The Wolf and The Christmas Cake.

Every year babushka, our granny, would bake a Christmas cake.

It was rich in fruit and spices and she always added brandy.

As granny got older she put more and more brandy in the cake.

My father suggested she was drinking some of the brandy as she made the cake.

Granny’s house was in the forest, but not so deep in. The postman could still get there in his horse drawn sledge.

Granny used to make the cake in October. She said that by Christmas the alcohol would have fermented the nuts, fruits and berries that were in the cake and she was right – it usually tasted really nice, especially with cream or custard.

At Christmas granny would go to her son’s. She waited for the post sledge and brought the cake with her in a large bag.

This year the frost was hard, 40 below, the snow was deeper, the tracks filled in behind the sledge as it approached granny’s Izba (log cottage) in the forest.

She had noticed wolf tracks round the cabin when she went to feed the birds. At night she stayed in.

“Halloo to you babushka, “shouted the postman from his sledge. He didn’t want to tarry for the runners would freeze in and he would have hours of digging.

The door of the cottage opened and babushka emerged, her

Impressum

Verlag: BookRix GmbH & Co. KG

Texte: alastair macleod
Bildmaterialien: wolf image purchased from Dreamstime royalty free photos - photo credit ID 94085009 © Anagram1 | Dreamstime.com
Cover: alastair macleod
Lektorat: alastair macleod
Satz: alastair macleod
Tag der Veröffentlichung: 24.11.2018
ISBN: 978-3-7438-8737-4

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Widmung:
To the wild places and the stories they give us. Wolf killings of humans are rare North America. A recent case in Alaska was only the second documented case of a wild wolf killing a human there. There are an estimated 60,000 to 70,000 wolves in North America, including 7,700 to 11,200 in Alaska. Source NBC news. In Russia and Eurasia the situation on wolf killings is different. Siberia features frequently in reports but so does Armenia , Pakistan, Iran and parts of Europe. Rabies is a constant worry.