Your pictures are wanted!

by **les taylor** » Wed Jun 06, 2007 9:44 am

Anyway Guys it's time to come clean. This is the Chateau that we stayed in over the Whitsun weekend, down in the Loire Valley any statements about the views being our gardens are of course untrue. Just pulling your legs. Anyway I thought I'd share some pictures with you.

This is the chateau as seen from the fish pond.

Whilst there we visited Chinon by the river. Fortunately we visited here on the saturday because everything was open. The next two days being whitsun weekend all the shops bars and retaurants were closed.

A typical old Chinon house

.

We visited a winery on the reccomendation of the chateau manager. We tried about 12 different wines. Mmmmm. we purchased 5 cases which was fun.

As for food in the Chateau that was fantastic so were the wines you could of course pay astronomical amounts for the wines. But there were some local Loire wines at reasonable prices. As for the whisky though that was a bit steep. for a 5cl dram the Oban 14, was 17 euros Cragganmore 12, 16 euros and a Lagavulin 16, 24 euros.

This was the view from our bedroom window at the chateau, we had a turret window and the window next to it in our room.

by **irishwhiskeychaser** » Thu Jun 07, 2007 10:13 pm

Hey les just gave the old sod a quick mow ..... probably not quite up to yours but the servants quarters aren't too bad.... :wink:

by **les taylor** » Thu Jun 07, 2007 10:41 pm

Okay you asked for it. My wife took this picture of me and my lawn.

by **Paul A Jellis** » Fri Jun 08, 2007 12:03 am

Les, you look so young, how do you do it? What do you use? Are you eating the 'Weed'n'Feed'?

by **irishwhiskeychaser** » Fri Jun 08, 2007 11:25 am

Oil of Olay me thinks :wink:

by **les taylor** » Fri Jun 08, 2007 11:50 am

That's my sandwiches in the rucksack.

by **les taylor** » Fri Jun 08, 2007 5:25 pm

IWC as it's taken you an hour and a half to cut your lawn. It would be nice to see a picture of it.

by **irishwhiskeychaser** » Fri Jun 08, 2007 5:30 pm

I'll try but te only reason I cut it is to keep the clover, thistles, buttercups, dock weeds and dandelions at bay.....

I'll See what I can do but in all fairness it is pretty rough as it is a new house and it was very over grown when we moved in.

However if I take a pic at the right angle .... (cunning thoughts enter usually empty head)

by **irishwhiskeychaser** » Fri Jun 08, 2007 8:29 pm

Okay on special request from Les here is my ragged Lawn which you will gather from the pictures is densely planted with horticultural delights that will amaze ...... oh and a cracking day to boot.

Lawn Left Hand Side of House

As you can see I have a lovely Telis Grafis Politious (Telegraph pole) growing in the top corner.

Right Hand Side and Front Lawn

Here we see some conifer-ious maximus in the fore ground and some exact and carefully placed Patch-us Bald-ium in the grass.

Lastly we have the rear lawn with the rare and very hard to grow fence-ia enclose-atum and in the center Concreteious Sanatarium which is an all year round hardy annual.

by **Mustardhead** » Fri Jun 08, 2007 10:37 pm

Fabulous looking place Mr IWC

I'd buy a couple of goats to deal with the grass so I could sit back and enjoy the location without too much hard work...

by **irishwhiskeychaser** » Fri Jun 08, 2007 11:13 pm

I'm the only goat hardy enough to traverse through all the bloody thistles in the garden :lol:

but does not look too bad when cut.

Hence all the bald patches from going over board with weed killer only for them to pop up else where :evil:

Anyway I've been told that once the grass settles in it will hopefully choke out alot of the weeds

by **les taylor** » Sat Jun 09, 2007 8:17 am

IWC that's not a lawn that's a paddock. You get a lot of room in Ireland. Here in the south east we are squeezed up a bit. Thanks for sharing a nice cut by the way.

:thumbsup:

by **irishwhiskeychaser** » Sat Jun 09, 2007 8:25 am

Your up bright and early ... did not go too heavy on the G&T's last night .... I have not been to bed yet but heading now... Thought I had finished around 5am but work called again at 5.45am :roll:

We moved out to the sticks for that reason. Our last house had a total size garden of 15yards by 10yards.

