Story continues from yesterday:
continues tomorrow
For the whole story click here
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vegan, juvenile fiction, anti-vivisection, animals, dogs, illustration, animal rights
Author Archives: Violet's Vegan Comics
A strange and sickly smell
story continues from last week:
continues tomorrow
For the whole story click here
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vegan, juvenile fiction, anti-vivisection, animals, dogs, illustration, animal rights
Only us two
Story continues from yesterday:
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Story continues tomorrow.
For the story so far click here
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vegan, juvenile fiction, anti-vivisection, animals, dogs, illustration, animal rights
She just howled all day
Story continues from yesterday:
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Story continues tomorrow.
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vegan, juvenile fiction, anti-vivisection, animals, dogs, illustration, animal rights
There was nothing she could do
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Story continues tomorrow.
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vegan, juvenile fiction, anti-vivisection, animals, dogs, illustration, animal rights
So many families
Today is World Day for Laboratory Animals. Please take action for laboratory animals now. It’ll only take a couple of minutes. Thank you 🙂
Story continues from yesterday:
story continues tomorrow
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dogs, animals, anti-vivisection, vegan, vegetarian, illustration, vegan story, animal rights story
‘Let the dogs out’ begins today
story continues tomorrow …
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vegan, vegetarian, vegan children’s story, anti-vivisection story, art, illustration, watercolour
C is for Cake
Here’s an enjoyable excerpt from The Concise Vegan Dictionary (see link in sidebar) 😀
I’m working on the Cs now and was delighted to find that the first word which needed redefining was Cake:
Oxford Dictionary definition: Mixture of flour, butter, eggs, sugar etc. baked in the oven.
Our definition: There is absolutely no need of eggs and butter when making a cake. There are so many delicious vegan, and even raw vegan, cake recipes – some very sophisticated and complicated and some, my favourites, needing nothing more than flour, sugar (or other natural sweetener such as agave), vegetable oil and water. And I do not exaggerate when I say that they taste better than any cake I tasted in my pre-vegan days. But you don’t need to take my word for it, look at oatielover’s chocolate cake and Lisa’s vanilla layer cake or any of the thousands of vegan cake recipes out there – there’s something for everyone. All this typing’s…
View original post 184 more words
New Bookshop Open Now!
We’re very excited to tell you that we’ve just opened our new bookshop, right here at Violet’s Vegan Comics! 😀
We do have quite a lot of titles now you know 😉
So, if you’re in need of some new bedtime stories, or you’ve got some adventure-loving kids who are partial to exciting comics and stories, or maybe they’d prefer a colouring book, or a notebook, or someone’s birthday’s coming up, you don’t have to go to Amazon, you can get them right here at Violet’s Vegan Self-Service Bookshop 🙂 
“What d’you mean, self-service?” I hear you ask.
Well, our bookshop is a little old fashioned for a web shop, in that nothing’s automated. There’s no basket and no one’s going to add up your total for you, you’ve got to do it yourself. It’s what you might call a minimalist shop. No added extras, just a load of book images with prices on, a contact form, and a paypal button at the bottom 😀
You’ll see when you get there, it’s all explained and very straightforward, but basically you just choose which books you want, add up the total in your head, add £2.50 shipping to your total and pay the Grand Total through Paypal after telling us what you want using the contact form. Simple.
The other thing that makes our shop rather old fashioned is that there’s no NEXT DAY DELIVERY. In fact there’s unlikely to be a next week delivery. Remember the days when you were told to allow 28 days for delivery? That was normal right? That was to be expected. Well, when you remember that you’ll be pleased to learn that when you order books from us they’ll probably be with you in a couple of weeks 🙂
They’re printed on demand you see, in America. So if you’re ordering from America they might be with you the same week. It just depends how far they’ve got to travel. We’ve found that our orders reach us in the UK in about two weeks. Yes, in fact, every order we’ve placed has been with us two weeks later. I don’t know how long they’ll take to other countries, but hopefully we’ll find out soon 🙂
So you’ve got to wait a bit longer than you’re used to. But so what? What’s your rush? These books are worth waiting for 😀
And the up-side? Well, the up-side is that you can order them from anywhere in the world. You can only get them from Amazon if you’re in America or Europe but we’re happy to send them anywhere 😀
So, next time you’re looking for vegan children’s books, give our selection a browse – there’s something for everyone 🙂
See the bookshop link in the top menu 😀
Let the dogs out NEW EDITION, Coming Soon!
