The dependent insect fauna of our mistletoe, Viscum album, gradually changes with time. The mistletoe-dependent weevil Ixapion variegatum was unknown in Britain until 2000, and the mistletoe sap-sucker Hypseloecus visci unknown here until 2003. And there many other insects that use mistletoe, as well as those specialists. These broader species also change with time and one, an invasive species of fruitfly, has come in for special attention recently. Studies have shown how widespread it now […]
auctions , Blogroll , Current Affairs , Media , Mistletoe , music , social history , Tenbury Wells
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Mistletoe Songs #1
Following the recent media nonsense speculating that mistletoe traditions are on the wane, I thought about documenting various evidence to the contrary – not least the constant presence of mistletoe in book titles (lots of mistletoe-themed murder mysteries (!) and romances, in equal measure) , TV and film titles/themes (romance again, and, bizarrely, murder mysteries again) and in seasonal songs (romance only, I’ve not spotted any mistletoe murder songs yet). The whole gamut of that […]
auctions , Blogroll , Current Affairs , MistleGO , Mistletoe , social history , surveying mistletoe , Tenbury Wells
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Loadsa mistletoe sales
Yesterday I looked up how many people were selling mistletoe in the UK via Facebook Marketplace – and found that there were dozens and dozens of them. Some selling just a small amount, others with a production line of bundles tied with ribbon and a few advertising whole treefuls of mistletoe to anyone willing to come and gather it. The screen shots above and below show just a small sample. I was a little astonished. […]
auctions , Biodiversity , Blogroll , Current Affairs , druids , Food and Drink , Gardening , Mistletoe , Mistletoe Day , Orchard , Religion , social history , Tenbury Wells
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Mistletoe in Parliament
A recent query (in connection with this) about how we got Parliament’s approval for National Mistletoe Day in 2005, and a subsequent search for the relevant references, got me looking at mistletoe in parliament in general. Does it get mentioned often? And in what sort of context? The answer to ‘how often’ is ‘not very’. But the answer to type of context is ‘very variable’ as a search through Hansard, Parliament’s formal record (and allied […]
berries , birds , Blogroll , Current Affairs , Media , Mistletoe , surveying mistletoe
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Mistletoe morsels 2024
A slow start to Mistletoe Diary his year, too many other things going on. But masses of miscellaneous mistletoe morsels are planned for the next couple of weeks including: – Mistletoe in Parliament – a round-up of mistletoe mentions in the house, whether serious, jokey or filibuster – Mistletoe Song of the Day – a selection from the 1830s to the 2020s. Some good, some bad, some non-PC – Mistletoe as a habitat for an […]
auctions , Blogroll , Current Affairs , Media , Mistletoe , social history
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Mistletoe Matters – Bluesky thinking
Just a quickie to say that I’m still blogging here (obviously) but am no longer using X/Twitter. So you can follow the blog here, or via facebook or via the new account (to replace X) at Bluesky.
auctions , Blogroll , Current Affairs , Mistletoe , Religion , Science , social history , stupidity , Tenbury Wells
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The silly season is upon us – apparently “wokery” could end mistletoe kisses. What a load of tosh.
There’s a story doing the rounds today that “wokery could put an end to kissing under the mistletoe at Christmas”. The comment is attributed to Nick Champion, the mistletoe auctioneer at Tenbury Wells*. He said, apparently, in the context of mistletoe sales not being as good as they once were, that this was due in part to that fact “workers used to kiss under the mistletoe at Christmas parties, but with all the wokery nowadays […]
auctions , Biodiversity , Blogroll , Current Affairs , druids , Gardening , Media , Science , social history
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Mistletoe Season 2024/25
A belated start to the diary this year! A few snippets of info and dates for now, more soon: Dates This year’s Tenbury Mistletoe Festival (and National Mistletoe Day) will be on Saturday 7th December. Details still to be confirmed, for updates see https://www.tenburymistletoe.org/ One definite fixture is the druid mistletoe ceremony at 3.00pm on the Burgage. This year’s Tenbury Mistletoe Auctions will be on Tuesday 26th November and Tuesday 3rd December at Burford House Garden Centre, Burford, Tenbury […]
Blogroll , Current Affairs , Media , Mistletoe , Religion , social history
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Mistletoe nonsense 2023 #2: Sister Boniface just about gets away with it.
Following my last entry, about the wildly inaccurate account of mistletoe in Ideal Homes magazine this month, I now offer some light relief, as my second example of recent mistletoe inaccuracy is more humorous, and much less annoying!. It is the 2023 Christmas Special of TV’s Sister Boniface Mysteries broadcast a few days ago (and viewable on demand on UK TV Play in the UK). The plot, a light-hearted and undemanding whodunnit based, very very […]
berries , Blogroll , Current Affairs , Gardening , Mistletoe , social history , stupidity , toxicity
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Mistletoe nonsense 2023 #1: Ideal Home far from ideal
Quite a lot of nonsense written about mistletoe again this season, I never cease to be amazed by how much mis-information there is out there. Though as Roy Vickery, a plant-lore expert at the Natural History Museum once said in one of his books some years ago; ‘more nonsense has been written about mistletoe than any other plant’ so perhaps I shouldn’t be so surprised. Much of it relates to toxicity, confused understanding of differing […]