The first barbecue of the season

...is where the four of us - myself, Nikki, Natalie and Blythe - went last night, at Mick & Helen's. A "joint birthday" BBQ to celebrate Mick's and Annie's birthday. I prepared some chicken kebabs - a favourite barbie item of mine and one I haven't made since the last one at Annie's first Manchester flat, way back in the summer of 2000. Chicken goujons, shallots, red, yellow, and green peppers, mushrooms and small vine tomatoes, all assembled on a bamboo skewer. We took some burgers too, just in case we were feeling extra hungry, but we hadn't allowed for Helen's amazing catering.

She'd been cooking all day. Potatoes with garlic and mustard seed, avocado hummus, pine nut couscous, ultra-mega-garlic infused bread sauce, aubergine curry, chilli, and on and on. The dining table was full. The picnic table in the gazebo was full. And in between, Mick was loading three barbecues with charcoal and lighters as we arrived.

Opposite the barbies, a tall chimenea stood ready to ward off the expected chill of an early May evening. Unlike the one pictured here, Mick & Helen's is a heater only, not a grill. But once it was fired up, so were we - to get one of our own! I sat entranced as the flames and sparks shot out of the top of the chimney, and within minutes a radius of 6 feet around the stove was toasty warm. We're busy searching online even now, for the best combination of features and the best deal. But there's one proviso: we want it here for *our* party in three weeks' time!

With the barbies up to temperature I deployed four of our kebabs. We'd not eaten since we had a pastie about 2pm - apart from snacking on Helen's delectable nibbles since arriving! - so we were all more than ready to eat. Thirty minutes and almost as many turns of the skewers later, they were ready - and delicious! As soon as I removed them from the barbie their place was taken with chicken breasts soaked in BBQ sauce, and half a dozen burgers, so there was quite a wait before we could cook the second batch. By the time we were eating those dusk had very definitely arrived and we were glad of the chimenea.

We retired to Mick's studio bedroom so Lara and Natalie could compare guitar playing. This kind of event is when my regret at not learning an instrument is at its height. Sitting around in a quiet group, all mellowed out from the event, the food and the beer, I really would love to join in with an improvised jam session. There is a keyboard in Mick's eclectic collection of instruments, so maybe it's time to book those piano lessons at long last.