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vegan, vegetarian, anti-vivisection, children’s story, children’s book,
A lovely time was had by all
HART’s inaugural vegan potluck event on Hornby Island was a roaring success – not surprising when you look at the feast that all the attendees put together 😀
Everybody kindly wrote a list of ingredients to put with their contribution so that food intolerances could be avoided, although it was all vegan of course 🙂
There were thirty attendees including a couple of holiday makers from off the island and, well, if you take a look over here you get the whole story from the person who put it all together: Sarat Colling, founder of Hornby Animal Rights Team.
The same event also played host to HART’s first pop-up library and we’re thrilled to see some of our books among the collection. Some of the attendees became library members and the first books were loaned. Anyone who is within reach of Hornby Island, BC, will be delighted to learn that more pop-ups are planned and will be publicised via the website – so subscribe if you don’t want to miss it.
If you don’t want to wait for the next pop-up to join the library, you don’t have to. If you’re a local, you can check out the list of books for loan and then email hornbyhart@gmail.com with the title(s) you wish to borrow and your contact information. They will arrange a time to leave the books for pick up in HART’s box at the Co-op Free Post.
Such a great idea 🙂 I hope lots of people will be inspired to do it in their area so that we’ll all be in reach of one 😀
The Rebel Gang and the Number Ciphers book trailer
Megan & Flos Book 1 trailer
Reflecto Girl Book Trailer
Venus Aqueous Book Trailer
I don’t do dat – vegan kids’ hip hop song
This should be on Sesame Street 😉
Children’s Tofurky Song
and this fan loved it so much she made her own version:
Don’t hurt the turkeys, they’ve done nothing to you ❤
Do you love animals? Eat vegan food
Wheels on the bus – vegan kids’ song
This is just adorable. All sing along! 😀
The raw material of bones
‘One farmer says to me, “You cannot live on vegetable food solely, for it furnishes nothing to make bones with;” and so he religiously devotes a part of his day to supplying his system with the raw material of bones; walking all the while he talks behind his oxen, which, with vegetable-made bones, jerk him and his lumbering plough along in spite of every obstacle.’
Henry David Thoreau, in Walden.
Animal Advocacy Pop-Up Library
Molly the cow who escaped the slaughterhouse and ran into the forest
The above is the gorgeous profile picture of HART: Hornby Animal Rights Team, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to animal advocacy and education, on Hornby Island, British Columbia, Canada.
On Friday March 30th, just two days from now, HART will be holding their first event – a community vegan potluck at New Horizons.
In addition to the vegan feast and short film, HART’s first event will also launch their animal advocacy pop-up library. The library books will be on display for browsing and borrowing, and people will have the opportunity to become library members.
The pop-up library is a brilliant idea! 😀
They are planning to cycle from place to place with a trailer full of wonderful animal-friendly books, fiction and non-fiction, for children and adults, and be the most eco-friendly mobile library you can imagine. You can read their books at the event or take them home and return them later 🙂
Quite a few of our books are among the HART Animal Advocacy collection, I’m very excited to tell you, so if you’re in the area, take the opportunity to get over there and borrow something, and make some new friends while you’re at it 🙂
If you’re not in the area, as most of us aren’t unfortunately, why not think about setting up your own Animal Advocacy Pop-Up Library in your community? It’s such a brilliant idea don’t you think? You can contact HART via their website or email them at hornbyhart@gmail.com for more info about how they’re doing it.
