Chepstow Wassail & Mari Lwyd

Once again, January came and went, before we actually put into action any of our good intentions to make an early start in the garden.

Not that it was all just lounging around in the house after Christmas drawing up planting plans and ordering seeds.

As the snowdrops started to emerge, we got down to making another year’s supply of marmalade, following the award-winning formula we accidentally hit upon last time round.

Also there’s plenty of Wassailing to be had around these parts at the start of the year.

We finally made it over to Chepstow’s great Wassail and Mari Lwyd which has a delightful Whicker Man feel to it, before once again helping organise a less traditional, but more family friendly, Wassail at St Werburghs City Farm in Bristol and finally, fashionably late as usual, our own Wassail for friends here at The Secret Acre.

Burns Night is another great January event, and our friends Helen & John Forbes have turned it into an art form, providing haggis, whiskey and dancing to some 200 guests in a Chester church hall, year after year with seemingly effortless ease.

Rag Morris Wassailing at St Werburghs City Farm in Bristol

This year Emma was somewhat nervous to be giving the ‘Toast to the Laddies’ while I was delight to discover Belhaven 90 Shilling is still going strong, despite the (equally welcome) arrival of all these new craft breweries like the St Andrews Brewing Company.

By the time three Wassails and a Burn’s Night were out of the way perhaps it’s not so surprising we didn’t make a real start on the garden until February after all!

Wassail in The Secret Acre orchard

Scottish Country Dancing at          Burns Night in Chester