flat Part I

The flat needed redecorating as the last time was more than 5 years ago. I'd done a deal with the local decorator to come up with me to do the work as, even with hotels, it was cheaper than hiring one in Budapest. I spent 5 days there and this is what happened...

I met Hobo in the pub at 07:30 and had a coffee while waiting for the bus. (No beer!) We caught the 08:30 bus into town just 5 minutes walk away from the train station. I got Hobo to ask for the train tickets and just handed him the money.

The First (of many) disasters of the day happened when we got to Szombathely. Due to an unexpected delay with our train we missed the connecting train to Budapest by 5 minutes. According to the route map I made, we could still catch a train to Győr and then get a direct train to Budapest but Hobo insisted it was no good. As he was Hungarian I bowed to his greater knowledge. (however, as it transpired, I'm not too sure that Hobo has used the long distance trains much and I probably knew as much as he did. File this away for next time when I'll insist we do it my way)

We had to wait 2 hours for the next train so we went to the nearest open pub. We also bought some food in a corner shop for the journey. We then caught the slow train to Budapest. At this point I was expecting it to go north to Győr but the train tracked the north of Lake Balaton.

The train stopped several times on empty track to allow other trains to pass and at Ajka we had th second disaster of the day. The train terminated there and we had to pile on a pair of buses. I thought they would be going direct to Budapest but no, a few miles on we got off at some station and got on another train. This turned out to be the halfway point.

We eventually got into Deli Station at 17:00, some 5 hours after we left Szombathely!

First thing to do was to go to my hotel and dump off my stuff, then get the key to the flat.

Got a book of ten tickets and went to the hotel. This turned out to be disaster number three as, in spite of having a booking confirmation, the hotel turned out to be shut. Not closed as in on a tea break but closed for refurbishment.

Oh well, not the first time I've ended up in Budapest without a hotel so I'm more than used to finding one at short notice so I thought lets get the key first before anything else goes wrong.

Went to the address I was given to pick up the key and 4th disaster! Ok I'm lying but the concierge and his mate looked a bit intimidating.

We went back to the flat and then found that the keycode didn't work. We hopped in as some guy and his car went in so that was OK. (Later found out the keycode was right but you only had about 10 seconds to push the door open. We kept trying to turn the handle and by the time we pushed the door was locked again)

After that I went to the sister hotel of the one that was shut. I've heard that a trouble shared was a trouble halved so if the hotel didn't have a room for the night I was going to share my problem of the shut hotel. The hotel didn't have a room for the night but the receptionist knew about the shut hotel and phoned around for me and eventually found me one that had a room for the night.

The hotel was about 15 mins walk away. (It turned out to be about 5 minutes walk away from the Blaha Lujza square which is a bit of a bus/tram/underground terminus.) Got to the Hotel, where they seemed to be expecting me, and booked in and dumped all my stuff off. Job done.

Long break

Bit of a long break, first I was ill for a week then the PC kept crashing because of the heat and then I got Bloggers block.

I can't remember all the things I did since June but I did have a go at making Pickled Walnuts. You have to pick the walnuts while they are still green and the shell hasn't started to harden inside the fruit. (Walnuts look very much like apples when they start off and its the pulpy fruit we're trying to preserve by pickling)

They need to be soaked in a strong brine solution for 2 weeks, the brine being changed once. Not sure why but since the plate I used is now stained black, theres probably a good reason!

They need to be stored for about 3 months before they are ready to eat.

I noticed this with the piccalilli I made last year is that the first 2 I used were quite ferocious but after 3 months the vinegar had calmed down a lot so pickles do need to mature before eating.

Maintenance

LongDay__3
Originally uploaded by A John Walters

This is my new hedgerow. As you can see it is cunningly disguised as a thin strip of grass so the big maintenance task for the next few days is to cut all the grass out from between the "whips".

I found out I should have double dug the area before planting out the whips. In lieu of that I'll have to wait for a calm day and spot spray some weed-killer between them.

In the pub, in the evening, Hobo mentioned that my neighbour approved of my strimming of the orchard area by the phrase of "Jó munka" or 'good work', which, considering how hard they work in the village is high praise indeed! ( With the caveat that I'm not fluent so he could have said the opposite.)

Return of the Strimmer

This morning I fitted the air filter back on the strimmer and, after 5 minutes pulling the starter cord, got it going. I gave it a few revs and it seemed to be working so I decided to do a bit of strimming to see how long it lasted before it conked out. An hour later I'd strimmer most of the orchard. I'm trying to do it once a week as the grass is so quick growing at the moment but with the strimmer out of action, it hasn't been possible. Who'd have thought the air filter was the cause!

After that I started on a maintenance job for the hedge. cut down all the grass around the plant. Can't do it with the strimmer so it was a manual job with a sickle. managed about 3 metres before it started raining.

In the pub in the evening, I told Hobo the good news

Long Day

I woke up with a blinding headache in the back of my head and a sore shoulder. Must have slept awkward. Felt better after applying some deep heat and a couple of aspirins.

First I had to water the plants. I deliberately planted the bamboo next to the hop bines as they're thirsty plants too.

The second job was to take the machine apart and re-build it in rotavator mode.


The tar on the old Christmas tree trunk was almost dry so another job was to use a ground auger to dig a hole for the trunk. I guesstimated about a metre which would mean the augur handle would end up about 8" above the ground. Before that, though, I'd need to attached some string for the bines to climb. It would be a bit silly to put the trunk in the hole and then cry "Doh!".

I could have used trig and measurements to work out the length of string but I paced out the distance from the hole to the bines and went back to the shed and paced out the same from the bottom of the tree. Tied and cut them off when János the Scythe came in. (Pronounced a bit like "yah-nosh")

He's very, very good with a scythe but, unfortunately, he does like to chat. I say unfortunately as his accent means I get about one word in ten which means I don't even get the gist. He had me put another set of wheels on the rotavator (which later one, as Hobo pointed out, turned out to be on the wrong sides) and re-arrange the handles on my Austrian scythe.

He went to work with his scythe and I went off to drill a hole. I put the trunk in, filled the hole in when Hobo turned up. He pointed out the problem with the wheels and swapped them over.

Hop Support

He had a problem and said that we'd need the brush cutter to clear the land first. This is when I discovered that there were some parts missing from the strimmer. No idea where the nuts and bolts are or if I received them.