Vegan Kids’ TV
Here’s fun:
I know it says it’s 27 minutes long but it’s actually only 17 minutes and Vegan Kids TV, made by the people who brought us the Vegan Kids’ Magazine, is well worth a quarter of an hour of your day. There’s an animal quiz, a trip to visit Joy the sheep and family, and we meet lots of vegan kids from all over the world who tell us who their favourite animals are 😀
Old McSpreader
Sing to the tune of Old MacDonald 🙂
Old McSpreader had a farm,
Pee-u pee-u poo.
And on that farm he dished out muck,
Pee-u pee-u poo.
With a cow-pat here and a pig poo there,
Here a plop, there a plop,
Everywhere a ton of plops,
Old McSpreader had a farm,
Pee-u pee-u poo.
“Oh,” my ma says, “Oh, no no!”
“No no no no no!”
She says of washing on the line,
“It will smell of poo!”
She grabs a stinky towel here and a stinky sheet there,
Here a shirt, there a dress,
All of it a stinky mess.
“Oh!” my ma says, “oh, no no!”
“It all smells of poo!”
Old Green Grower spreads no muck,
No sal-mon-ell-a.
For her crops manure is green,
No e-coli either.
With clover here and mustard there,
Here some vetch, there some hemp,
Everywhere a lovely scent.
Old Green Grower spreads no muck,
Her fields are filled with joy 😀
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Green manure – so much better for us and the world than sewage, blood and bone from factory farms. Well duh!
The witch’s spell and how to break it
The Wicked Witch’s Plan To Get Rid Of Everyone, a new version of the fairy tale The Wicked Wicked Witch and the Ruinous Manipulation by Maud Earnshaw, illustrated by Beatrice Wilberforce, includes instructions about how to break the witch’s spell at the back 😉
Available from Amazon in the UK, Europe, USA and Canada
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vegan children’s book, vegan fairy tale, vegan children’s story
Miranda keeps warm
Before you turn up the thermostat – put on another jumper, and a hat and scarf 😀 It’s amazing how your own body can generate heat, all you’ve got to do is stop that heat escaping 😀
Unnecessary Suffering
My flesh to you is unnecessary,
And my milk’s unnecessary for you,
So if none of these is necessary
Then my suffering’s unnecessary too.
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Raystede Centre for Animal Welfare‘s governing document states:
1.1 The objects of the charity are
(1) To prevent and relieve cruelty to animals and to protect them from UNNECESSARY SUFFERING and to promote and encourage a knowledge and love of animals and of their proper care and treatment.
and yet they serve meat, fish, dairy and eggs in their cafe.
Tell them they’re breaking their own laws!
Raystede Centre for Animal Welfare,
The Broyle, Ringmer,
East Sussex,
BN8 5AJ
Tel: (01825) 840252
info@raystede.org
And don’t forget to sign and share the petition 😀
Thank you 🙂
More Plastic-Free Easter Eggs!
This time it’s from good ole Plamil – and they’re shouting from the rooftops about its plastic-freeness 😀
Of course we wouldn’t be recommending it if it wasn’t also vegan, organic and fair trade, but it is, so we are 😀
We also wouldn’t be recommending it if it wasn’t absolutely scrummy. And it is 🙂 so we are!
Mmmmmm, this won’t last long 😉
Get some from your local health food shop now 😀
Plastic Free Easter Eggs
Here is a scrummy Easter Egg which ticks all the right boxes:
VEGAN
ORGANIC
FAIR TRADE
And it’s not wrapped in plastic!!! 😀
Just a cardboard box with a delicious, foil-wrapped, chocolate egg inside. Remember when they were all like that? Not so long ago.
