Wolcum Yole, like Welcome Yule but in Middle English

I've been busy (at least, what I call busy) getting the pictures together for next year's calendar; and at last I'd got enough, which is to say, twelve.

So I got to work formatting them, and had just about finished when I got a call from the printers (Minuteman Press in Bristol, excellent folk). They'd got my Christmas cards ready.

Turned out nicely (by the way, you can find them in my Etsy shop here). I called the picture 'Welcome Yule', partly because the boater whose boat this is has obviously just brought the firewood in, and is about to have a reviving glass of Jaegermeister while the kettle boils. And partly as a nod to the medieval carol of that name, that appears in Benjamin Britten's Ceremony of Carols, which I first heard while driving home for Christmas after one of my seafaring trips. I'd come up from Dorset through snowy hills, and this came on the radio and it was perfect for the moment.

Candelmesse, Quene of Bliss,
Wolcum bothe to more and lesse.
Wolcum, Wolcum,
Wolcum be ye that are here, Wolcum Yole,
Wolcum alle and make good cheer.
Wolcum alle another yere,
Wolcum Yole. Wolcum!

Welcome Yule

I'm not drawing the pictures for next year's calendar in any particular order, and the latest one is for December, as you can perhaps tell.  

I thought it would be fun to do a winter version of my earlier picture, 'La vraie liberte c'est le vagabondage'. And I was right; I had great fun doing it. Thinking of a suitable title for it is proving hard; keeping the french theme, I thought of 'toi, prends ta flute, Robin', a line from the French carol 'Patapan' that we sang as first formers at school, walking into the assembly with candles and being all angelic, or at least as angelic as a ragtag of 11 year olds can be.

But maybe just 'Welcome Yule'. 

Anyway, there it is. Here's the summer one for comparison