Whether it's mulled wine, cider or ale, a warm and spicy drink is a delicious part of the festive season. My personal favourite was mulled cider but Long Covid wouldn't mix well with alcohol so it's non-alcoholic mulled drinks for me now.
The third set of decorations for my Christmas Cheer are some little bundles of cinnamon sticks with some spices embroidered on using french knots. These are very quick to knit as they're just ... well, knitted sticks.
I knew the book I wanted to use to illustrate mulled drinks straight away, a picture book of one of my favourite parts of Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows.
Mole's Christmas has beautiful illustrations by the artist Beverley Gooding. I see she illustrated two other picture books from The Wind in the Willows, The Open Road and Wayfarers All which would be worth looking for. All three books are now out of print.
Anyway, as Christmas nears Mole grows homesick for his old home and he and Rat are there when they hear carol singers outside. The ever resourceful Rat invites them in to sit by the fire and goes off in search of beer to mull. "I perceive this to be Old Burton," he remarked approvingly ... The very thing!"
‘soon every field-mouse was sipping and coughing and choking (for a little mulled ale goes a long way) and wiping his eyes and laughing and forgetting he had ever been cold in all his life.’
It makes you fell warm and cosy just to look at the pictures, doesn't it?
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| Mulled Drinks |
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