All Happenning in June & July 2015

It has been a really busy month. The calendar was chock full of dinners, lunches, days out and general socializing.
In the main, the weather has been utterly gorgeous as well, with a thunder storm or two to cool down the heat of the day, June started off with 32 degree heat, and actually too hot for us to do anything meaningful.
The garden started to bloom in amazing fashion.

One of the few shrubs that were actually here when we bought the place, we have no idea what it is??





The utterly glorious hanging baskets we bought for a fiver each, they look like they have been switched on, the colours are so vivid.

The bad, sad news is that our attempt at giving up smoking failed!
We got very bad tempered, hot and bothered about the whole thing, so we decided not to bother!

On the 8th June our new additions to the family finally arrived, on a small enclosed trailer, our forester friend Lazlo and his helper, literally got them by the horns and herded the two girls into our bottom paddock, where he himself had planted our 550 odd trees.
They were very bewildered, having come from a large flock. Strange looking sheep, they are an Hungarian breed called Racka, reknown for being easy to keep, and timid, with these spiral horns going straight up from their head.

The general idea is that these two girls would save us the HUGE task of mowing and weed eating the field where our future fire wood is in its infancy.

After their first bewildering night, where we could not get them into their home, and eventually herded them in with the chickens, they setlled into their purpose built hut.
A week later I watched for for a good thirty minutes and low and behold, the stupid buggers are eating the very trees they were put on this earth to protect!!

Lots of re-organising ensued and they are now living in peaceful harmony with the chickens.




I organised a picnic for the members of the Balaton Britons club on the 24th June. Another excellent event, lots of food for the tables, a beautiful day, and fun was had by all at the lake.











On the 27th June, we went up into the woods behind our house in the little green Fiat, with a few bottles of wine to watch the sunset, to cut a very long story short, a few dodgy looking gipsies spoilt the ambience, and appeared to be chasing us, in a page out of the movie "Deliverance" so Steve tried to put some miles between them and us, and the car stopped almost dead having hit a rock in the dirt road, the oil light immediately came on, and we knew then that the Fiat was "Dead Fred!"


JULY 2015

We finally finished the patio. A labour of love for the last two years. Scrubbing and laying the bricks, putting up the roof, sealing the bricks with patio sealer "three times!"
Steve "Mr Perfectionist" Bailey was determined to make it perfect, and it is!

BEFORE!

AFTER!

 It is truly like being on holiday.

We then held the BIG party!!! Steves 60th birthday.....
This has been seven months in the planning and everything we have been doing in the house and garden ans been towards this day.
And what a great day it was.
36 people attended. The weather was just perfect, the company was wonderful and the whole day went off without a hitch.

b

Thanks to everyone who came. A special thanks to Sue for making the cake, and Von for the curry.

We had a mega mega heatwave! Mid July was in the mid thirties, and work ceased.
Luckily the ladies found a shady spot at the Thermal baths and we had a joyous warm day out.

I love these days out with the ladies, they are very special!

The heatwave lasted until the 26th July and then the weather broke with an awesome display of thunder lightening and yay rain rain rain!
The temperature then HALVED to a very chilly 19 degrees, a huge swing from the 35-38 degrees, crazy weather but we love it!

At the end of July we had our Balaton boat cruise with the ex-pat club. This was a fabulous evening out with some good friends. Dinner served on the boat and then a wine festival at the harbour when we docked.

This is the old tug we went on. A 90 minute cruise up the lake.

Great people! Great place and awesome times!

I'll post this now and try and get on with August................... busy busy busy!

The Busy Month of May 2015.

After a heartbreaking April, May brightened up considerably, as time is always the big healer.
We console ourselves with the fact that we were good parents to our Roly,  we may have often spoilt him a little, but as a consequence, he turned out to be a great, fairly well balanced, content and happy dog and he had a wonderful life with us.

It also helped us to have sweet Max around. He is a friends dog, and whilst she was having a holiday in Rome, we cared for Max a very timid and gentle old chap, it was nice to have a pooch around, although he is nothing like Roly - well he's still a dog and he filled a little gap in our hearts.

.

Then, when the weather finally brightened up, we began the patio roof. After months in the planning, and many man hours spent by Steve, thinking and drawing, it began to take shape. The trusses went up without a hitch.

Then the plastic got slapped on, and only a little bit of trapeze work by Steve was required, in order to get to some elusive screws.
 

And finally, job done!

It makes such a difference to our house!
It seems to have created another room entirely.
We are able to sit out there in the rain, and it has made our bedroom cooler and somehow cosier.
I love it! Clever clever husband!!!