Next problem we had was that the strimmer didn't work. It would start up, race then cough and splutter to a stop. We spent the next hour trying to get it to work, even changing the petrol for new stuff. Nope, nothing. Out of any other ideas, I washed and cleaned the air filter and hung it out to dry.

Hobo then said he'd go see someone about ploughing it. (One of the new words I've learned is the verb "plough". Amazing how many times I've heard it since!)

In the meantime János the Scythe went off for a break. He's quite frail and can only manage about an hour before he knocks off.

János came back as I started weeding. I managed to finish off all of the weeding in my kitchen garden just as János started to attack my hedge! I told him to stop and he carried on with some other bits and pieces of high grass around my kitchen plot.

Shortly after that, Hobo came back and said the tractor would be ten minutes. 20 minutes later and the top end of my land was ploughed. One of the neighbours popped his head out to have a look. I guess he was checking that we didn't accidentally plough up his land too. (no fences on that side. Yet)


Tractor behind Hop Support.

All in all a good 8 hours work. Oh, and I got sunburn on part of my neck!

Bambusz...

which is Hungarian for bamboo.

Hobo came around and did a few minor jobs and planted the Bamboo for me. He told be it needs a large can of water every day when it doesn't rain.

More rain

Its like May was. May being the wettest on record here. I'm not surprised. This explains why there appear to be no pears and why all the carrots have disappeared.

Anyway, too wet to plant the Bamboo but tomorrow morning looks like it will be dry enough.

Since the next week or so are well under 20C (tomorrow is 13C! Winters back!) I decided to have a go at brewing more beer. The other indoors job was making brine for the walnuts. I didn't realise that they could stain china!

It was bin day today. I make a point of mentioning it the blog so I can keep check on the dates!

Rain

Still raining but it had let off enough for me to plant out the last lot of seedling I had on my windowsill; 3 Kale plants and 2 Celeriac. The Celeriac was unfortunate as I hadn't managed to germinate many at all. Next year I'll just sow them direct.

Went to the pub for a quick drink and then Hobo turned up and a bit later, Steve too. Don't know quite how it happened but I ended up with a bamboo plant for the garden. Not a decorative one as I'd imagine but one that grows about 12' high or so. Will be handy next year, supplying me with beanpoles etc. I'll have to get it in the ground when the rain is less than hammering down as it doesn't look dry for a week.

Kormend

Went shopping today for essential supplies. Got a smallish chicken and a couple of pizzas. Started rainging when I got back so that was that, basically.

Tomatoes

I've got about 11 tomato plants on the go at the moment and have another 8 that I'll want to plant when they're ready. The 8 are really slow to grow but I re-potted them today so maybe that will spur them on. The other variety I planted at the same time, and are now planted out, are Ukrainian and have purple fruits. The slow lot are American and are supposed to be near dry inside and are used to make tomato paste or concentrate.

I tied off some of the plants and pruned the leaves of the large ones I have growing in a container.

I made some French Onion Soup in the evening. Forgot just how much work is involved. Well, the only work is chopping the onions but you then have to caramelise them and then simmer them in stock for an hour. I was late to the pub!

Chores

Usual stuff. Water all the plants, especially the tomatoes. Its so hot now i have to water them in the evenings and the mornings. My 1st batch of tomatoes that I planted are now starting to fruit. With luck my Marmande variety (A type of Beef tomato) won't be far behind.

Walnuts

I got up early and was in the garden before 8am to beat the heat of the afternoon. Did about and hours weeding and managed to clear all the weeds from the onion patch.

Oddly enough, the weeds seem really prolific near the onions while the other plots weren't nearly as bad. According to John Seymour's book, weeds like onions. He weeds them then uses the dried weeds as a mulch in or about July.

I noticed that the walnut tree was in fruit and i remember reading about pickled walnuts last year but I had arrived too late as the nut was starting to form. I checked on a few recipes and then harvested about a pound in weight and started the process. Basically you have to soak them in brine for 2 weeks (changing the brine every so often, recipes vary on the amount), dry them then pickle them.

Checked the potatoes and still no Colorado beetle.

In the evening Hobo mentioned he's had a word with the village plough bloke and I'm on the list but he doesn't know when he'll turn up.

Mower mode

Mower mode
Originally uploaded by A John Walters

Spent the morning converting the rotavator into a mower. Pretty easy no I have a small set of ring spanners.

Mowed the lawn and did a bit of weeding on the onion patch before it got too hot to continue.

New Machine

Well not really, the same transformer machine but I spent a good part of the morning taking the shield off, adding the claw wheels, differential gear etc to make a plough. The only bit that didn't work was the "deadman's handle" that controls the wheels. When the handle is closed the wheels turn and when its released they stop. Unfortunately the only mounting available leaves a 2" gap so I'm going to have jury rig something.

Another no show by Hobo so I drunk all his beer!

Bin day

Ccaught me out today. i was in bed thinking I ought to be doing something when I heard "rumble, rumble, rumble" and realised that I should be putting the bin out! As they only turn up once a fortnight, it's a chore that can't be left.

Planted out my Ukrainian tomato plants. Apparently, this variety has purple fruit rather than red. The American ones that I planted at the same time are barely 2" high. even so I'll probably pot them on, especially as planting the Ukrainian ones has freed up some pots.

Went to Town with the object of getting some ring spanners (for the transformer machine) and some 10W-30 oil (ditto). In Tescos they had the ring spanners and, as extra insurance, I got an adjustable spanner too. The oil I didn't get. Seems like the only type I can get is 10W-40. Given the temperatures in the summer I guess this will do?

Later on, in the pub, I explained to Hobo the problem with the wheels and the shield thingy and he said he'd turn up tomorrow evening to take a look. I'll have to get some beers in, just in case.

Day of Rest

Well not really.

More strimming today. I did the right hand neighbours boundary then waded into my fenced off kitchen garden as the grass was almost long enough to lose cows in. Then did the other neighbours side but when the petrol ran out, so did my enthusiasm. Its about 25C in the shade and where I was, there's no shade.

I noticed my potatoes have lots of holes in the leaves but I didn't see any orange maggoty things so it doesn't seem to be Colorado Beetle. I'll do a closer inspection later this week.

