Hello, dearest daydreamer. Welcome to the Isle of Neverwas and the Lost and Found Exchange. We hope you are warm and cosy and enjoying all the small moments of festive joy that this season brings. 

You, my dearheart, are joining us on an incredibly special day. Today is the Winter Solstice and the first day of Yule. We are preparing to celebrate the return of the sun. Yule is a time for community, togetherness, and celebration. It is also during this time that we find moments of quiet stillness, time to reflect on our experiences, and prepare with hopeful intention for the new year. 

As the season changes, the branches shake off their leaves and the nights grow darker, life on the Isle of Neverwas begins to slow. Have you got a nice cup of tea or a mug of hot chocolate? A biscuit? Are you sitting comfortably? Let us spend a few heartbeats together and share a story of the first day of Yule, Mother’s night.

You are joining us in the kitchen of Rose Cottage near Slumber-on-Sea, which is the home of Ruby Rabbit. 

As you enter Ruby’s cottage, there is a door to your left. Behind that door, you will find the kitchen, which is the heart of her home and takes up one side of her house. At the front of the cottage, there is a large window that overlooks the garden. At the opposite end of the room is a grand picture window that overlooks the sea.  At the end of the room, there is a battered old sofa, held together with scraps of fabric that Ruby has stitched by hand. On the opposite wall is a Welsh dresser. It is stuffed with knick-knacks, books, and mismatched crockery. Thimbles, bobbins of threads, and buttons are overflowing from teacups, cascading onto the saucers and scattering across the shelf. On the same wall, nestled into an alcove, is an old-fashioned stove and oven. It is rarely used during the year, but during Yule, food and cooking become an important part of gifting and celebration.

The kitchen is warm and cosy, not too hot. In the centre of the room is a large wooden dining table, which comfortably seats six people. The table is covered with bunches of fresh herbs, a basket of carrots and parsnips, pots of spices, a bag of flour, mixing bowls, and a multitude of other ingredients and cooking utensils. 

At one end of the table is Ruby Rabbit. She is making a recipe she has specially chosen for her friends to try on Mother’s night. Carrot and parsnip soup. This has always been one of her favourite meals, and she has fond childhood memories of coming home from school and sitting at the kitchen table eating a bowl of this soup. The warmth of the soup spreading to her toes and up to the tips of her long, grey ears. Food always tastes better when it is made with love. 

Wilder Bear has made a loaf of freshly baked white, crusty bread for his two best friends. The bread will go perfectly with the carrot and parsnip soup. Wilder makes this bread every Sunday. His mother taught him to make it, and his grandmother taught her. This is a recipe that has been passed down through his family. The recipe isn’t written down, but it is safely tucked away in his memory. He still bakes bread with his mam, but this year she is celebrating Yule off the island. 

Little Mouse is at the other end of the sturdy table. She has brought a carefully wrapped parcel of cheese as a gift for Ruby. She is also baking a gingerbread loaf cake. This is one of the many recipes in her family recipe book. 

Little Mouse comes from a long line of bakers; she has her own small bakery in Slumber-on-Sea. Her family recipes have been attentively copied from her mother’s recipe book. She was given a beautiful red leather-bound notebook for Yule many years ago. Her mam had written five of her own favourite recipes inside the book for Little Mouse. Since being gifted the notebook, it has become a ritual each Yule to add 5 new recipes. Her father is also a baker, and she sits with him, carefully adding all their favourite recipes. She has spent many happy hours with her family assembling all of these recipes into her precious notebook. 

In preparation for Mother’s Night, families across the Isle of Neverwas have taken their own family recipe books from cupboards and drawers. Like Little Mouse, some of those families have family recipes annotated carefully into beautiful notebooks. Other families have collections of loose sheets of paper and slips of card tied together with string. However, these recipes are preserved; they are all precious artefacts, beautiful histories of a family. Each generation adds its own recipes. 

Little Mouse has decided to bake a gingerbread loaf cake for Ruby and Wilder because it was a favourite of her grandmothers. It is the recipe that inspired Little Mouse to become a baker. She knows her friends will love it, and her instincts tell her it will go perfectly with the carrot and parsnip soup. Little Mouse loves baking because each stage of the process is a tiny ritual to be cherished.

The smells in the kitchen are glorious. Ruby and Little Mouse stand at either end of the table, chatting and occasionally singing along to the Christmas songs on the radio. Wilder Bear helps his friends by cleaning up pots and dishes in the kitchen sink. 

It is a cosy scene in the kitchen of Rose Cottage. As the remaining daylight slips away, they close the curtains against the darkness. The table, now clear of the remnants of baking and cooking, has been cleaned and set ready for their meal together. A white linen tablecloth now covers the larger wooden table. Holly and ivy motifs have been neatly embroidered around the edges of the cloth. This was a gift from Ruby’s mother last year for Yule. Handmade gifts are customary on the island. In the centre of the table, beeswax candles fragranced with orange and clove are arranged in old jam jars. The jars themselves are surrounded by sprigs of holly and pinecones. Wilder Bear was put in charge of table decorations this year, and he has outdone himself. 

The soup has been kept warm on top of the stove. The kitchen is filled with the scents of ginger and cinnamon. Doorstep slices of the loaf of bread have been placed into the oven for a few minutes to gently warm. What better way to eat soup than to dip freshly baked, crusty bread into it? Melted butter dripping over fingers as you dip buttered chunks of bread into the creamy carrot and parsnip soup.

The three friends sit around the table. The candles have been lit, and they sit telling stories. Their bellies are full of soup, freshly baked bread, and slices of the best gingerbread loaf cake they have ever had. They nibble the cheese, eating slices of sharp, juicy red apple with caramelised onion chutney. They sit together through the night. The friends are cosy and warm in each other’s company, the aroma of the orange and clove candles mingling with the ginger, spices, and scents of fresh bread that hang in the air. The sounds of their laughter and happy chatter fill the room, chasing the darkness away. 

Outside, the night sky is inky black, the stars are hidden behind a blanket of dark clouds that have been gathering all afternoon. Snow softly begins to fall. All across the Isle of Neverwas, the islanders are sharing the meals they have thoughtfully prepared. Friends and family are swapping stories and remembering past Yule’s and their female ancestors. There is a special type of magic in the air tonight. All of these tiny rituals, choosing their favourite recipes, carefully selecting the ingredients, and preparing food with love and care, help to create that magic. Yule has officially begun, and in the morning, we will welcome the return of the sun.

For my daydreamers, mischief-makers and restless souls welcome to the Ilse of Neverwas. You are home.

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