We also managed to rotavate the bottom patch, and have half-heartedly thrown some grass seed down. Last year we were a little ambitious and tried to grow some corn and sunflowers, this year we are just going to grass it out.

I lost two of my English Sussex hens in May! That was horrible, one by one, they went on a hunger strike and refused to eat or drink, and gave up. Papa got me some vitamin/antibiotic, but it did not seem to help at all and by the time I recognised the second one was on hunger strike, I began force feeding her. She lasted an extra day, but it didn't help, she still died.
Belatedly, we discovered that the bees from the huge hives next door are being attracted to my hens water, the hen eats the bee, and kazaam, she's a goner!
So I have a dish of sugared water in the sheep pen to attract the bees, and hope I don't lose any more.

Another highlight was meeting this lovely dude. May I present my Mojita drinking Irish buddy Dave!

There are sure to be more of these pictures in the future! Hurry back darling!

Pips also came to stay in May,  as his Mum and Dad had to go to the UK. He was in a bit of a sorry state on arrival, but Auntie Sharon soon fixed hm up!

An hour in the beauty parlor and a very sweet and loving old chap emerged! Smelling a lot better as well.

Finally!

On Friday 29th May 2015............................

Steve and Sharon............

Gave up smoking!

It has been five days now, and we are well into it, so here's crossing fingers that we stick to it!
May is gone, June is here, and some glorious weather stacked up, so, sorry gotta go!
xxxxx

March Boring and April Heartbreaking!

Well I have to admit that March was almost as boring as February!

Steve must say it fifty times a day "It's a really, really slow start to spring!"

On the second of March we took a drive out to Nagykanizsa a larger city to the west of us. We heard that there was a really good Sunday flea market and we were on a quest to buy a Corn crusher! How our priorities have changed living here.

We stopped off first for a rare treat!

The market was huge! We walked miles and miles, not really sure what exactly we were looking for, and of course we didn't land up buying much at all.

Two days later we spoke to the old man Papa from two doors down and, guess what, we needn't have bothered making all that effort, as he hauled this beauty from his barn attic, it is apparantly over a 100 years old.

We had a brief bit of spring in the second week of March, went swimming at the Marcali spa with the ladies which is always a fun day out.

We caught the bus to the monthly ex-pat night out so that we could both have a drink, and got home rollicking drunk, it was a wonderful night out, so nice to see the happy faces there.

Then we come to April..........

The month is now history, but it has been a truly horrible month overall.

On Tuesday the 7th April we watched our most sweet and precious four legged furry child die in our arms.

After battling twice a week with seizures, each one affecting him more and more, mentally as well as physically, we spent the worst Easter weekend of our lives trying to come to terms with the fact that this chap was suffering, and no matter how much we loved him, walked him, spoilt him, or fed him, it wasn't going to fix his ears, eyes, back leg, heart, lungs or make him young again.

So with rivers of tears, we buried our dear Roly in a sunny spot in our garden, and planted a Silver Birch as his lasting memory.

We miss him every single day!

There are so many things that are just horrible about not having Roly around, we look for him everywhere. We still worry about him constantly.

All of our daily habits and activities for the last thirteen years were designed with him in our minds. So the gap this dog left in our home and and hearts is indescribable and we were both inconsolable.

Our home was just not home any more without him,

So we packed up almost on the spur of the moment, piled random rubbish into the car, and went away, leaving the chickens under good care by Papa Szunyog.

Croatia. Again!

We went to the same place as last year, but stayed in a different spot, and this one was also awesome. Right by the sea.

View from our apartment.

It was exactly what we needed, to get away from the house and its little ghost. Our host at Villa Plaza Pavlo spoke excellent English and could not do enough for us.

Then two days into our stay, some crazy "spur-of-the-moment" friends Carol & Alan, decided to join us for a couple of nights. Maybe, because they have also recently lost their pooch and knew how we were suffering. Whatever their reasons, it really helped us through a horrible time, they cheered us up and stopped us dwelling on things we couldn't change. Thank you both for your company!

Some more pictures of Croatia and our stay.

As to the rest of April.....

A great ex-pat meeting on Tuesday 14th April, 38 very noisy sociable people turned up, I have been running this club for a year now, and have been enjoying it, after all both Steve and I are rather social people and I am rather bossy!

Then we had another animal drama! We stopped getting any eggs from the six hens, and I took a garden chair to the chicken pen and sat watching them for a whole morning.

What I discovered is that Rusty the psycho rooster has been breaking the eggs, eating them and and then encouraging the hens to also eat the contents and shell.

