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t to expire she obtained a six month renewal and moved to new york where she worked for the rest of her allotted time there was no option to stay as hungary was still a communist country she returned to budapest not knowing what she would do next as fate would have it she learned that there was an opening at a legendary baker in budapest called rezso hauer he ran the hauer coffee house which had been established in 1890 and is as far as judit knows still there today she applied at hauer and got the job i was honored she says today to get a job there but the hungarian government had found another placement for judit in lake balaton so she was obligated to leave her budapest job and return to her childhood home taking a position as head pastry chef armed now with the skills she had learned from chef hauer judit the baker circa 1989 or early 90s in 1992 judit came to maui to meet a pen pal with whom she had been corresponding for a year they had a brief relationship but it was maui that won her heart she got a job there and fewer than ten years later she had bought her house she met her husband timothy an actor when she went to see one of his performances and they married in 2006 in 2011 she celebrated lucille ball s centennial year by visiting her museum in jamestown new york her american experiences had been pivotal and positive moments in her life and she knew this was her permanent home she is now an american citizen judit at the lucille ball desi arnaz museum in jamestown 2011 judit had been in hawaii for many years when she and i crossed paths an avid reader she was in a bookstore in her town in quest of a different title when she happened to see a book with the word budapest in the title this happened to be my book the first hungarian tea house mystery d eath in a budapest butterfly judit bought the book and read it in one day not only did it reference budapest and hungarian baking both of which had been integral to her life but two of the characters were from lake balaton her first home judit wrote to me telling me that she had been a baker in budapest and that my book had brought back memories from that point to this we have chatted back and forth and she has convinced me that i would love maui meanwhile i think of a nebulous train of events that led to our connection the birth of my grandparents in different parts of hungary for starters when they came to america they sponsored at least one immigrant my uncle steve who wanted to escape the hungarian revolution their parenting of three children one of whom was my father my childhood filled with hungarian culture from my father german culture from my mother my life long love of reading and writing and when i became a published author my desire to write something about my father s heritage and then thanks to my publisher my book ending up on a shelf in a little bookstore in maui and a transplanted hungarian with memories of a distant life in budapest and balaton buying that book and taking it home life offers so many fascinating intersections and judit wolfe and i have met at one of them she has memories of the beauty of lake balaton and its environs but is permanently immersed in the beauty of haiku where the sun dips low into the water each night and rises each morning in a miraculous display of light and color a reminder of the endless horizon which makes our borders a mere illusion judit the hawaiian 2000s posted by julia buckley at wednesday january 24 2024 2 comments labels budapest cozy mystery death in a budapest butterfly haiku hawaii hungarian revolution hungarian tea house lake balaton maui wednesday october 25 2023 revisiting gordon holmes yorkshireman amateur archaeologist and loch ness investigator this lovely painting by yorkshire artist valerie shepherd used with permission captures the imaginary view of the loch ness monster the idea of an unknown creature swimming deep in a scottish lake has fueled the imagination of many a mystery lover and blurry photographs of alleged sightings have made the monster and her legendary loch a part of our cultural literacy gordon holmes too has long been fascinated by loch ness and its legends but he looks at the creature from a scientific perspective and there is evidence holmes attests that loch ness does in fact hold secrets yet to be revealed gordon holmes setting up time lapse camera at dores loch ness yorkshireman gordon holmes and i connected back in 2017 when his footage of a mysterious fast moving creature in scotland s loch ness became a sensation the footage in question was widely viewed and discussed you can find the original post here gordon has been an amateur scientist for more than four decades and he continues to pursue not just the loch ness mystery and nessie but many of the mysteries that appear all around him in the yorkshire countryside where the land first occupied after the retreat of the ice age has historically been trodden by romans early britons and vikings gordon has developed a collection of artifacts some of which are so valuable that they must be locked in a vault in following his scientist s instincts gordon has accumulated a fair amount of evidence to support the idea of a heretofore unseen creature in the depths of loch ness a 30 foot creature that appeared on sonar a year after he took his footage below are some pieces of evidence along with his own diagrams based on previous descriptions and his own experience at the loch captions by gordon holmes i ve saved the best image for last nessie s side head view based on my latest research my 2008 sonar contact of a 30 foot unknown creature in 65 foot depth of loch ness nessie s total length view in black white based on my latest research my hypothetical 1933 spicer image based on description of nessie crossing road and then entering loch ness my loch ness after the ice age artwork just before nessie s ancestors moved in f front view of my 2000ad possible skull find at whitby yorkshire just 250 miles from loch ness as the monster swims showing potential nessie s ancestor early jurassic not for sale below 4 million dollars gordon plans to return to loch ness perhaps in the spring because he has new equipment that he wants to try out in quest of nessie specifically a cosmic ray detector and a magnetometer gordon holmes however does not devote all of his time to nessie research the previously mentioned study of the terrain in yorkshire something he has done seriously since age 25 has allowed him to decode at least seven different carvings on the cup ring stones one of which might include an ancient star map as covered in t he telegraph and argus in addition his discovery of a fossilized skull in whitby led him to theorize about a nessie ancestor see photo above and a stone carving led him to finding what he dubbed a stone age selfie gordon holmes has authored a number of books on his areas of interest all titles are now out of print gordon s dedication to history and to the spirit of discovery have made him a prominent figure but he s in it for the science therefore he is willing to consider all possibilities a still photo taken from gordon s 2007 video at loch ness the image is one of two moving things gordon saw in the water here are the theories in his own words it has taken me 20 years to reach the following conclusions based on my best evidence re the still from my holmes 2007 loch ness sighting above 1 the image was produced by freak waves forming the outline of two creatures 2 