So much for blogging daily – this year's mistletoe supply business is keeping me even busier than usual, so am finding it difficult to blog – and to keep up with emails.  There's a big backlog again –  so apols, as usual for this time of year, if you've been writing to me and haven't yet had a reply.  Today's been a hectic day of harvesting and packing for mail-order mistletoe buyers.  This online buying […]

A dark, wet, and windy morning in a field near Tenbury Wells.  Surrounded by piles of cut mistletoe, trussed up in round bundles.  Yes, it's the first of this year's mistletoe auctions – and yes, the scene is much the same as previous years.  So much so that I've not even bothered to get the camera out of the car – the pic I've put here is from last year. The familiarity is actually very […]

Hope to post some proper mistletoe news this week – have been a little pre-occupied with practical matters in last few days – harvesting mistletoe in the rain (soft ground is really annoying when you're standing on a ladder), packaging up odd mistletoe orders (which colour ribbon goes with which order?) and generally answering (or ignoring, sorry, have been busy) the phone and emails. More interesting information due soon…

Mistletoe silly season really has begun now.  Spent today fielding many mistletoe enquiries – mostly media-related.  Early start (1.5 hour drive) at Tenbury High School for 0845 to talk mistletoe at the Lower School assembly (back tomorrow for the Upper School, which will include this year's Mistletoe Queen etc).  Followed by pow-wow on Mistletoe Festival related matters at the school.  And then into Tenbury town to talk TEME mistletoe business – ranging from where the […]

Attended a Gloucestershire Biodiversity Action Plan Partnership workshop today, at the Gloucester Rugby ground in Kingsholm.  One of the workshop sessions involved an exercise looking at restoring habitat continuity – using old orchards, and the biodiversity value of old orchards, as an example.  David Bullock, Head of Nature Conservation at the National Trust , had set us a light-hearted exercise centred on 'Ambridge' (home of the Archers) where orchard habitats had become fragmented in the […]

Have just been reviewing online mistletoe sellers – to see what's on offer this season. Usual suspects – TEME in Tenbury (the original online mistletoe sellers, in whom I have to declare an interest), InterRose in Suffolk (who buy from the Tenbury Auctions) plus some Ebay sellers.  So far, so very similar to previous years. But one of the Ebay sellers caught my attention more than the others – initially because they are using two […]

Off to see my mother today – as it’s her 80th birthday.  So, Happy Birthday Mum! What has this got to do with mistletoe?  Well, up until a couple of years ago there was a very old apple tree in her garden, festooned with large mistletoe growths.  It was magnificent – a source of wonder to friends and neighbours, a local landmark (clocked, independently of me, by botanical surveyors in the 1990s national mistletoe survey), […]

Have been in Tenbury Wells, Britain's “Mistletoe Capital” today to attend meetings about this year's Mistletoe Festival and about this year's harvesting. A quick reprise for those who've not heard of all this: Tenbury Wells, a market town in north-west Worcestershire, has held wholesale mistletoe auctions, harvested across Worcestershire and Herefordshire, for over 100 years. These are the only specialist auctions for mistletoe in the UK – and the only commercial sales where you can […]

Here's an interesting one. Will people avoid kissing under the mistletoe this season because of the Swine Flu scare? Will any official health and safety advice be issued on this? Will anyone take any notice? Too early to call so far – but the signs are there already; there's an AP story (one version here) already circulating about 'managing risk' of swine flu spread by not using mistletoe at your parties this season. Here's a […]

Over a month since last entry – largely because very busy with mistletoe matters – reviewing the 'crop' in orchards, sorting out details of events and updating websites etc. But now back on track, I hope, with regular updates on mistletoe news and trivia in the run-up to Christmas. Am aiming for daily blogging for this season – the mistletoe blog used to be a regular thing (see old threads for 2004 and 2005/6) but entries have become […]