He is a stunning rooster, so I attempted to find a way to stop this bad habit by placing golf balls in the laying nests, hoping that once he realised he couldn't break them he would give up.

One morning I noticed he had rolled a golf ball right outside the laying hock, I picked it up to return it to the nest and the little savage flew at me from behind, bashing into my legs, which were luckily encased in tracksuit pants, but his savage dirty claws pierced the skin on my foot!

I went to visit Papa!

After a strong cup of coffee and my bastardised version of Hungarian, we struck a deal. He gives me one of his hens, and takes my rooster, who is about three times the size of his tiny hens.

The way he caught this rooster just shows what 'townies' Steve and I really are! We had blankets and straw brooms at the ready, but unfazed Papa caught the rooster by a wing, folded both wings back, grabbed his legs, and tucked the rooster underneath his arm facing backwards, with a good hold on those talons.

Bye bye crazy chicken! He did not realise what a good life he had, and its is so true, that you should never bite the hand that feeds you!

He made an excellent Sunday lunch for the old man and family!

And now my five white and two brown hens are very calm and the hen house is all peace and tranquility.

Steve and I built our sheep pen for the lambs due to arrive any day now..............

I organised the Balatonbrits Spring Dance for the 25th April, about 40 people attended, bringing a sumptuous array of food, the raffle was a great success and so was the evening!

We spent the last day of April in the garden, it's starting to take shape!

After losing Roly, we offered our services to the ex-pat members as dogsitters, and have been graced with Max for ten days.

He is such a sweet tempered timid old dog, so undemanding and loving, he is healing our heart and souls and we are blessed to have him for this short time.

And finally!

Now that we do not have to concern ourselves with being dog owners, we have decided to fly south in winter, just like the smart birds do!

We booked our tickets and will be spending three glorious months in South Africa from December to March, the flights were really cheap, and we figure we will save money on logs, gas, electricity etc. We are really looking forward to seeing my parents, and my many wonderful cousins, relatives and friends, spending Christmas with family, playing golf, fishing, swimming and generally enjoying blissful African sunshine, whilst it is snowing and freezing at home!

I maintain you should ALWAYS have something to look forward to, and now we have!

April 2015, is now gone, along with dear precious Roly, always in our hearts, the greatest dog we could ever have wished for, Rest In Peace.

Happy to see the back end of February!

February is such a bloody boring month! I am sure that is why they made it a short month as another three days would give me the screaming heebie geebies.......

On the second of  February it dumped a pile of snow, around six inches over night, it was a very white and frosty world out there. The chickens refuse to walk in the snow, instinct I guess, as they don't know how deep it is, or what is hiding in waiting, so I spent more time shoveling them a little area, then I did around the house.

Sunrise.

The on the the fourth of February, Roly had another horrible seizure! It was just awful, I did the blowing in his nose and mouth, as he was to all intents and purposes, a dead dog, this time I had to do it three times, and the seizure was much longer, we really don't think our sweet doggy has much longer on this planet, so we are being extra gentle, loving and patient with the old boy.
Of course, he still demands his daily walk, whatever the weather, so we comply, and I dug out his old coats, bought years ago, luckily they are soft stretchy fabric, as his body is rather rotund now. He seems to like the coat though.

Steve and sweet Roly!

It started to thaw around the 10th February which was lucky as we needed to be at the first Balaton Britons meeting of 2015 that evening. Not many people made the effort as it was still really cold and slushy.

We took Roly for walk to the Lake on the 12th it was really still very frozen with these strange blobs of ice on the surface, and the swans and ducks skidding all over the show.

It brightened up a little during mid February, and we saw double figures for the first time this year, we took a walk to our local pub to have a few, as we were suffering from a bad case of cabin fever, we had a great afternoon with the locals.

Then on the 23rd we treated ourselves to the best steaks around as we were celebrating...............

TWO YEARS IN HUNGARY!!!

It is hard to believe that we arrived two years ago on a very freezing snowy evening, changing our life and looking forward to the adventure. We absolutely love the place the people and our life.

At Mesters in Marcali.

We got off the bus and had a quick Palinka. This is a nut Palinka, gorgeous and very lethal. Behind it is 60% proof Portorico Rum, also lethal and Steve's favorite tipple.

So in closing, we say bye bye February, happy to see you go, we have so much to do out there.

Come on Summer!!!!!

January 2015 - Going, going.........soon to be gone!

Sometimes I wonder if it not just a waste of life!

