Cycling the Col du Tourmalet

As part of my training for the 100km ride in a couple of weeks I decided to cycle up the Col du Tourmalet. It is famous from the Tour de France, it closes in the winter as it is in the middle of the ski area!
It isn't that far, but it is really really REALLY high with most of the climbing in the 2nd part of the ride. I am very impressed I made it. Only went up though as we stayed overnight afterwards in the La Mongie flat.

Jan, Al and Alfie the dog provided a v good support and encouragement team.

This is the flat with the 4km marker. Those were 4 reeaally long km.

Yay made it!!!!!

Pretty nice view from the top

Appropriate beer for afterwards!

Not sure I fancy doing it again, but that much pain has to be good for one, so perhaps I will!

Hop Harvest

The hops have been in a few years and all but one have failed to make it. These are the fuggles. The poor things don't do great, probably because they get swamped with weeds every year.

We are planning on making an IPA using them shortly.

In the background you can see more plants I am trying to root from cuttings. They are likely to die too as we have brown fingers ;)

Rapha Womens 100 training

I have signed up to do a 100km cycle ride in 3 weeks time so I am busy doing a bit of training. Everyone I have mentioned it to has laughed uproariously. Which is a bit concerning, but I think it is going to be ok. I cycled 50 km on 2 separate days this week, was a bit knackered admittedly, but I just have to do on one day (gulp!)

There is a lot of lovely French countryside round here to cycle in.

Chateau de Mauvezin

Church

Bike

Another church

Fried Risotto Cakes

This is a great thing to do with left over risotto.
Form the risotto in to balls and squish them flat in to a circle about 3cm thick.
Coat in flour, then egg, then either breadcrumbs or corn meal (semolina) and fry in shallow oil for about 20 mins a side or until brown on the outside and hot through.

I'm going to be making extra risotto from now on just so we can have these!

Pavlova Recipe

For the meringue
6 egg whites
300g castor sugar
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tbtsp cornflour

For the filling
600g whipping cream
Sugar to taste
Fruit (as much or as little as you like! I think blueberries go very well)

Serves 8-10 people

Whip the egg whites and cream of tartar until stiff and standing in peaks.
Continue whipping on a fast setting and add the sugar spoonful at a time, then add the cornflour. Continue to whip until the grains of sugar dissolve. The mixture should be stiff and glossy and holding its shape.
Put a piece of baking paper on a baking tray and draw a circle on it - round a dinner plate works well.

Pipe (or splodge) about half the mixture to cover the circle. Then make sides. I dotted blobs here, you can also continue with the spiral you used for the base.

Cook in the oven at 170C for about 1hr 30 or until lightly browned and solid to touch. You can leave it at this point until you want to serve it. It should cool quickly.

Whip the cream until it is reasonably firm but not too hard. Add a little sugar (to taste).
Fold in the fruit - save some to sprinkle on top.

Serve straight away.

Before cooking

Fully assembled

Yum!

Honey Bee Helpers

At dinner with friends, we met a lovely French couple who keep bees as a business. They invited us to help put some new queens in to some hives. It was very interesting and we learnt a lot about beekeeping.

We got togged up in some natty outfits

... were very useful holding things, he would have been just find without us!

These are hives at their house. They have various groups of them spread around the local valleys. Beautiful view from here.

https://www.facebook.com/rucherDeSaintRoch/

Cheese Soufflé Recipe

20g butter
20g flour
115ml milk
4 eggs whites
3 egg yolks
1tblsp french mustard
75g cheese or other filling chopped or grated
2 tbsp grated parmesan
salt, pepper to taste

Make a white sauce with butter, flour and milk.
Whip the egg whites until they stand in peaks.
Stir the egg yolks, cheddar (or whatever filling) and mustard in to the white sauce along with salt and pepper.
Fold one spoonful of egg whites in to the sauce mixture (to lighten it)
Then fold the sauce in to the egg white. Gently.
Prepare a 1 liter souffle dish by oiling the sides and then sprinkling the parmisan on so it sticks.
Pour the sourffle mix in to the dish. Gently scrape round the top,of the mixture at the edge of the bowl with a knife to help the souffle rise neatly.
Cook in a preheated oven at 190°C until just wobbly (about 20-25 mins)

Serve immediately.

Too much eating!

Too much yummy homemade food and drink!

Seville Orange gin and tonic with basil

Peach tart tatine

Pork with peas and kale

Peach and filo pastry

Scotch egg katsu curry

Baby cucumber

Brambles

One of many different Bibimbap (peas, kale and char sui pork)

Walk in the rain

Reminded us of our Scottish roots!

The weather has been very variable this summer with both roasting and pretty cold going on plus a good number of storms

Yet more chicks

I am addicted to hatching different breeds of chicks. We have done Sussex tricolour, Marans, Faverolle, Barnvelder, Leghorn and Wyandotte this year already as well as a number from our own mixed eggs.

I have finally settled on what breeds we want for our flock - with a view to them being a bit more 'meaty' than the laying breeds we have now, but still acceptable egg laying. 

Wyandotte and Sussex. The Sussex sound the ideal chicken for us, but I love the look of the Wyandottes so had to have them too.

11 Light Sussex (white with grey necks) and 3 Wyandottes have just hatched. 

The Wyandotte eggs had a bit of an accident. I bought them online and the person posting said they would post on a Monday, so they would arrive Wednesday. I arranged to pick up the Sussex eggs on Wednesday so they could all go on together. 

However the post didn't cooperate and the Wyandotte didn't turn up until Friday - by which time we were in La Mongie. We came back to find the postman had kindly left the parcel - in the full sun unfortunately. In the missing days the parcel had clearly been being used as a football as half the 24 eggs were broken - and then stinky after a day in the sun.

I was going to chuck the whole lot, but Doug suggested I should give them a chance, so I washed them off and put them in the incubator. A number went bad during incubation (not surprising given the stinky goop they had been covered in), but 3 made it. Pretty surprising even that many, given their start in life.

UPDATE - 2 more hatched a day after the others 3. Fortunate I always leave the incubator on for ages in case of this kind of thng!

The black and white ones here are the older Wyandottes.

Brand new Sussex chick

Not so pretty when just hatched!

This is one of the 3 new Wyandotte, still in the incubator and not quite dry yet.

More storms

I mentioned that Doug has been spending a lot of time fixing up the drive after recent storms (and also 6 years of wear and tear where we have done small things but nothing drastic). We have had a number more storms recently, with one being particularly dramatic.
We thought our damage was bad until we popped round a friends house and saw where a bolt of lightening had struck the electricity pylon just outside their house!
It blew up our electric fence energiser - which is expensive, and also knocked down two trees - which is hard work clearing up, fortunately they weren't very big.

This tree at the top of the drive. It fell while Doug and I were both standing next to it.

This is a branch that fell off a tree at the bottom of the drive. It landed on the phone line and broke it. They seem to have fixed it without telling us off or charging us for this! Phew!

Useful pile of wood (this is just the top tree, probably similar from the bottom one)

Slave gang on the drive

A few weeks ago several extreme rain storms caused a lot of damage to the drive. It has been slowly getting a bit bumpy, but this was the final straw for it.
Doug has been slaving away to get it back in to a decent state as it is a DISASTER if it falls down the hill - we won't be able to get home!
First up was digging out the ditch, then putting in a drain before the corner. He is now busy putting several tonnes of gravel in the wheel ruts where it had been washed away, after that he will put further drains down the main part of the drive.
It is a LOT of work.

Beeeaauutiful ditch

Painting the drains with hammerite

First drain in before the corner draining in to the lovely ditch

New gravel, this is just a tiny tiny fraction of what has gone down