The onions Steve gave me for seeds are starting to flower and the onion sets I planted are starting to look like real onions. The radishes (again for seed) are in flower so I better keep an eye on them to get the seeds.

I attempted to fit the "claw wheels" to the rotavator chassis but the wheels went tight against the shield thingy that stops you getting clods of earth chucked in your face. Need to get some spanners to help me take it off.

Oh, its my fathers birthday today so happy birthday, dad!

Mowing

Its been a week so I decided to use my transformer machine in mowing mode. It was a bit difficult getting the release clamp on to bind the two bits together. When I worked for an NCB subsidiary, I remember watching the mechanics at work, which gave me an idea. I got a lump of wood and a hammer and tapped the clamp into place. (Well, smacked hard then)

Took me a while to get the thing started, I had to read the manual at one point, thats how desperate I was! Bloody hell, does this thing shift!

The blade was obvious spinning far faster than my dwti electric mowers as the grass was being blown out as a fine chaff. Another benefit was that there was none of this cowboy lassoing nonsense with the flex or moving the extension lead so I think I did the job in record time.

I should take photos of the machine in each of its incarnations.

Strimmering...

or something.

Hit the garden at 10:00 and had a bash at the pumpkin field. If I have to do it again I'll use the brush-cutter blade. Those thistles are tough buggers to cut through.

Once I'd done that, I went to the end of my hedge closest to the house and then strimmed my way back up to the pumpkin field. once I'd done that, only losing (NB NOT loosing, a common mistake which gets my goat!) 2 more hedgelings. Then I strimmed on my side of the hedge to cut done any rivals for sunlight etc.

All in all, 5 hours work. Quite chuffed with that.

Rain

Its been persistently raining since Saturday so hardly worth blogging. Tomorrow is supposed to be fine so crack on then.

Next door had a bloke come around with a strimmer. Made me a bit nervous as theres no boundary between my land and hers so I thought it easily possible that he'd stray across and strim my hedge down for me (rather than me do it myself piecemeal). Luckily it started raining so he packed it in.

Mowing

Found out in the pub that if you let the front yard get untidy, you can get a fine of about 50,000 HUF (over £150). I'd let mine go a bit as I was waiting for Hobo to turn up and do the rotavating before I converter my transformer machine into a mower. So I set mowing the yard as a priority job. Mowed all the easy bits then strimmed the rest. Found out my maths was a bit out with the oil/petrol mix by a factor of 40!

After I'd finished, and was getting a drink of water, there was a knock at the door. Expecting Hobo I found Miki, the local handyman. well, when I say "handyman" I mean in the Norman Wisdom sense, ie not at all.

I told him there was no work and he seemed to accept this but then went into some long speech about something or other and in the end I had to give him 2,000 HUF just to bugger off!

Mentioned it to Steve that night, mainly cos Miki told me not to.

Strimming

Today I had a go at the old pumpkin field (which I referred to as "baked pumpkin field", much to Hobo's amusment,in my attempt at Hungarian!) which is now awash with weeds. Hobo reckons they're to tall to simply rotavate so I have to clear it 1st with the strimmer.

I managed to clear about half of it and, later in the pub, I was told that a neighbour said that it was Jo munka (good work) which is high praise indeed!

I've lost my newly planted hedge so I decided it would be best to find it and mark a line out with bamboo poles. I had a few accidents with the scythe and lost a few but a strimmer could easily take a yard of them out.

Nádasd

Today I had to go get some petrol. The nearest station is in Nádasd, about 4.4Km away. I had toyed with the idea of taking the bike but in this heat it was unreasonable. In the end I settled on the plan of taking the bus there and walking back.

The usual bus driver is so used to me asking for Kormend that I had a ticket there before I managed to ask for one! Got off at Nádasd and made my way in a likely direction.

Found the place easily enough and while I was standing at a pump wondering which bit did what, the bloke in the station came up. I asked for ten litres, handing him the can.

In and out in ten minutes. I put the can in a plastic bag and the bag in my back pack and off I went.

I'd just got to the turning for Halogy when I smelled petrol. I quickly got the can out of my pack and discovered that the top hadn't been tightened properly so some had spilt. Lucky I put the can in a bag.

I managed to get halfway to Halogy before someone stopped and offered me a lift! Great

Strimmer Time

Hobo tunred up today and set about planting the peppers and the hungarian tomato plant. He used the rotavator and did a bit of raking afterwards. quit effective I though. Its main use will be at the top end of my land where I want to plant some Barley and Sweetcorn.



We went to the pub with Steve and after some chatting Hobo scrounged some petrol off the landlord and we then set about filling the strimmer. Hobo had a go and cleared a path halfway up my land towards the bit I need rotavating.

A bit of a departure, a video instead of a photo:

Bin day

Forgot to mention but yesterday was a bank holiday so the bins weren't collected.

There was a no show by Hobo but as I was a little under the weather it didn't matter so much. Took some photos of the apples developing on the apple trees. Not seen them at this stage before.

Sunday

Today was a bit odd. Woke up at 10am in spite of setting the alarm for 6! Since I didn't have a drink the night before I couldn't blame that.

Did about an hour in the sun and managed to clear all the grass. I now have a small collection of haystacks.

Went in for a shower when Hobo turned up with some paprika plants and a free tomato plant. He's dead set on me having Hungarian tomatoes even though most of mine ARE hungarian. (I bought a pack of seeds some years ago and have been happily growing them in the UK)

He said he'd dig them in tomorrow and I said there'd be no need and showed him the Rotavator in the garage. Well, that was it! He was all fired up to give it a go and went and scrounged some petrol from some neighbours and filled her up. I gave him the handbook to read as, being in Hungarian, it was of little use to me.

He worked out which switches and levers to turn and gave the starter rope a pull and off he went at speed! He quickly throttled back though and gave it a turn through the area of ground he'd picked out for the paprika.

As I understand it, the previous owner had some raised beds there and, as a result, the soil was very fertile.

The Rotavator, unfortunately, just ripped the grass up by the roots and got jammed.

The plants cost 1500HUF but I didn't have any small change. So off to the pub to get some change and have a quiet beer which turned into one of Steve's famous sessions. Hobo kept asking me if 10am tomorrow was OK for digging but I doubt I'll see him given the state he was in!

