Disaster!

My lilo's got a puncture!  37 degrees yesterday so we headed off to the lake, the water was 29 degrees.  I haven't had a lilo since I was about 7, but when it is very hot on holiday bobbing about on the lake is so delicious I am happy to admit to this childish indulgence. 
Earlier we took a trip to Kakasd to see Imre Makovecz's rather spectacular church.  I think it actually refelects his Transylvanian background.
 

 

Pancake day

Palacsinta (Hungarian pancakes) for supper, but couldn’t remember the recipe.  So popped over to next door but one neighbour to ask her for the correct proportions.  Hungarian pancakes are wonderfully light thin affairs which they sometimes with a savoury stuffing (here I did paprika chicken in sour cream), rolled up and backed.  Here is a little montage of the note taking, making, then the eating.

Just going dark now and the crickets are starting their nightly seranade.

Getting hotter

Blog 2; warming up

My main concern has been our young fruit orchard which fell foul of the deer in spring, both the big “szarvas” who leave enormous foot prints and bite off the new leaves and the little “őz” (similar to roe deer) who take off damaging strips of bark.  Still in this climate trees grow up fast and strong and I think there is no terminal harm done. 

We have planted nectarines and almonds, peaches, apricots, and cherries.  Closer to the house we have plums and more peaches, which ripen at different times over the summer so you can generally have an on-going supply of sweet yet fresh favoured white peaches ready for the picking.  Then when you fancy something different there’s always watermelons.  There is even someone who comes round the villages with a van selling them.  How civilized is that!

Temperatures are good, upper 20s to mid 30s with clear blue skies.  Soon they say we are due for a heat wave, which generally coincides with jam making as the plums ripen.  Nothing quite like stirring boiling fruit and sugar when its nearly 40 in the shade outside!  Although the little old houses like ours and so well insulated that they always feel deliciously cool in the summer.

Settling in and winding down

I had great plans before we left that I would post regular, even weekly updates of progress on our little Hungarian house.  So far that has totally fallen by the wayside!  As a general rule we come out here and pitch into renovating jobs, but this year, probably because the large tasks are now getting done, it has been a case of nibbling at the little jobs,  interspersed with swimming at the lake in the village, shopping at the local market and chilling out.

No journey here is complete for me unless it means we camp en route in France, Germany, and Austria generally with a car full of saplings to plant out.  And we drive over in a little honda hatchback.  I love the challenge of packing it; tent, chairs, picnics, clothes, a goodly quantity of plant life which I fret over all the way when it gets hot.  This year we wanted to establish an espalier as a screen in the courtyard opposite the house, so I also packed the auger and grub axe for putting in the posts.  Here is it just finished.