Above: more snow fell again today, the white revealing previously hidden aspects of the landscape. For instance, this photograph shows balls of mistletoe hanging on a beech tree. Seeing it like this was a revelation - I could suddenly understand the veneration of our Iron Age ancestors for this parasitic vine.
Mistletoe is known as "the golden bough" of European mythology. It produces white berries in the middle of winter (the seeds are spread by birds). Heavy infestations can ultimately kill the host tree.
Above: Sir James Fraser writes extensively about the cultural importance of mistletoe in The Golden Bough. This is one of the books that changed my life. It is important to read the full unabridged version of the work (in several volumes) but you might also want to keep a Wordsworth edition handy in the car - it is amazing value at £2.50 and being so cheap you can turn the corners down, write in the margins, stuff cuttings between the pages (at which point it becomes much more valuable to you than the multi-volume hardback edition).
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