Saturday

The weekend started off with some blistering heat. Funny, its cold when we have cloud cover and boiling when its gone. I would expect cooler but not cold!

Anyway, I managed to clear about half the cut grass this morning and have 4 haystacks about shoulder height. If the sun stays out I'll be able to finish it off to morrow and then get on with some proper gardening! (Weeding and my spuds need earthing up. Oh and I need to keep an eye out for Colorado Beetle. Its one of the reasons the locals don't grow them)

Rain

Rained most of the morning so didn't get anything done except sneezing. I know sneezing doesn't count as a chore but sure feels like one!

Later, in the pub, Hobo said he'd cycle up to the station and get petrol. Puts me in a bit of a quandary tbh. Do I go to a station anyway, on the assumption that he'll forget or leave it? More beer perhaps?

New Shinies.

New Rotovator
Originally uploaded by A John Walters

My new Rotavator came today. Only its not just a Rotavator. Theres a load of add-ons that let you: Mow the grass, plough, unearth potatoes and rotavate. Yup, its a transformer toy for grown-ups!

Need to get a set of spanner or some such for when I need to strip the sucker down.

Heres the plough and mower attachment


Other shinies.

Oh yes, the 2-wheeled diesel tractor has morphed into a rotavator as it was about 50% cheaper.

Hay-fever is really bad this year or, perhaps, better as its in the afternoon I start sneezing like mad and dose myself up with anti-histamines.

Had a bloke scythe my lawn this morning. Turned up at 5:00am and finished at 09:30. Makes me feel like the Sun King tbh, having people scything my lawn.


Had to bite the bullet with all the mowing and digging I need t do so I've bought a petrol driven strimmer, for maintenance stuff, and a diesel two-wheeled tractor for pretty much everything else.

No sign of the Acacia column. Looks like the website isn't operational or the people running it are scared of dealing with English people. I will have to use bamboos for now to support the hops but its sub-optimal to say the least.

May Pole

May Pole
Originally uploaded by A John Walters

Decorating the pole before putting it up.

Strawberries

Strawberries
Originally uploaded by A John Walters

How my over-wintered strawberries are looking

Hops

Today I dug over a plot of land to plant my hops. I've also ordered a5m telegraph pole to act as a trellis.

The varieties, in case anyone's interested, are : Goldings, Fuggles and Northern Brewer.

Surprise Post

The Posta lady came to the door today with a package I wasn't expecting. Well, not entirely true, I was expecting it but not today. Last time I checked the order it was still "processing". Anyway, to cut a long story short (too late!) I got 3 varieties of hops delivered. Not the flowers but the actual plants. More digging tomorrow then.

Hops seem to belong to a large class of plants where the root system is so complex that botanists seem to have given up and called them Rhizomes. Others in this group are rhubarb and ginger.

The new apple trees seem to be in a rush as they are sprouting new leaves almost daily while the older ones are barely waking up. The quince trees are looking good and my hedgerow no longer looks like an eccentric stick collection.

Hotel

Originally uploaded by A John Walters

As it was a wet and cold Bank Holiday Monday, we did what all Brits do and went to the seaside. One problem though, Hungary is landlocked so we did the next best thing and went to Lake Balaton at a place called Keszthely.

Saturday

Yesterday and today moved an old settee/bed thing into an out house while the frame got converted into a bookshelf. Apparently, next Saturday is throw-anything-away day so I'll be dragging some manky mattresses to the gate to get collected.

Finished off the potato patch and planted the last of the spuds.

Potatoes

Finally dug enough of the potato plot to start some planting. We'd gone to Tescoes yesterday and got some manure which I intend to use to line the bottom of the potato trench. If nothing else it'll improve the fertility of the garden.

Apparently, Colorado Beetle is a big pest out here. To the extent that its not notifiable as everyone has it.

Out of the 5 egg-boxes full of seed potatoes I had, I used 2. I managed to almost double the size of the bed with my daily double digging stint. To be honest I was quite surprised so I think my fitness is improving, I know my tan is!

So, another 2 boxes can go in and it looks like there's very achievable target for this weekend to to plant out all the potatoes. I can then start another bed for my other vegetables that I want to start off (Peas and such like)



A view of the Fruit plot.



Last years plot with the onion/carrot plot at the top. You may just make out the fruit plot on the right hand side.

Oh yes, this is the 1st anniversary of me leaving work. Since then I've bought a new house, emigrated, continued to learn a new language, made new friends and pretended I'm Tom Good and started my own version of "The Good Life".

Graz

We went to the Farmers Market and wandered around. One of the stalls sold cheese. Not the tasteless Hungarian stuff but proper hard cheeses. Bought a kilo of cheddar and a smaller amount of some other strong cheese and we got a free sample of Austrian cheese thrown in. I'm seriously thinking of spending all my future birthdays here as a treat!

Graz

Off to Graz for a night.

Its quite interesting going there with no borders. Either side of the border, the houses are obviously part of the same tradition but the Austrian side are better kept.

Got to Graz easy enough. The strange thing was the hotel never asked us for our passports. Never come across that before.



One of the more picturesque buildings on the Herrengasse street.

Digging

Even more digging.

Slowly widening the fruit patch and have planted the rhubarb.

Fruit Patch

I'd started to open out the fruit patch before my parents appeared but now I needed to put a spurt on to plant some rhubarb.

I've lost about a stone too with all this gardening. Now the snows gone I have to do at least some digging every day to try and open some of the plot up.

Visitors

Had a text from my parents that they'd be arriving at about 3 or 4pm. They eventually turned up at 7pm!

Got loads of goodies such as garden books for brewing, how to make cider... In short how to turn garden produce into alcohol!

Also brought some much missed British food such as beans, chilli sauces and guinness.

Gardening

Gardening
Originally uploaded by A John Walters

Finished off the 3mx3m patch and started putting in all the garlic plants I started off in Feb. Even if I plant out some more late, at least these ones should should have a full growing season.

The damp patch is where I've just planted alternate rows of red onions and carrots.

Quince Trees

Finally remembered to upload them.



2 different varieties. No idea which ones which though!

Did some more digging and Steve popped around to give me something.

Digging

More digging today. Knocked off for lunch and did a bit more in the afternoon.

