Wassail

We had lots of family over for the night to celebrate the end of the festive season with food and games and some new traditions taken from the very distant past. I made some wassail which included roast apples from our garden saved from the autumn, heated cider, cinnamon, cloves, whisky and a little ginger. It tasted good but we saved some for the children to throw over the two apple trees which is meant to ensure a good crop for the coming year.

We also took down all of the greenery we'd brought in before Christmas including holly, ivy, fir, berries and so on. I'd lit the fire in the front room using logs cut from a branch which had fallen over the road during a recent storm. The children got to thow the spent greenery onto this fire, another tradition linked in the past to bringing good fortune. The children loved it, especially when some of the ivy caught fire very quickly and fell out of the fire as one of them jerked their arm back in alram. No harm done though.

Juno and I had a 3.5 mile walk in the afteroon and I'm hoping to pick up our new bikes later today after Halfords told us they were ready ahead of the colelction date later in the week.