Al fresco mulled wine

Today seems to have flown by! Pete and I did a little more Christmas shopping first thing, and then I took Alex to the orthodontist to have his braces tightened. The orthodontist also fitted him with elastic bands to try and coax the remaining back teeth into the right place. Apparently these bands are excruciatingly painful - not very nice just before Christmas.

Chris, Alex and I then went to the Orton Pit volunteer session, to help with clearance of willow scrub. There was an excellent bonfire to dispose of all the brash, and we feasted on baked potatoes and pigs-in-blankets, roasted on a stick over the embers.

Alex and Nick spent some time building this much smaller bonfire, specifically for the purpose of heating up some mulled wine. Nick is very good at bushcraft, and made this system for hanging the billy can over the flames. You can just see that the hook is not actually attached to the support, but is held in place through a system of notches and counterbalancing - very ingenious.

The billy can did drop off at one point, but luckily nothing spilt, so the session finished with plastic cups of mulled wine and biscuits, drunk while toasting ourselves in front of the main fire. And damping the fire down at the end produced a spectacular steam sauna, though it smelt quite weird!