This double digging lark is quite knackering when you're out of shape. I estimated that each row I dig involves me moving a cubic metre of earth, which I guess is about a ton. So three tonnes today! No wonder I feel so tired so no pub tonight and an early night.

I put out one of my tomato seedlings to start hardening it off but the things seems to have died instead.

Oh, I forgot the photos. I'll try and remember tomorrow.

Runcible Spoon

The two Quince trees I ordered online arrived today. They were COD. Interesting that, as COD has virtually died out in the UK but here is how you shop online. Suits me. It worked out at about £17 for the pair, including delivery

Spent a good hour planting them. Took a few shots but the sun was so bright I couldn't see the LCD screen so I took pictures of next doors barn by mistake. I'll do some tomorrow morning.

Come Autumn, if they crop well I'll have to buy some mince and a runcible spoon.

I'm definitely unfit, digging the 2 holes knackered me out. Wouldn't be too bad but I have to crack on with the garden tomorrow. I'd like to finidh the plot byt Friday and do some planting over the weekend.

Forgot to mention that it snowed overnight but by the time I started digging holes for the trees, not only had the snow gone but I was down to my T-shirt!

Körmend

Tuesday instead of Monday.

Went to Tescos to get some Guinness for tomorrow but completly forgot about it after looking in the gardening section. Ho Hum, St Paddy's day without Guinness, its just not right.

Bank Holiday

Today is a Bank Holiday so didn't do my usual Monday trip to Körmend.

It commemorates the 1848 uprising against the Habsburgs. Apparently, this is the source of the Hungarian taboo against clinking glasses. To be fair I haven't clinked my glasses so much since being here! I read somewhere that the taboo got cancelled after 150 years but I cant find anything about the taboo one way or another.

I notice I haven't blogged as much as I should so rather than try and remember each individual detail for each day I may just do a summary.

Washing day

I put the weashingout from yesterday, which wasn't quite dry. Next thing I know is the heavens have opened and its chucking it down! Not "Just starting to spot" but full on "turn your garden into a new river" deluge. Well, no point in bringing them in, they aren't going to get any wetter out there and it will stop tonight. Bugger, means I have to do some ironing now :D

Thursday

Hung my washing out today, first one of the year. I moved the internal washing line to the garage. The front room is now looking more like a bedroom and less like a junk shop. (But only just).

Not really warm enough to dry the washing when I brought them in but a bit of a morale booster that the weather is warming up.

Put some chile, paprika and leek seeds in my seed tray. Leeks are great in the winter.

Spot of Gardening

With the snow mostly gone I looked at the poly tunnel over the grape cutting and repair any damage. The covering had moved off the hoops. I probably need more hoops and more garden fleece now.

Hopefully the grapes will take and I can then start planning a trellis or some sort of support.

Ordered some brown bottles for the beer I'm brewing. Should arrive Monday which is when the beer will be ready for them.

Table

Decided to reassemble the table I brought over (Hi to Steve and Linda!). I'd been thinking of the best place to put it for a while. No real problems. Its fairly solid and the legs just screwed on. Gave me a place to put my fruit bowl, rather than precariously on the floor!

While it gave me a bit more room in the main bedroom it mad the kitchen a bit smaller. What I need is a bigger house or something.

Went to the pub later on where Hobo asked where I was yesterday. I'd forgotten I was supposed to meet him.

Monday's Körmend

The normal weekly trip but just needed odds and ends as I'm pretty well stocked up at the moment. Over did it a bit and ended up with a bagful of stuff. Ones of these days I expect the handle to break, probably when I have a load of Olive oil or something equally fragile!

Had a pizza for tea then had some Guinness!

Körmend

Yup the second trip of the week.

Started raining just as I got to the bus stop. Hope it not an omen. (Usually, it ends up with the shops not having anything I want and the bus doesn't turn up!)

Went to the local Lidls for some bits and pieces. Mainly bulk buying instant coffee and English tea. On the way back got half a kilo of white onion sets and half as much of red onions. If the weather keeps up I'll give it a week and then start digging.

Planted a couple more Marmande tomatoes. Once these have got to about 6" high I'll put them outside.

Warm Days

A blistering two or three degrees above freezing. Soon have no snow at this rate!

In the evening went to the pub. I went early as I didn't want to have too much of a session. Steve was already there, recovering from his 1st post fall trip to Körmend. He stayed for a couple before going off.

Steve mentioned that our favourite gardening/tool shop in Körmend were selling onion sets. Have to make a trip there tomorrow to get some. I use onions at a fantastic rate so it would be nice to be able to supply all of mine from the garden.

I got the impression that Hobo is going to give/lend me a disc of Hungarian music. I've certainly agreed to meet him in the pub on Saturday!

Old Washing Machine.

Finally got around to moving it outside into one of the old barns. Not too sure what I'm going to do with it. Sell it for scrap?

Also mopped the floor for the 1st time since the old machine died on me. While it came up nicely, i think I'll go over it again on the weekend, just to be sure.

Tuesday

Finally caught up with the washing. Phew, I can get back to a normal once a week washday now. The ski-slope of washing has sunk too. At this rate I'll have nothing to do this weekend!

Half the tomatoes I planted have come out. Surprise tomatoes these will be as I can't remember which ones were the Marmande (Beef) tomatoes and which ones are the Normal ones!

Hobo turne up at about 10:30. Something about the bins (In Hungarian "bin" sounds remarkably like "cooker") It seems I need a new sticker for this year and without it they won't empty it. Its about 5000 forints (about £17) for the year. I should have had a bill with a payment slip on it but I certainly didn't have anything from the name on the sticker.

Went out in the evening and Steve hobbled in, trooper that he is. :D

Hobo went over the bin thing and by the end of the night I got my head around it. (It was actually 500 forints by the way!) Hobo had noticed my bin hadn't had the sticker and had actually gone around and sorted it out for me so I owed him the money! Thank goodness for that as I wouldn't have known where to start.

Afterwards I watched "Have I got News for You" with Brian Blessed on Youtube. Possibly the funniest one ever.

Bin Day

Made an effort to remember today and dragged the bin out through the snow at 6:00 this morning! I even cleared away the snow from around it so the bin men wouldn't have to.

When I went to pull it back in, about 11:45, I noticed it was still full. Bit of a mystery that, I'll have to ask Steve.