This sitting around day after day in winter, watching the weather and counting the days until Spring, sunshine and fresh clean air.
We have after all been doing this now since November, we hauled out the boots, coats, gloves, hats and scarves, kind of looking forward to the changing seasons, autumn was utterly awesome and it did stick around a while, but of course from the beginning of December, it is winter, no ifs, buts or maybe's.
But our wood store was pretty well bulging at the seams with wood, our wood fires in bedroom and kitchen were earning their keep, the pantry and freezer were stocked with more than enough food, and we breathed a sort of mental sigh, realizing that we could be really lazy without feeling bad about it.

We have now been lazy and very slothful for over two months! Eating way more then we should, drinking way more then we should, mostly due to utter boredom.
Cabin fever gets to us now and then, but we genuinely don't mind each others company and, bottom line, we love each other! As my friends pointed out, we are  a lucky couple, in that we actually like each other.
 We have had little spurts of minor activity, when the thermometer hits double figures, (10, 11 or 12 degrees!), and of course, I am motivated everyday to feed, muck out and water my chickens, but there has not been much activity during the last 6 weeks in the Bailey household, I have to admit.

But then think about it.......

From February/March last year, Steve has been busy, and by extension me too.If you scan through this blog, you will see that every single month, that there was sunshine and/or summer, my husband has been tackling some enormous project or another, too numerous to mention here!!!!

So, No!
It is not a waste of life, it is a regeneration.
A time to sleep long.
A time to relax.
And definately a time to indulge ourselves in whatever pleases us at the time........

Breathe!
Spring and summer will come soon enough, with all of this years projects and builds.

I think we are perfectly justified in our slothfulness and hope you do too!!!!!??

December! Re-capping and gracefully Closing 2014 down............

We spent a really wonderful two weeks with my brother Dave, who came from Canada to have a new mouth full of teeth put in for a fraction of what it would have cost him in Canada. He suffered for the first three days having his teeth ground down, and impressions made for his bridges top and bottom, so eating was a little hard for him and I tried to keep the food sloppy and easy to chew, but we often just resorted to the liquid form of sustenance!

It was fun having him, and he soon got into the swing of things, helping to collect wood from the barn for the log fires, sweeping the kitchen, packing the dishwasher and other general chores. I am not used to having a man help around the house (shame on you Stephen Bailey!) We went out on the bus twice to Marcali, once missing the bus completely on our return journey and being saved by some nice Hungarians who arranged a lift for us.

Our local forester Laszlo came through for us in the planting of the "Bailey Forest". He arrived with two helpers and stacks of Acacia saplings, a special planting spade and lots of enthusiasm  and spent the whole day planting them in our bottom field, Steve has counted 550 trees.

Our forest in the making!

We are assured that these are fairly fast growing and we hope to be self-sustainable with regard to firewood in 5 to 8 years from now.
It was also suggested by the friendly forester that we obtain the services of two sheep for this area, they can keep the grass down, as it is a huge area and a real pig to mow, the sheep can fatten up and then.......?  So that's the plan come April May, we hope to have some frolicking lambs to keep the chickens company.

The remainder of December was spent huddling around log fires, playing computer games, watching videos, reading and of course making sure my chickens are okay, fed, watered and warm.
Autumn dragged its feet, with weeks and weeks of gorgeous golden colours as the trees slowly lost their leaves, the sunrises more and more spectacular each day.

Christmas came and went without much fuss in our household, no presents were exchanged, no decorations put up, we saved a fortune by ignoring it, making only a small concession by having a fabulous matured rump steak for lunch.

New Years eve, we spent re-capping 2014! What a busy year! This is what we achieved in no particular order:-

Tramping through some woods steeped in WW2 history, with our intrepid guide Nandi/ I spent one glorious month in South Africa with my folks and extended family/Steve erected fencing around the chicken pen/Rotavated vegetable patch/Fencing in the bottom paddock/Front gates re-painted and mended/Patio brick laying completed/I took over the running of the ex-pat club Balatonbrits/We acquired six hens and a rooster/Bought a brand new gorgeous car/I broke my ankle/I spent six weeks in a plaster cast/Spent six weeks installing a beautiful new bathroom/Over ten tonnes of logs delivered/Chopped and split ten tonnes for firewood/Bought a new oven/Watched it rain a deluge for a month/Hosted my parents for a month/Went to Croatia/Organised and attended the first Balatonbrits dance/Designed and built a new garage for the car/Organised and hosted a Quiz for the club/Hosted my brother for two weeks whilst he had his dentistry/Spent a fabulous night in Budapest City/Had 600 sapling trees planted in bottom paddock for future firewood............

It sure has been a busy but absolutely fabulous year!

So in closing, we wish a most heartfelt and warm New Year to all family and friends.

We have lots of plans for 2015 and just hope it will be as wonderful has last year!

Sharon