The granddaughter Lili was with us for 2 weeks over the summer. We thought she would have a blast at the 5^th Annual Jósvafő International Hucul Horse Races and 2^nd Annual International Farrier Competition, and timed her visit accordingly.

I have never had to care for a child long-term. I have baby sat many times, but never been responsible for than an evening or a day. Lili and I get along well, but in the end, she is a wilful 4-year old girl like any other. If it is not pink, a pony, or both, it barely registers on the radar. Luckily my colleague at Aggtelek National Park Mariann came to the rescue with the loan of a bucketful of My Little Ponies. There was one pony with a strawberry painted on its ass. I never thought I would be caught dead sniffing plastic pony ass, but damned if it did not smell of strawberries! I really looked forward to waking up in the morning, not just with Kata, but with Lily crawling into bed with us at 6am and singing "Pal, Kata, Peter jo reggelt!" to wake us up, and her running up and hugging me when I came through the gate home from work. One of our unused flowerbeds was converted into a sandbox for her, and she proceeded to create a village out of bits and bobs. One day visiting Marikaneni and Guszti in Perkupa we enjoyably helped shell beans for the afternoon. Of course if there was a pink bean we had to save it for Lily. I decided to call these "wonder beans" and told her the

story of "Jack and the Beanstalk." When we got home, to keep her occupied, we planted the beans. Lo and behold, the things sprouted up through the soil the next day. Late in the season, but she watered the "csoda babok" every morning and took a couple plants home with her to Budapest.

I made bread every week, and Lili learned to knead. She also learned to climb like a mountain goat on the arcade of the house, on the stone wall, and in particular, I became her personal climbing wall. The Lakatos brothers, like three doting grandparents, also spoiled her rotten

with chocolate, and taking her on occasion to the ciganysor for icecream.