Wishing You An Abundant Christmas

from Julie, Andrew, Benita, David , Tony, Jade, Laura, Dave, Gerry, Solenne, Aini, Lucy and Mickey

“The poulterers' shops were still half open, and the fruiterers' were radiant in their glory. There were great, round, pot-bellied baskets of chestnuts, shaped like the waistcoats of jolly old gentlemen, lolling at the doors, and tumbling out into the street in their apoplectic opulence. There were ruddy, brown-faced, broad-girthed Spanish Onions, shining in the fatness of their growth like Spanish Friars, and winking from their shelves in wanton slyness at the girls as they went by, and glanced demurely at the hung-up mistletoe. There were pears and apples, clustered high in blooming pyramids; there were bunches of grapes, made, in the shopkeepers' benevolence to dangle from conspicuous hooks, that people's mouths might water gratis as they passed; there were piles of filberts, mossy and brown, recalling, in their fragrance, ancient walks among the woods, and pleasant shufflings ankle deep through withered leaves; there were Norfolk Biffins, squab and swarthy, setting off the yellow of the oranges and lemons, and, in the great compactness of their juicy persons, urgently entreating and beseeching to be carried home in paper bags and eaten after dinner.”

Charles Dicken's description of Christmas Day market as Scrooge wanders London with the Ghost of Christmas Present in "A Christmas Carol".

Cocktail Recipe: Beefeater Winter Gin Punch

As served by Bovingdons at last weeks Beefeater Gin Club annual dinner.
A little something to warm your cockles...

50ml Beefeater Winter Gin
100ml Madeira
10ml lemon juice
1 teaspoon honey
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1 pinch cinnamon (ground)
1 pinch nutmeg (ground)
1 Clove
Lemon and lemon twists

Gently heat all ingredients in a saucepan. Do not let it boil.
Once warm, decant into teacups or toddy glass.

December Big Picture

The whole Bovingdons team enjoying ice skating at Somerset House.