12 strange facts about mistletoe

The staff at Brompton Library have been very busy looking through our reference resources, both in the library and online for some festive facts.

First up –  12 strange facts about mistletoe:

1. Mistletoe is a parasite that grows on around the tops of broad leave trees, mainly hawthorn, blackthorn, willow, oak and rowan.
2. You can hardly ever find it on oak trees. It’s so rare to find it on oak trees that ancient druids thought that mistletoe on oak was sacred.
3. Mistletoe bushes can grow up to 1m wide when they can look like baskets and are sometimes called Witches’ Brooms.
4. Birds eat the leaves and berries but don’t eat them yourself because they are poisonous to humans.
5. In Norse times, after Loki killed Baldur with a mistletoe spear, it became a symbol of love and friendship and anyone passing under the mistletoe would exchange a kiss.
6. Other names for mistletoe are birdlime, all-heal, golden bough and devil’s fuge.
7. The Greek word for mistletoe is “Phoradendron” which means “thief of the tree” because it feeds on trees and can kill them.
8. During the Medieval times, mistletoe was used during the to ward off evil spirits and protect from the devil. It was then burnt when Christmas was over.
9. The name “mistletoe” comes from the Anglo-Saxon words “mistle” and “tan” which mean “dung twig”. This is because mistletoe spreads its seeds via bird droppings! Birds eat the seeds and spread them when they do droppings in other places.
10. Mistletoe was used for leprosy, hypertension, pain and intestinal worms in the past.
11. Mistletoe is now being researched as a cure for colon cancer.
12. Kissing under the mistletoe started again in Victorian times when servants played a game where any girl caught standing under the mistletoe was allowed to be kissed.
13. In modern times people still like to kiss under this mistletoe, but nowadays we ask before we kiss!

We hope you enjoyed this; do look out for more festive posts coming soon.

Staff at Brompton Library

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Comic Fun at Brompton Library!

An intrepid and curious band of children and adults rocked up to Brompton Library to discover the ins and outs of designing cartoons from scratch! We were guided by cartoon artist John Byrne who in next to no time got us recreating and producing our very own masterpieces.

Chocolate event with Canela Fina! at Brompton library

Our old friends Canela Fina! delivered yet another great event for Brompton library with their chocolate event for children. We had a full house with everyone champing at the bit to get to the eating part of the event. Of course, that came at the end, so before that we had a history of where chocolate came from and how it’s made, all with graphics on our screen, and then the chocolate song with hand actions that was so fast in the end no-one could keep up with it… but had great fun trying!

Then came the part that everyone had been waiting for – tasting the white, brown and black chocolate before drawing pictures of the Aztec god of chocolate (I hadn’t known there was one!) and then, even better, being given two little doughnuts to decorate with chocolate sauce (white and brown) and sprinkles.

Well, you can’t go wrong with chocolate, can you?

[Stephanie]

Harry Potter Book Night at Brompton and Chelsea Libraries!

“Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!”

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone – J.K. Rowling

Who could resist Potter madness?

Brompton and Chelsea libraries certainly couldn’t and fully embraced the Harry Potter Book Night madness with magical craft sessions of their own.

We captured a few pictures from the events, take a look at the ‘mischief managed’!

Goodbye Summer Reading Challenge 2016: Big Friendly Party at Brompton

Last Saturday saw Brompton Library put this year’s Summer Reading Challenge to bed with our annual finishers’ party. The Roald Dahl theme this year was massively popular with the kids and many of them hoovered up the few titles they hadn’t already read. We supplemented his novels with joke books, revolting rhymes, biographies and autobiographies.

In the end an impressive 89 children completed the challenge, and the party was well attended! They had a great time – Katie lead the party, ably assisted by our long-standing friend and volunteer Lisa and they were treated to some great games and free juice and nibbles to keep them going as they played some very energetic games such as Duck, Goose (new to me) and musical chairs and statues (old favourites).

They also reviewed the books they’d read and enjoyed and talked about the craft events they’d come to at the library. Katie got some great feedback after the party and the kids and their parents agreed that the party was a great idea to round off the summer. Well done to everyone who took part and roll on the Summer Reading Challenge 2017- I wonder what it will be?

Steph Webb

 

Crazy Comic Club fun

Last week was the last week of the school summer holidays and Chelsea and Brompton Libraries wanted to go out on a creative high so we invited James Parsons, of the Crazy Comic Club,  to do two illustration workshops in one day, Chelsea in the morning and Brompton in the afternoon.

Brompton Library Graphic Novel Reading Group

Twenty-five years since THE SANDMAN first changed the landscape of modern comics, Neil Gaiman’s legendary series is back in a deluxe hard-cover edition! THE SANDMAN: OVERTURE heralds New York Times best-selling writer Neil Gaiman’s return to the art form that made him famous, ably abetted by artistic luminary JH Williams III (BATWOMAN, PROMETHEA), whose lush, wide-screen images provide an epic scope to The Sandman’s origin story.

Brompton Library Graphic Novel Reading Group

Hello and welcome to the Brompton Library Graphic Novel Reading Group. We talk about comics, graphic novels, web-comics and pop culture.

For August’s session (Thursday 4th, 6pm), we will be discussing cult classic ‘GHOST WORLD’ by Daniel Clowes. The book was made into a film featuring Scarlett Johansson, Thora Birch and Steve Buscemi in 2001.

Internet of Things

Over half term, to replace our usual Code Club, Brompton Library took up the offer of an Internet of Things workshop offered to us by SamLabs via Brainiac. This turned out to be a great success all round! I was expecting our usual Code Club kids (usually about 10) minus a few who’d gone away but 20 turned up, which was challenging for our 2 facilitators, Sasha and Rosemary, but they rose to the challenge admirably!

Brompton Library Graphic Novel Reading Group

Hello and welcome to the Brompton Library Graphic Novel Reading Group

As most of you know, at the next group meeting (Thursday 5 May, 6pm) we will be discussing ‘Killing and Dying’ by Adrian Tomine.

Here is a review:

From the master of the small gesture, this collection of stories and characters comprises a fraught, realist masterpiece about the weight of love and its absence, the pride and disappointment of family, and the anxiety and hopefulness of being alive in the 21st century.

For June’s session, we will be reading ‘The Walking Dead Volume 1: Days Gone Bye’ by Robert Kirkman, who wrote ‘Invincible’ which we read before, and Walking Dead is now a popular TV series.

Here’s the blurb:

“The world we knew is gone. The world of commerce and frivolous necessity has been replaced by a world of survival and responsibility. An epidemic of apocalyptic proportions has swept the globe, causing the dead to rise and feed on the living. In a matter of months society has crumbled: no government, no grocery stores, no mail delivery, no cable TV. In a world ruled by the dead, the survivors are forced to finally start living.”

 If you have any other suggestions for the reading list then please let me know and we’ll try our best to accommodate.

So far we have the following for consideration:

• Democracy
• Trees
• Watchmen
• Diary of a Teenage Girl
• Miracleman
• Hip Hop Family Tree
• Pride of Baghdad
• The Bad Doctor
• Y: The Last Man

See you all soon!

David Bushell
Customer Services Assistant, Brompton Library