Hey Les I've noticed you seem to be bit of a Gordon Ramsey when it comes to BBQ's

Any hint for me today ... nothing too fancy though. I know once I get 4 hours sleep my head will still be mush :wink:

Anyway any help would be appreciated.

Cheers and good night :angel:

by **les taylor** » Sat Jun 09, 2007 6:24 pm

IWC I've been out all day but just as a suggestion If you get chicken Breasts cut with a sharp knife so that you get a pocket in the breast. Then Grat some mature chedder Finely chopped Onion and some fresh herbs or Herbs Provence. Mix that together. Then close the pocket with a cocktail stick. Then wrap the chicken breast in bacon or palma ham. Then bbq keep turning as you cook. Man that is delicious.

I have many other ideas if you want them.

Tonight we are having Ribeye Steak.

:thumbsup:

by **Paul A Jellis** » Sun Jun 10, 2007 12:18 am

I thought I'd better get outside today and give the grass a trim - I even had time to build a rockery!

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by **irishwhiskeychaser** » Sun Jun 10, 2007 12:53 am

Excellent P A J ... at leat we were spared you dancing around naked though :lol:

by **irishwhiskeychaser** » Sun Jun 10, 2007 1:02 am

les taylor wrote:IWC I've been out all day but just as a suggestion If you get chicken Breasts cut with a sharp knife so that you get a pocket in the breast. Then Grat some mature chedder Finely chopped Onion and some fresh herbs or Herbs Provence. Mix that together. Then close the pocket with a cocktail stick. Then wrap the chicken breast in bacon or palma ham. Then bbq keep turning as you cook. Man that is delicious.

I have many other ideas if you want them.

Tonight we are having Ribeye Steak.

Oh man you are the BBQ king .... that sounds great ....

We've had ours at this stage but another is on the offing tomorrow and I think I'll give that a go ......

I'm fairly full now but now salivating at the tought

We had chicken skewers marinated in a hot chilli sauce interspersed with courgette, cherry tomatoes, pepper and onion segments with a cold mash mixed with Glenfarclass mustard (whole seed) and a mixed salad with itialian dressing.

Just the fact we ate out in the open made it taste twice as good

Had a few dry ciders and then a cigar :smoke:

and Glenrothes Signatory and watched the heavens go by ......

by **les taylor** » Sun Jun 10, 2007 8:06 am

Paul you're garden looks so impressive. If the National trust saw it they'd make an ancient monument out of it.

IWC Hey you're Chicken skewers sound good to. I love veggies on the barbie as well.

:thumbsup:

by **Paul A Jellis** » Sun Jun 10, 2007 4:57 pm

les taylor wrote:Paul you're garden looks so impressive. If the National trust saw it they'd make an ancient monument out of it.

IWC Hey you're Chicken skewers sound good to. I love veggies on the barbie as well.

Les, if the National Trust came round here they would want to declare me an ancient monument!

by **irishwhiskeychaser** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 12:02 am

les taylor wrote:IWC I've been out all day but just as a suggestion If you get chicken Breasts cut with a sharp knife so that you get a pocket in the breast. Then Grat some mature chedder Finely chopped Onion and some fresh herbs or Herbs Provence. Mix that together. Then close the pocket with a cocktail stick. Then wrap the chicken breast in bacon or palma ham. Then bbq keep turning as you cook. Man that is delicious.

I have many other ideas if you want them.

Tonight we are having Ribeye Steak.

Les ... your are star

.... the chicken went down a treat with Mrs IWC

.

Probably could of done with a stonger chedder but what I had in the fridge did the trick at the same time ....

Thanks a mill ... Adrian

by **les taylor** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 10:05 am

irishwhiskeychaser wrote:
les taylor wrote:IWC I've been out all day but just as a suggestion If you get chicken Breasts cut with a sharp knife so that you get a pocket in the breast. Then Grat some mature chedder Finely chopped Onion and some fresh herbs or Herbs Provence. Mix that together. Then close the pocket with a cocktail stick. Then wrap the chicken breast in bacon or palma ham. Then bbq keep turning as you cook. Man that is delicious.