It just goes to show, there’s no need to contaminate the planet, milk a cow or enslave a child to enjoy a yummy Easter egg 😀
Get over to Holland & Barrett for yours! 😀
Yum 😀
Easy Gluten-Free Flatbread
This is so easy and absolutely delicious 😀
No fat, no yeast, no gluten and no frying. Just oats and water. Baked.
You’ll need:
8 oz rolled oats
400 ml of water
parchment paper to line your baking trays so that you don’t need to oil them.
** For garlic bread version see bottom of post 🙂
First pre-heat your oven to 220°C (less if it’s a fan oven).
Then weigh out about 8 oz of rolled oats and mill it into a flour in your food processor (with the S blade).
Add 200ml of water, whiz to combine with the flour and then add another 200ml and whiz again so that you’ve got a runny, pour-able mixture.
Line two baking trays with parchment paper, and pour half the mixture onto each of them.
Then spread it thinly and evenly with the back of a spoon, and put the trays in the oven.
After about 20 minutes remove trays from the oven and turn the bread over. Turn the trays around so that they get evenly baked and return to the oven for another 6 or 7 minutes.
Remove and put on plates 😀
If you want them crispier, bake them for a little longer but keep a close eye on them because there is a very fine line between crisp and burnt.
Now do what you like with them. Add your favourite spreads, cover them with beans, use them as pizza bases, make sandwiches with them …. whatever you like.
** To make amazing garlic bread just add a few cloves of fresh garlic to the oats when you mill it into flour (I use 4 fat ones to this amount of oats but if you like your garlic stronger, add as much as you like). The garlic will be finely minced and combined with the oat flour. Then, instead of using parchment paper on the trays, generously grease them with vegetable oil and preheat the greased trays before adding the runny mixture. This will produce delicious crispy garlic bread ready to eat with no need for margarine.
Plastic Free Crisps!!!
For anyone determined to avoid plastic, non-essentials like crisps are the first to go. But now thanks to Walkers, they don’t have to be!
Walkers have brought out cardboard tubes of crisps without even a plastic lid! The top is cardboard which is easy to peel off, so absolutely no plastic required.
So, when you’re feeling snackish and want something crunchy and savoury, grab yourself a tube of Walkers Stax 😀
[ DISCLAIMER: These are not a health food 😉 ]
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Plastic Avoidance: Part 7
Remember I wrote in my earlier plastic avoidance posts that it was impossible, in my experience, to get organic stuff (like sugar, lentils, dried fruit, nuts, pasta etc etc) that wasn’t wrapped in plastic? Remember I said that we’d decided we had to prioritise plastic avoidance even if that meant having to buy non-organic? Well, I’m absolutely delighted to tell you I was wrong!!!
Thanks to the Zero Waste Club (a new mail-order company in London) you can now buy all those wonderful staples organic and plastic-free 😀
In my first order I got sugar, salt, muesli and banana chips. In my second order I got popping corn, pitted dates, raisins, cashews, pasta, lentils and cinnamon, but they’ve got so much more! Nuts, pulses, dried fruit, muesli, oats, flour, cocoa, herbs and spices, seeds: check it out! They told me they’re going to get tea soon too!!!
The Zero Waste Club was set up by a couple of lads, Pawan Saunya & Rishi Gupta, who got so upset when they watched a documentary about plastic pollution in their A’level World Development lesson that they determined to do something about it. You can read their inspirational story here. Thanks to Pawan and Rishi, the rest of us ZERO WASTE WANNA BEs don’t have to miss out on pasta and dried fruit and nuts and salt etc etc in our efforts to boycott plastic, and we don’t have to compromise our organic principles either.
You can order by weight through their website and they will package up your goodies in tough, recycled paper bags (see picture at top) which you can in turn re-use, recycle and/or compost. I’m keeping mine for filling with fruit and veg peelings in the kitchen and then the whole lot can go in the compost bin. They despatch every Wednesday for a flat rate of £3.99 per order. I cannot recommend this site highly enough. It’s just so exciting when your goodies arrive!
