First Posting Of 2014!

We are incredibly lucky to report that the weather has been exceedingly mild. We saw -4 in early December and that has been the coldest so far this winter. One light flurry of snow that did not stick and thats it!

I suppose I should mention that we had a quiet uneventful Christmas, and actually I completed my first sewing project a large pillow case for the duck down pillows we inherited with the property. I completed this on Christmas day. Since I am totally useless at sewing I am quite proud of my achievement!

Istvan (Hungarian for Stephen) whom I am helping to learn English came bearing gifts.

Homemade biscuits, a candle, wine, Palinka and a crocheted and starched angel. The boxed gift was from our local English friends Pam and Glyn and contained, wine, chocolate and a toy for Mr Roly who was over the moon at 3am!

We missed our families and friends and were really glad when the day was over!

On New Years eve, we were rather excited to look forward to ringing in a few New Years, as we are still operating 2 hours ahead of local time (Bailey Meantime - BMT) and England is 3 hours difference, we figured we could toast BMT new year, then Hungarian New Year and finally the English New Year! We also decided we would support our local eatery Hunters Rest run by Cottie, so we ate a simple breakfast of cornflakes with fresh walnuts and left it at that. We walked down at a 6pm, a few vodka's already under our belts, only to find that Cottie was holding a private party! A recipe for disaster! We then got very very drunk and do not remember a single midnight!!!!  An excellent night by all accounts.............

On Saturday the 4th of Jauary Nandi, a good friend who speaks awesome English, took us to a nature conservation area. He, grew up knowing this place and gave us a full history on it, (which I am sorry to say I don't remember!)
However, he did point out some rather amazing things, like............

These are pictures of the remains of  trenches which were dug by the German soldiers in WW2 to make a stand against the Russian army. The woods are littered with these in this area, along with bomb craters.

Obviously they would have been deeper, but I stood in one of these trenches and looked around me, it must have been just horrible. According to Nandi the Germans were starved and freezing to death as it was towards the end of the war. He says he found a German helmet with a bullet hole through it, which belonged to a 17 year old boy in one of these trenches, and his corpse was dug up along with the remains of 20 other German soldiers.
War is unspeakably horrendous.....

Nandi - Our  savvy guide!

We tramped around the woods for a couple of miles, until Roly and I could go no further! Here are some pic's Steve took.




It was another lovely mild day considering we are well into winter.

The Love Shack!

This little cottage is aptly named the Love Shack and we aim to rent it for a night or two when it gets warmer.
On our way home Nandi stopped to show us this incredible thing...........

Woolly Pigs!

A rare breed of piggy that produces some of the finest ham!
A brilliant day, thanks to Nandi!

In closing, I wish everyone reading this a very prosperous 2014! Come on summer...................