Went to Kormend to get some bits and pieces. Mainly some meat for stews and stuff. While I was there I noticed some multiplugs on sale. I got a few as this would sort out some logisticals problems I'm having unplugging and replugging stuff back. (Manly cos I need an adaptor for my stuff) With a multi-plug I can leave the adapter in one socket.

Beer

Made a quick visit to Steve to see how he's getting on. Seems to have plenty of food and Hobo pops in now and again so he's not going to starve to death over the weekend!

Started another brew today. Slightly different to the last one in that I used a different strain of yeast to the one that comes with it. I'll also let it stand for 2 weeks before racking it off into bottles. I'll start another batch almost immediately using yeast I intend to harvest from this batch. I'll also bottle this lot and then then use the barrel for the next batch. Should be an interesting experiment to see how the different conditioning environments work.

For future reference the OG was 1034.

Saturday

Went to the shop to get a load of stuff and then had to put it all back when Irealised i didn't have any money on me!

Went to visit Steve as it appeared his tumble was worse than it looked when I left him. Chatted a bit but as the shop was about to close I went over and did a bit more shopping. Got some more mushrooms. They do seems tastier than ours for some reason.

Got one of the beer kits from the garage. I'll let it thaw overnight and do some brewing tomorrow. I checked the cat tracks in the garden and found a hole in the fence. I'll block that tomorrow around about 3pm as the cats don't seem to be in the barn then. B*****ds.

Also had a look over the fence at the snow next door. I haven't seen the tell-tale glow of the telly for weeks, maybe months. No tracks by the door, none out the back. This means no-ones left for at least 3 days and probably a week. Might have lost a neighbour before even getting to know them.

Beer as a health food. I knew all this beer drinking was good for me! Now, if I can just find a scientific report that shows smoking will cure my asthma, I'll be back on fags quicker than you can say "got a light?".

Washing Day

To be honest, every day is wash day now until I've caught up with my backlog. The weakest link is the drying as it takes about a day and a half to dry stuff. I can now see the floor again and over the weekend I'll move the old washing machine into one of the outbuildings.

Mosógép Day

At long last my washing machine came!

Its a bit of a minor triumph. I barely speak the language yet I managed to navigate through a website, order and pay for the machine and get it delivered. I got an Electrolux since thats a brand I've heard of so there may well be an instruction manual in English. The last machine was German and I'll be buggered if I'm gonna learn another language for a washing machine!

Took about an hour to unplumb the old machine and plumb the new one in. Gave it a test drive on empty to make sure none of the pipes leaked then gave it a full load! As the its snowing quite heavily, I'm shelving moving the old one for today. Might do it tomorrow.

Now I can catch up on the backlog and then attack the floor, which has been buried for weeks!

Mosógép, if you haven't guessed, is Hungarian for "washing machine". Its a good example of how clever the language is. "Mos" is a verb, meaning "to wash" (its a bit more complicated than that as the infinitive is "mosni" but this is close enough). Now "-ó" is a suffix that converts a verb into a noun, so "mosó" is "something that washes". Finally "gép" is "machine" so "mosógép" is "machine that washes" or "washing machine".

Another example, more relevant to me, is "ás" which is "dig". So a spade would be?... Yup, put an -ó on the end and we get "ásó". Clever, isn't it?

Its a big help as it means I don't have an endless list of words to learn. For example, I wanted a trowel in a shop and although I didn't know the word, or indeed shovel, I said "kisásó" and they instantly knew what I wanted.

Oh yes, we had more snow and the bottom step up to the front door disappeared.


Went to the pub and Steve had one of his sessions. Very slippery on the way home. I skidded about a bit but Steve took a tumble near the church. I couldn't help him up or we'd both end up scrabbling about on the floor. I made sure he got home alright and he seemed to have got over it by the time I left.

Not Much

Quiet day today. Potched about a bit. Put some tea towels in the laundry bucket for a long soak and forgot about them!

Told Hobo in the pub about my cat problem and he suggested putting a dog up there. All I need now is a dog...

Garlic plants are doing well but my last Rhubarb plant is still looking a bit peaky. I think I might order some more seeds and just plant them straight in the ground. I need to order some more garden fleece while I'm at it. Last years got ripped.

Oh, more snow.

Bloody Cats!

Well my plan worked, kind of. The bloody cats woke me up at 2am crying to get out! So I went out and open the door and, of course, they ran back up the ladder and hid.

Went back to bed but couldn't get back to sleep. Gonna be a bear with a sore head today, from lack of sleep.

Made some mushroom soup which was pretty tasty.

More Work in the Barn.

Still had the scampering upstairs so Had a quick check outside the barn. Sure enough tell tale cats paw-prints near a hole so I went inside and blocked that off. Hopefully they'll get hungry and shoot off when I open the door tomorrow.

Had a phone call from someone. What with my lack of Hungarian and the signal fading in and out, we were both reduced to shouting "Allo?" before the signal died. Probably the driver wanting to know when he can drop my washing machine off... maybe.

There's a Rat in my Kitchen...

what am I gonna do? Well, OK I don't have rats in the kitchen, but I do have cats in the attic. The house is one storey with a ladder in the barn so if the can get in the barn, they can get in the attic.

Unfortunately, I can't. Get in the barn that is. I somehow managed to lose the key to the padlock.

A bit of a hangover today, due to the appalling game last night. Gave up watching 5 mins into half time

I went over to Steves to borrow a grinder off him to cut the lock off. Bit of a problem, the only extension cord I have is British while steves angle grinder has a European plug on it. After looking at the various options I cut the plug off a hungarian multiway and put a british plug on it. Home-made adapter!

Spent a brief time grinding the lock right up until I couldn't see anything in the sudden blizzard. Since electricity and water don't mix, except rather briefly, I took it into the garage and used a hacksaw to cut through the remaining sliver of metal.

With the lock off, a quick inspection saw no sign of errant beasties as I was half expecting Badgers (or wolverines!). I blocked up some of the more obvious entrances and locked the door again. I took the grinder back to Steve.

All was quiet for a few hours, which time I spent making Pork Goulash and planted a few tomato seeds. A few normal sized ones and a few Marmande which are a type of Beef Tomato.

Unfortunately the scampering came back and when I took a look, I spotted 2 cats. A black one and a grey one. In fact they looked like the pair that were chasing next doors chickens a few months back, well until the cockerel spotted them, then they did a feline VTOL up the fence.

