Meet my Icelandic Yule Lad

This is my Yuletide Lad brought back with Richard from Iceland .
Icelandic children place a shoe in their bedroom window each evening in the 13 days before Christmas. Each night they are visited by one of the Yuletide Lads who will leave sweets and small gifts or rotting potatoes depending on the childs behave on the previous day.
The Lads are rather horrible, their parents being the two most horrible ogres that live in the Icelandic Mountains and they are meant to strike fear into little children. There was actually a decree declared in 1746 prohibiting parents from scaring their children with Monsters and such like.
The lads visit the National Museum in Iceland from the 12th December and have now been kitted out in new clothes made locally out of Icelandic wool and felt.
Sheep-Cote Clod has already visited who tried to suck the yews in the farmers sheep sheds. Tonight Gully Wawk will be making a visit. He had the habit of creeping into the cowshed and slurping the foam off the milk in the buckets.
I will let you know the rest one day at a time.

My Christmas twig is up and lights are on the outside tree, starting to look very pretty.
The siskins made a welcome return to the garden today as well as the Sparrow hawk and woodpecker. Plenty of goldfinches too !
I've checked the date, it is now Friday so have a good weekend one and all :)