Well, here we are, Christmas Day. Mistletoe season over for another 12 months (well, not really – am anticipating a lot of mistletoe activity with TEME for Feb/March – marketing mistletoe seeds etc – and also for the London Mistletoe Action Plan, also in Feb/March planting new mistletoe colonies. But it seems like the beginning of a bit of a rest at least. Blog regulars may be disappointed not to have found that picture in […]

Good mistletoe feature covering all the Tenbury Wells mistletoe issues today – you can read it by clicking here. Refreshingly accurate on most points – and not too scare-mongering. Thank you Paul Kingsnorth. Beats a lot of other mistletoe coverage (though the Independent faeture on 5th? December was good too). And then yes its back to Tenbury again to go up a ladder for some more pics! Andrew Fox, a freelancer who’s already covered the […]

Back to Tenbury again – or nearby anyway. This time to pose for some pics showing how to harvest, and grow, mistletoe. Photographer is Jason Ingram – a garden and landscape photographer who’s done mistletoe before – but is keen to get some more shots for a new portfolio of mistletoe pictures. Jason specialises in gardens, plants, environmental portraiture, architecture, landscapes – so mistletoe harvesting and growing ticks a lot of boxes. Click the link […]

Saturday 17th December, Rathbone Market, Canning Town, London… A TEME expedition to the capital… On the basis that ladies are more likely to sell mistletoe than men, Reg, Alec and I sit in the van (and it’s warmer there too). Meanwhile Caroline, Doreen and Jill try to woo the punters of the East End with hand-picked Worcestershire Mistletoe… We’re here at the invitation of Newham Borough, who are trying to revive the flagging fortunes of […]

Another day, another radio station. But this time it’s Two Lochs Radio, “Britain’s smallest commercial radio station and community broadcaster for the Gairloch and Lochewe areas of Wester Ross, Scotland on 106 and 106.6 FM. “ Now that’s different! Hardly any mistletoe (actually none at all) in their broadcast area, and a station so small it could be mistaken for a shed (or so I’m told). Arranged through my good friend Liz Forrest, one of […]

10 mins live on National Radio New Zealand this morning – the evening show there. Bit odd really, talking about mistletoe crises here when they’ve got their own, albeit different mistletoe crises down there (see previous blogs). Not my best radio interview ever – was not sure what they wanted to cover, and so it a was bit unstructured (sorry New Zealand – will do better next time). Mistletoe Adventures, beginning with Christmas 2005 but […]

Last mistletoe and holly auction for this year at Tenbury today. Lots of worries about next year and the future of the site. Media out in force (again) – Canadian Broadcasting Corporation have been here since yesterday and now Reuters are here witha film crew – with coincidentally a Canadian reporter. Went off with Reuters to an orchard up the road to talk mistletoe and mistletoe crises. Took the man from the Guardian with us […]

Monday! Off to work again. But via Standish Churchyard, for yet another local radio interview (pretending to be in another county – that’s the great thing about radio – you can get away with more than on TV). I chose Standish for the mistletoe in the churchyard lime trees – one needs to have some reality even if in the wrong county (wouldn’t do to pretend we’re looking at mistletoe – that would be a […]

A canal and mistletoe-free weekend down in Dorset – did nothing all day on Saturday except sift through the backlog of mail – and resolve to deal with it next week (but probably won’t). Sunday (today) heading back home via Mary’s (my sister) house where Harriet (a niece but not one of Mary’s) is over for the weekend. She was 18 last week. Doesn’t time fly… makes me feel old. Anyway, en route we decide […]

Well, today saw the broadcast of that Mistletoe v Christmas tree Ready Steady Cook on BBC2 television. I thought it went well, not least ‘cos I (well, Lesley Waters and I) won. Green Peppers forever!! But it was a bit trying watching it. I’ve done TV before but not like this. My TV work as an environmental rep for British Waterways or as a mistletoe expert chap has largely been short interviews for news or […]