Welcome to this issue of Stumped by Nature, where we notice nature lurking just beyond our screens, curate a list of outside-y events in Austin, and build community with other folks in the thick of the startup ecosystem.
In this week’s issue:
🌿 Mistletoe
🌤️ Upcoming outdoors events
❄️ Seasonal event deluge
Let’s dig in!
-Nicole
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NATURE SPOTLIGHT
We’ve come to the time of the year when trees drop their leaves, and the secrets they’ve been hiding in their limbs see the feeble light of day.
Enter: mistletoe.
With the right Christmas carol in mind, there’s a great opportunity for a Your Mom joke here.
Let’s go with this:
Your Mom knows about mistletoe.
And now you can too.
I didn’t say it would be a good Your Mom joke.
CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL FORCE
Mistletoe has wrested a place of honor in holiday traditions—it’s a unifying plant, encouraging locked lips right in the heart of cold/flu season.
We have the Druids to thank for this. Mistletoe was one of the few plants that could blossom in cold winters, and, aided by all of its competition looking dead, became a beacon of vivacity. Winter solstice gatherings were prime mistletoe-collecting time, specifically on the sixth day after the new moon following the solstice. Mistletoe was considered a drop of the divine, offering protection, healing, and fertility.
Norse mythology takes it further. A mistletoe arrow is key in the prophecy surrounding Baldur, Odin’s son. The short version: a handshake agreement with a bunch of plants and animals, a loophole nobody saw coming, and Loki being Loki.
In one version of the legend, Baldur becomes Zombie Baldur, and his mother’s joy is so overflowing she kisses everyone who walks beneath the mistletoe.
Tangent: A Brief History of Your Mom Jokes
They’re ancient, with traces back 3,500 years to Babylonian clay tablets where students were scribing diss tracks. Versions of mom jokes span cultures from Greek comedies to West African dueling traditions. Black Americans brought the Dozens, and stand-up comics and hip-hop bumped this joke format into the mainstream.
When’s the last time you thought about the Roman Empire? Saturnalia was a popular, week-long pagan festival that included social role-reversal, gift-giving, feasting, decorating with candles and greenery, including mistletoe.
Across cultures and generations, mistletoe was believed to have magical powers of fertility and protection, and that evolved to today’s symbol of love and goodwill. A piece of the tradition lost—in 18th century England, couples kissed under mistletoe, plucking one berry per kiss until none remained, and the next step of that romantic escalator was marriage.
Red-shouldered hawk giving mistletoe the red shoulder.
BOTANICAL FORCE
Once you see mistletoe, you’ll keep seeing mistletoe. And you’ll realize it’s everywhere.
Highlight reel:
Two main types in the Austin-area:
Christmas Mistletoe: known for its fuzzy stems and advancing the plot. What a reputation!
Oak Mistletoe: poisonous berries for humans, but nontoxic for birds
Common host trees: Hackberry, Cedar Elm, Honey Mesquite, and Live Oak trees
Semi-Parasitic: while it performs photosynthesis, it steals water and nutrients from host trees
Heavy infestations can deplete the tree and cause limb failure, especially during drought years
If we ignore the suck of energy from trees, mistletoe is great for birds like cedar waxwings, bluebirds, and robins
Mistletoe is co-opted as a nesting site and nesting material for animals
We’re in a solid gray zone for the help/harm ratio, depending on where you land on the collectivist/individualist perspective
Mistletoe having a ball with tree nutrients
Things You Might Give to Someone You Meet Under the Mistletoe
I’ve curated an affiliate link-laden list of outside-tangential gift ideas. You’ll find it here.
Related: I’m having a lot of fun throwing things at the wall to see what sticks as I’m thinking about this newsletter as a sustainable business. Thanks for being along for the ride, and if I’m missing something obvious, clue me in!
ELECTION SEASON
Travis Audubon’s second annual bird of the year voting is underway. Vote here by December 19.
I’m startled to discover I have a VERY STRONG opinion on this.
UPCOMING EVENTS
🗓️ December 12: Bird Walk
🗓️ December 12: Pitch and Run/Walk ATX
🗓️ December 12: A Jolly Bright Lakeline Night
🗓️ December 13: Winter Vegetable Gardening
🗓️ December 13: Austin Feel Good Market
🗓️ December 13: Mini Horses and Cocoa
🗓️ December 13: Learn to Fish with an Angler Specialist
🗓️ December 14: Cocoa, Goat Cuddles, and Santa
🗓️ December 14: Menorah Lighting
🗓️ December 16: Close the Loop —I’m hosting this one!
SEASONAL FLAIR
❄️ Luminations at the Wildflower Center
❄️ Peppermint Parkway at COTA
LOCAL FARMERS’ MARKETS
👩🌾 Arboretum Food & Artisan Market Saturdays 11-3
👩🌾 Barton Creek Farmers Market Saturdays 9am-1pm
👩🌾 Lakeline Farmers Market Saturdays 9am-1pm
👩🌾 SFC Farmers’ Market Downtown Saturdays 9am-1pm
👩🌾 SFC Farmers’ Market Sunset Valley Saturdays 9am-1pm
👩🌾 Texas Farmers’ Market at Bell Saturdays 9am-1pm
👩🌾 Texas Farmers’ Market at Mueller Sundays 10am-2pm
POP QUIZ
What is 1000 divided by 365?
HOMEWORK
Assess where your relationship(s) land on the scale of parasitic to symbiotic, and take that information as information, and maybe call your therapist.
That’s all for this week!
In the meantime, I hope you take a hike with your mom in mind.
-Nicole
OPTIONAL SIDE QUESTS
🪵 What’s this like for you? Email with your perspective.
🪵 Who should I collaborate with? Email with your recs!
🪵 After 3 hours and 34 minutes on hold, the IRS Business and Specialty Tax Line bequeathed me with the ability to set up my Stripe account. Feel free to help me see if it works. 🙂
🪵 Is this newsletter not your vibe? Forward it to your enemies to make them suffer too.
💰It’s safe to assume there are affiliate links, and I’ll monetarily benefit from any purchases you make. Hooray, capitalism!