it was a quite by chance video footage of two unknown robotic submarines 3 the shape if proved to be the outline of a creature is unknown to science hence this must be the loch ness monster posted by julia buckley at wednesday october 25 2023 no comments labels nessie archaeology gordon holmes loch ness loch ness footage loch ness monster stone age yorkshire monday march 28 2022 the veronica bond novels after the success of the writer s apprentice novels i wanted to try something else in the cozy gothic vein soon enough i had dreamed up castle dark the unlikely castle set in the middle of a rural illinois suburb i didn t want to have to feign knowledge of some european setting so i brought the castle and characters to a setting i know well under the name veronica bond i have written two castle dark mysteries death in castle dark and castle deadly castle deep the latter will hit bookstores on july 5 i ve explored some of the gothic tropes in a fun way not delving into actual gothic horror but keeping some suspense in the halls of derek corby s castle the series follows the exploits of a theatrical troupe that performs murder mystery scenarios for paying guests sometimes life imitates art the castle dog hamlet is very much based on my own dog digby who is large and black and potentially intimidating to strangers but who acts like a gentle puppy around us you can meet him and a whole cast of fun characters in the castle dark murder and a mystery series posted by julia buckley at monday march 28 2022 2 comments friday december 24 2021 reflecting on a year of blindness in november of 2020 i began to lose vision in my left eye it was gradual expanding outward from a general grayness i went to one doctor who sent me to a specialist who told me that i either had something very scary and life threatening or something less severe she sent me for a blood test to rule out the super scary disease and it was determined i did not have that instead i had naaion or non arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy it was fairly rare no one knew what caused it exactly and there was no cure oh and the vision loss was permanent i was also told there was a slight chance that within ten years it might happen in the companion eye in december of 2020 i began to lose vision in my right eye this time a third doctor sent me straight to the emergency room after which i was admitted to the hospital and stayed for the next four days i was given intravenous steroids to try to arrest the vision loss and perhaps return some of it alas i think the treatment came too late the vision did not return in either eye i was told by a fourth docotr a top chicago neuro opthamologist that my central vision was gone but that i had pretty good peripheral vision but you are legally blind he told me cheerfully i suppose he was used to delivering news like that it was brand new for me for a year i ve been adapting to legal blindness i can no longer drive which means no quick errands or trips to the store i m reluctant to walk alone although i did just receive a walking cane from the chicago lighthouse that will help me to anticipate bumps and holes in the sidewalk i bought an i phone so that i could use the voice software which will read me my e mail and messages i bought dark markers and a giant pad so that i can make lists to organize my thoughts ironically i can still write perfectly but i can t read what i write i can t read at all and so i ve discovered audiobooks when i prepare to teach i either have to listen to texts on audio or have someone read the material to me so that i can review it before class this works well but i do miss being able to make specific textual references to point to a specific line that i ve annotated for a particular reason worst of all i cannot see faces not those of my family my friends my students i cannot see my own reflection in the mirror there is a certain existential horror in being cut off from eye contact perhaps our most essential way of connecting to other people i miss that the most i suppose i also miss the autonomy that vision brings i ve sacrificed a fair amount of independence simply because i have to ask for help with so many things depending on others means i can t always set my own agenda so my agency within situations is sometimes limited as a teacher and a writer i find it almost unbelievable that this painless silent condition would remove the very things i need most the ability to read and connect i have spent a year finding ways to adapt to my new situation and for the most part i ve been successful i should mention that there have been positives within this tough situation i find that i listen more and better and that people appreciate that skill the audiobooks i now listen to are a constant delight i feel like a child again listening to stories i have been able so far to keep my teaching job with the aid of a t a who happens to be my son the perfect classroom companion i find that i can still teach effectively and well and i still find my job rewarding thanks to my high school typing teacher i can type without being able to see the keyboard so my writing career can continue i am still surrounded by humor in the form of my husband and sons and i laugh often i worked with an occupational therapist who taught me many life hacks to help negotiate a blurry world rubber band around the shampoo bottle raised stickers on microwave and stove buttons large lined pads and dark markers for writing neighbors and friends dropped off food gifts chocolates gift cards in a river of compassion that still warms my heart people offered to read my work and help with editing so i can still write with their help what i cannot do unfortunately is see the manuscript for editing myself i have always prided myself on turning out clean documents and finding every little error with my eagle eye now i must ask others to edit for me but i don t have the luxury of that final edit where i can sign off on my own work i regret this and the fact that readers have already noticed some typos in my latest book the fact that other people are willing to help me though is most gratifying i am finding some abilities that i did not know i possessed for example when i used to have to speak in public i would compose a speech beforehand and read it at the podium now without that possibility i have to commit to a much more personal speech memorizing the components in advance and then speaking extemporaneously i have done this several times now though i never would have done it before there is no denying that i would like to have my vision restored but i am handling life just fine without it ultimately in losing something i find myself grateful for what i still have four others sense some vision that can be enhanced with magnifying goggles so that i can type a post like this it s like wearing the hubble telescope on my face and it tires my eyes quickly but hey thank goodness for technology after a year of blindness i am hopeful for new innovations grateful for many blessings and eager for a new year of writing and teaching life is good my family and friends are healthy i have three cat companions and a very loving labrador and sound software on my beloved laptop so it s a happy holiday season and i hope that you are happy as well full of plans for a new year and full of ideas for books to read merry christmas happy holidays to one and all may your days be merry and bright posted by julia bu...
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