A rocking time at chateau Larcombe

The annual May party is still going great, even though it's now Tuesday. It's been a slightly quieter affair this year with a greater focus on the Saturday.

Sadly many of the usual faces couldn't make an appearance this time however this was quickly supplemented by a whole bunch of new faces who came over to find out what it's all about.

The pizza oven was an outstanding success for Sunday lunch, knocking out about 50 pizzas in all. Thanks go to Grandad Ewan for holding fort and cooking them over the period of a couple of hours. Also we should thank him for his most excellent pig, once again cooked to perfection.

We've had quite a large teenage contingent here who have happily entertained themselves in the cinema playing guitar hero. We've also been blessed with an official event photographer, Jake, who's taken some amazing shots both of the people and of the estate. Pictures to follow when they've been uploaded.

There have been a few minor dramas over the weekend, with just the one hospital trip to stitch Joshs finger back together, and a couple of sick teenagers who are still learning the well practised art of alcohol consumption. I'm sure it won't be the last time they're sick from drinking, but they should be very grateful to Jules and Louise for clearing up after them.

Monday nights dinner this year was cheffed by Dave and Kirsty. A glorious chilli and rice with just the right amount of bite. Good job guys.

I'm off to find a beer now as it's been nearly 3 hours since my last one and it's almost 7:00am now. I don't want to start shaking or sweating yet. More blog to follow in a day or so when I've remembered a little more.

All's growing well in France

The last few weeks I have been busy gardening and finally some of the benefits are starting to pay off. I managed to pick a whole bowl of strawberries today before Peter got to them.

We've also had the added assistance of a mini digger this week. This has made some near on impossible tasks pretty easy. Digging over the compost heaps took a matter of minutes, stripping the Ivy from the end of the house and behind the gite was about 1/2 an hour and clearing the earth from the old drive took a few hours. I've also been using the digger to start making some sense of the area next to the greenhouse which I will progressively terrace until the whole area is done.

Some of the crops are doing fantastically well with the sweetcorn almost 2 feet high already. The beans suffered a -5 frost last week, wiping them out totally and the tops dissappeared off the potatoes, again.

With only 1 week to go until Chateau Larcombe becomes party central again, I am very grateful that uncle Tony is arriving tomorrow to assist with the preparations and the all important sampling of the alcohol.

It's all official now

Last night saw the first proper pizza party take place. There were a few minor hiccups, mostly around getting the pizzas on and off the peel, but all in all it was an outstanding success. Maryline and david turned up with some dough and it was all systems go from there onwards. Stretching out the bases, smearing on the passata, a light sprinkling of parmesan, a selection of toppings and plenty of chunks of mozarella (spell check later). For the first one, the oven was still slightly too hot, about 360 degrees centigrade, it was off the scale on my thermometer and the pizza got a tad scorched around the edges. After that though it was all plain sailing and we knocked out 16 pizzas in total. I was a little sceptical that they were going to cook in 3 minutes but it turns out that time was more than adequate.