Quiksilver King of the Groms

I visited the Quiksilver King of the Groms competition yesterday, where Brazilian 15 year old Gabriel Medina stormed to victory with record breaking full points

The small waves didn't stop him spending more time in the air than in the water and his confidence put him way above all the other kids

Video here

Biarritz avec Big John & Lula

John & Lula drove up from Valencia for the weekend for his first (and very successful) foray into longboarding

Sorry Lula

John prepares the west wing of his manor

Breakfast - coffee & eggs

Thanks to John for taking great water pics. No Photoshop was used in the creation of this picture, it's all skill

Lula's dugout

The water's still lovely and warm and the waves were kinder and gentler than usual this weekend

View from the pub

Return to Portalet

Here's the Col Du Portalet as it is now, rather than as it was last November

The ground is littered with crocus

Looking North back down the Valley d'Ossau. Our house sits at the north of the valley, this is at the southern tip, about 200 yards from Spain. The horses are Pottocks, wild Pyrenéan beasts

Lucius was loving the mountain breezes up there. She seemed somehow awed by her surroundings

Mum and Keith contemplate a place in the sun. They'll have to wrestle a shepherd out of his summer dwellings first though

Landy momentarily gets air con

Oui 3

Who's a big girl?

Lil' L awaits service.
Eating solids means she has risen through the ranks of infancy and can now sit at the grown up table to eat

Spelt

Today I expanded my baking repertoire and baked a spelt loaf. Spelt flour is a traditional grain which makes a coarse flour but if it comes out right the bread can taste great. Things worked out for us today and we've a light, crumbly loaf with a very flavour. Above we're featuring rising, shaping, proving & slashing, the baked article unsliced and finally sliced. Magique

We picked our first harvest of grapes. They taste sweet but with a bit of sharp 'wang'. Unfortunately, we won't have enough for wine, but we'll have a nice supply of jam for a while

I wish we could say our red onions were as successful. This is the extent, although the white ones are doing well. We've a winter of soil improvement ahead of us via green manure, 6 month rotted vache manure, and compost goodness to ensure next seasons crop will be show winners

Loaf

I (Neil) baked my first loaf by hand from scratch, including the mixing, rising, folding, proving, etc... For a first attempt it turned out great and we hope to become better/more experimental over the coming weeks
(I'm well impressed- Elaine)

It tastes better eaten in the sunshine with good cheese

Sitar player from the future?

No, this man is not a musician, he's a plastering master. And that is a sander/vacuum in one. If there's one thing we've learned down here, then it's to know when to accept that some things are best done by the pros. I (Neil) tried my hand at the dark art of plastering, with good results, but we've handed the perfecting over to Francis, a traditional platre artisan. Plastering a full wall usually doesn't exist in France; they just plaster the joins between dry wall sheets, which leaves a slight floor to ceiling bump every 60cm. So he's going against the French grain to give us a baby smooth finish.