I have many other ideas if you want them.

Tonight we are having Ribeye Steak.

Les ... your are star

.... the chicken went down a treat with Mrs IWC .

Probably could of done with a stonger chedder but what I had in the fridge did the trick at the same time ....

Thanks a mill ... Adrian

Hi IWC glad it went well. I saw Celebrity Master Chef on friday. Midge ure did a variation of that as well. For a different stuffing he used Mozarella cheese and pesto he smeared the pesto and then put in sliced mozarella. Then wrap it in the bacon or pancetta. I tried that myself on sunday. It went down really well.

:thumbsup:

by **Paul A Jellis** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 12:24 am

June 21st, Summer Solstice and longest day, reminds me of this place . . .

by **les taylor** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 9:22 am

Paul is that the Bedford Observatory?

:thumbsup:

by **Dangerous_Dave** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 9:55 am

Here are some panormanic shots I took in Islay recently and stitched together in Autostich (very good piece of software BTW). Obviously I took several pics of the distilleries which I'll post another time but I thought I'd post the landscapes first as they are just a bit "different":

Sound of Islay from the road to Bunnahabhain:
http://upload8.postimage.org/892397/photo_hosting.html

Sound of Islay towards Port Askaig and Caol Ila from Feolin, Jura:
http://upload8.postimage.org/892372/photo_hosting.html

The harbour at Craighouse, Jura:
http://upload8.postimage.org/892362/photo_hosting.html

Loch Indaal towards Bowmore from our holiday cottage:
http://upload8.postimage.org/892415/photo_hosting.html

by **irishwhiskeychaser** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 12:08 pm

Excellent colour in your nearly abstract pic P A J :thumbsup:

Nice pics also D_D it's a pity that you could not get all of the rainbow in the last picture ... but still very cool

by **Dangerous_Dave** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 12:15 pm

irishwhiskeychaser wrote:Excellent colour in your nearly abstract pic P A J

Nice pics also D_D it's a pity that you could not get all of the rainbow in the last picture ... but still very cool

Thanks IWC...I did manage to get all of the rainbow but Autostitch couldn't find a reference point to attach the top 3 or 4 pics. I think I probably moved between shots unfortunately, and it sodded things up. It was a shame as it was a magnificent double rainbow. BTW Bowmore distillery can just be seen on the far right of the shot and the black smudge on the left pic, above my car, is a bat.

by **Mr Fjeld** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 6:59 pm

Paul A Jellis wrote:June 21st, Summer Solstice and longest day, reminds me of this place . . .

What a nice picture ! !
Is that from the north cape plateau?

by **Paul A Jellis** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 7:34 pm

Mr Fjeld wrote:
Paul A Jellis wrote:June 21st, Summer Solstice and longest day, reminds me of this place . . .

What a nice picture ! !
Is that from the north cape plateau?

It certainly is, a little bit of midnight sun, I owe you a beer!

by **Dangerous_Dave** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 9:36 pm

Some more whisky-orientated pics.

Burn Stewart group barrels being kept damp at Bunnahabhain

http://upload8.postimage.org/943694_0b8 ... C00658.jpg

Jura Distillery at Craighouse:

http://upload8.postimage.org/943745_0b8 ... C00609.jpg

D

by **WhiskyBrat** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 9:32 pm

by **les taylor** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 10:25 pm

WhiskyBrat is that your Bowmore collection? Impressive :wink:

Seriously, nice picture.

:thumbsup:

by **WhiskyBrat** » Sat Jun 23, 2007 12:29 am

No not my collection I took that the other week whilst over on Islay, that's the display behind the bar at Bowmore's VC

by **trickytaylor** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 4:42 pm

by **Lawrence** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 4:52 pm

Wow! What a clooection, thanks for posting the pictures.

Lawrence

by **Deactivated Member** » Fri Jun 29, 2007 1:10 am

I don't believe in clooecting.

Your pictures are wanted!

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