I'll have to think of a way of evicting them but I don't fancy tromping about the attic as I KNOW its not safe.

Credit Card Fraud!!

I went onto my Halifax credit card to change addresses when I noticed a transaction I don't remember. Since it was last week, eve I would have remembered. Especially a flight with Ryanair. Especially one way trip from Poland!

Looks like 2 poles booked a flight the day before they took off using my credit card! If Ryanair used the normal security checking stuff they couldn't have used it so they must have used my credit card number AND the security code from the physical card.

Anyway, I phoned up to contest the charge and have the card cancelled. Thank you, Mr and Mrs Polack.

Planted some tomato seeds ready for Spring, if we ever get it here. My garlic is looking quite healthy. I think they might start flowering before I get them out into the garden at this rate!

Oh, and it snowed again today. The novelty is starting to wear off.

More Pruning

Had a look at the pear tree. Surprisingly, this has an open centre too whereas I'd expect a pyramid shape. Oh well, same routine then, get rid of dead stuff etc.

I only have the walnut tree to do now.

Washing

Gah! More washing, ironing and stuff!

I did do some outdoorsie stuff. I managed to do some pruning on the apple trees. It was fairly intuitive once I got started. Cut back or remove branches that are rubbing, cut off downward growing branches, and remove branches growing into the centre. Oh, and most importantly, stop before you think you've finished! Better to prune too little than too much. Mind you, make sure you get rid of the obviously dead or diseased stuff first.

Kormend

Went for my second trip this week. Got some nice blue cheese and some bits and bobs for a goulash on the weekend and possibly some chicken stock.

Funny enough, the bus wasn't crowded as usual. Managed to bag a seat. I also managed to properly pronounce the village name or something as the driver just give me the ticket. Oh, the price went up and is now 305ft instead of 165ft. About 15%.

Looking at the exchange rate,its not that GB is doing any better but that Hungary is collapsing faster!

Washing

I worked out that the indoors washing line thingy can hold about 3 buckets worth of clothes and that it takes about a day and a half to dry. Looks like the new washing machine can;t get here soon enough as I can barely keep up hand washing alone.

I noticed that almost all my rhubarb seedlings have died. I only have one plant left. Hope it survives long enough for me to plant outdoors. I can see now why people say "Don't grow them from seeds, too fiddly".

Cold

Found the front door open this morning. I didn't lock it last night so I'm gussing it was so cold that the metal shrunk enough for it to disengage. Must remember to always lock the door at night in winter!

Missed the bin collection.

I went to Körmend later on to replace some much needed stores, olive oil and that sort of thing. I'll probably need one more trip to round things off.

Hand washing.

Finally managed to wrestle my way through a Hungarian website and order a new washing-machine. It'll take about 2 weeks so I'll have to deal with the backlog of washing by hand.

I have a large plastic bucket so I'll just put the clothes in that with some washing powder, give then a bit of a bashing, let them soak for 20 mins ors o them rinse and wring them dry. A bit labour intensive but I'm starting to run out of socks!

A friend rang me on the mobile. Not sure if I mentioned this before but the whole village is in a sort of cell phone dead area. My phone changes network when i pick it up or go into a different room. So basically I couldn't hear anything.

I then went on to my PC to use Skype to phone her back but it was a bit depressing to watch the money go down like a petrol pump in reverse!

Broke Washing Machine

My washing machine no longer spins and drains so I had to grasp the nettle and just open the thing up and try and minimise the mess from the water. caught a surprising amount of the water in a bucket but had toilet the rest trickle on the floor. I used the mop to ctach as much as I could so I wouldn't have to mop up that much but stil spent ages cleaning up.

Dragged all the clothes out and put then in the shower for a rinse.

Pulled the machine out and took the covers off for a squint but nothing obvious. Turned it on and it spun as normal. "Ah", I think, "The load was too heavily". So chuffed with solving the problem I put the machine back together and put a quarter of the clothes back in. An hour later and their stuck on the spin cycle again.

I'll have to go on the net and find somewhere to buy one and deliver it here. I forsee that the Hungarian for washing machine will be branded in my memory.

Cold weather Snap

There's been nearly a week of sub zero temperatures but while the rest of the house is warm enough, the front bedroom is freezing. As a result I've moved my bedding to the small bedroom at the back which is much smaller.

I hope that this time next year I'll have some sort of wood-burning stove in the big bedroom and a wood burning cooker in the kitchen. I'll still be able to cook when the lights start going out all over Europe.

I moved my 4 little garlic plants to the window sill and this seems to have given them a new burst of life. In fact one of them I'd given up on germinating but its now 1/2" tall.


I re-potted the Rhubarb seedlings the other day and they are looking a bit peaky. Hopefully, one will survive long enough for me to plant out.

Cancelled

Today is cancelled

Disznóölés Nap

Or Pig Killing Day in English. Literally a festival as festival and feast originate from the same word.


The Guests of Honour.

A quick wash.


Group photo

Minced cooked liver


Mixed with rice and onions

Black Pudding


Seriously cold!

Who's that?

Snow Good

More snow today, quite a blizzard in fact. Not sure if the Kormend bus came or not but there was no post.

Spent the day defrosting the fridge.

I went into it earlier and all the drawers were covered in a sheet of ice. It looks like some ice had prevented the door from shutting properly. Obviously, the freezer was more or less on constantly to counteract this and the water vapour that got frozen out was constantly replenished.

Anyway, I "mechanically" removed the ice, ie bashed the ice with blunt instruments, and I also unplugged the toaster to speed things up. Um, well, I didn't intend unplugging the toaster, i thought it was the freezer but when I traced the cables I found that I'd turned to toaster off!

Worryingly, I found a sausage which not only was defrosted but was also warm. It was also a funny green colour.Not wanting to be a source of sausage poisoning I slung it out. (sausage poisoning is called Botulism, from the Latin for sausage botulus)

Bill McLaren RIP

For me and many others, the voice of rugby.

How to Malt Barley

A useful video as I have some barley corn to sow this year and, hopefully, get a decent crop at the end of the year. If it works I'll be making my own beer from scratch. Probably taste awful though!

A useful link about growing your own hops.

Did a bit of research. Had I ordered the same beer kits in the UK and have them delivered to my old address the total would have been only £7 less than what I paid to have them delivered here from Belgium!

Next year I'll order half again the number of kits which should make it even more economic. (Just in case the homebrew from scratch doesn't work ;)

Brew Day

Made up the 1st brew. Forgot how heavy 5 gallons of water is!

The only thing I did different to the instructions was making up the yeast before putting it in the "wort". Apparently the yeast works better if you put it in some warm water about half an hour before putting it in.

Saturday

I decide to do all the usual weekend chores and mop the floor too. Finally found my floor cleaner too. Sounds like I don't mop the floor that often but until now I've been using distilled vinegar to mop up.

I don't know if it will make any difference to making beer tomorrow but if it helps at all then its worth doing.

Hobo turned up at 9:30to paint the wall. Looks pretty good now.

Not much else except watching Clint on DVD.

Kormend

Yup, its Monday and Kormend day! In spite of 6" of snow the roads a clear and the bus is running as normal. In the UK I see the same weather has brought the country to a standstill and the councils have run out of salt, again. I remember last year them saying some waffle about lessons being learned but they never are.

Apparently, in total the UK councils spend £12m on salt and £495m on self promotional advertising. So they spend more on telling you what a good job they are doing than actually doing they're job! Oh, and road grade salt is reserved for government use only so private contractors can't buy it even when they want to.

Rhubarb Seeds

Rhubarb Seeds
Originally uploaded by A John Walters

They've germinated and a lot more than I expected. If they all survive I'll have an awful lot of digging to do to bed them all in. Still 3 years from now I may be supplying everyone with Rhubarb wine!

Ordered a couple of beer kits. I found a place in Belgium that sells them cheaper than a place in Austria, even though its further away! Should last me into the summer.

Wall Repairs

Apparently last night I asked Hobo to come over and take a look at on of the walls in the toilet where the plaster was coming off.

I had a thumping headache but made coffee and did some washing up. Its quite frightening that the beer here is so strong. I'm used to a weaker beer but in larger quantities and after 30 years its going to be hard to adapt. I may order some brew kits make my own British style beer.

Anyway, after Hobo left I went back to bed!

Oops!

Went to the shop and got some cans in as well as the usual supplies to last the weekend.

Unfortunately, in the evening, I had the bright idea of going up the pub anyway.

More Snow

Although, to be honest, cold as it is there seemed to be a partial thaw. Will have to remember to take some pictures tomorrow.

Made up some rabbit stew today. I've never cooked rabbit before so I wasn't entirely sure what to expect but I thought a stew was fairly safe. I cut the meat off the bones as best I could then fried the meat to caramelise it. When done I popped it in the stew-pot with the ingredients I'd already started. Then I fried the meat that was left on the bones and added that too. I topped up with water and some frozen chicken stock concentrate I made previously.

The rabbit seemed like chicken to cook so next time I'll dredge the meat in seasoned flour before frying. (In fact, I found this was common in recipes I found on the net later on!) I fired the bones with the idea that they would add some body to the stock and this seemed to work well too. Plenty left for tomorrow!

Oh yes, the pub was shut all day so an enforced dry night tonight. I'll get a crate of beer in the morning and stay away all weekend I think.

Snow

Forgot to mention yesterday we had constant snow. Lots of light stuff, like talc, but just didn't stop. Since we;ve been in the minus numbers for ages temperature-wise its sticking. There was a bout 3"s this morning.

Found a letter on my door and the footprints were filled in so they must have come by last night... so thats what that bang was!

It seems to be an invitation to this years pig killing feast but as its in German I can't understand it. I know English and German are related but there's a correspondence only at the simplest levels. It would be the same as if I were Mayor and printed all the invites in Finnish and gave them to all the magyarul speakers.

There's a program of events so I know when stuff happens, just no clue what!

Kormend

Went to Kormend today. desperately needed to replenish the stocks of food a bit. I'll probably need to go again this week, maybe even three times.

I went to Tescos, which is about a mile from the bus stop so it gives me about 20 minutes shopping time, as Hobo said there was a sale on mobile phones there. Spent ages looking for shelves with phones on and in the end I had to rush to the till to get back to the bus in time. Of course, on the way out I spotted the kiosk that sells them! Oh well, theres always next time, although I'm not sure my magyarul is up to navigating between the benefits of "pay as you go" vis a vis "monthly subscription"!

Still felt a bit woozy but not sure if thats because I'm weak having just recovered or weak as I'm still ill! Still, I'm light years better than yesterday and I'm treating myself to a bottle of Port.

Watched a Harry Porter film "Harry Potter and the Secret of the Overdraft" or something. I heard some sort of bang halfway through, sounded like a slat falling off the roof or a cupboard being shifted. I'll check in the morning.

Monday

Felt rough this morning and didn't have the strength to turn the alarm off. Had a rather wakeful night and the dreams seemed especially vivid. Probably all the toxins from whatever it is. I seem to remember arguing with a hotel Concierge for most of the night, oddly enough.

Gah! I then heard the bins going out so I leapt out of bed, put my boots on (bugger the laces, too complicated) and a coat and staggered out to the bin, dragged it to the side of the road then dragged myself indoors.

What with the Xmas break I didn't have a clue when the next bin day was. Of course its the day when you feel awful! Should have realised that and got up when the alarm went off!

Spent the rest of the day sleeping for Wales. I reckon I could have got a Gold Medal at the Sleep Olympics.

Funny enough, felt OK today.

I forgot to check the sour dough starter so will have to do that tomorrow. ( If its not fed and dies you just get a a load of pencillin.)

Cleared some of the indoorsie chores but come 7pm started feeling a bit woozy and by 8 I was hit by a freight train of cold symptoms. I was in bed by 9.

After the pub tonight, told Steve probably wouldn't be out Sunday as I I had the pre-symptoms off a heavy cold coming or something.

Today, I'm attempting both bread and quiche. Given how much time it takes to get the sour dough starter reactivated, I may just do the quiche.

The quiche took much longer than expected so I left the sour dough starter for another day. The quiche was pretty tasty I departed from the recipe somewhat by putting strong cheese on the pastry base before putting the filling in. Worked fine.

Went to the pub early and then watched the final Dr Who Xmas special. Fairly good except for a few plot hole I could drive a tank through but it was entertaining.