Pop over to Pawan and Rishi’s and place your order now! 😀
2021 update:
The Zero Waste Club has stopped selling unpackaged food items and is instead concentrating on plastic-free, sustainable products like toothbrushes, razors, utensils, compostable bin liners and dog poo bags, toilet rolls, …. all sorts of things you need. They are completely transparent and show you how the items were made and by whom. Next time you need a new comb, hair band, coffee filter, tea strainer or who knows what – pop over to The Zero Waste Club and see if they’ve got one. If they haven’t, ask them to stock it in future – they’ll be eager to help you 😀
As for your zero waste food cupboard staples, I’m very glad to say that there are more and more zero waste shops springing up all over the place. Chances are there’s one near you. Google it! 😀
Click for PLASTIC AVOIDANCE parts two, three, four, five and six
Clever naughty boy
When reading an article in the Journal of Medical Ethics, Advances in neuroscience imply that harmful experiments in dogs are unethical, by Jarrod Bailey and Shiranee Pereira, I was reminded of our George. The Open Access article explains that
“Functional MRI (fMRI) of fully awake and unrestrained dog ‘volunteers’ has been proven an effective tool to understand the neural circuitry and functioning of the canine brain. Although every dog owner would vouch that dogs are perceptive, cognitive, intuitive and capable of positive emotions/empathy, as indeed substantiated by ethological studies for some time, neurological investigations now corroborate this. These studies show that there exists a striking similarity between dogs and humans in the functioning of the caudate nucleus (associated with pleasure and emotion), and dogs experience positive emotions, empathic-like responses and demonstrate human bonding which, some scientists claim, may be at least comparable with human children. There exists an area analogous to the ‘voice area’ in the canine brain, enabling dogs to comprehend and respond to emotional cues/valence in human voices, and evidence of a region in the temporal cortex of dogs involved in the processing of faces, as also observed in humans and monkeys. We therefore contend that using dogs in invasive and/or harmful research, and toxicity testing, cannot be ethically justifiable.”
As soon as we got to know George we knew he was an especially thoughtful person. It was proved beyond doubt when I had a diabetic hypo (hypoglycemia: low blood sugar, causing brain to go to sleep) one afternoon a couple of years ago. I had been unconscious on the settee for a couple of hours and no one else was home except the two dogs. When I came round my brain woke up before my body did so when I tried to get up off the settee I just collapsed onto the floor. I was aware that both dogs, George and Jo Jo, were watching me closely. I was flat on my face and couldn’t even sit up so I needed my husband’s help. I knew he was somewhere in the garden (he’s the resident gardener of a six acre garden) so I tried to shout his name in the hope that he was nearby but I was unable to form words. I made a strange drunken sound which was beyond slurred but it wasn’t very loud and certainly not comprehensible. My arms were starting to work now so I managed to drag myself on my belly to the door and was just able to reach the waist-level handle to open it. Both boys followed me and when I’d got the door open wide enough I slurred “Git Sm’n” as best I could (I still couldn’t say Simon) before flopping back face-first on the doormat. Sweet Jo Jo stayed with me while George ran outside. Bear in mind he now had the freedom to roam six acres, but he didn’t. He stood at the end of the path to the gardener’s cottage and barked. He barked and barked until Simon came and then he ran back to the cottage ahead of him. Simon lifted me onto the bed, got me some orange juice and I made a fast recovery.
But if you think that was clever, wait ’til you hear what happened last week! I got my coat and wellies on, ready to take the boys for a walk. Jo Jo came running to have his coat and lead put on but George was at the other end of the living room guarding his food dish. He still had a bit of breakfast left and was worried someone might pinch it if it was left unattended. Well, I didn’t want to have to take off my muddy boots to traipse across the living room to fetch him so I kept calling him until he eventually reluctantly came. I attached his lead and the three of us left. When we were about thirty feet from the house I noticed George was limping quite heavily on his front left paw. I said, “Oh, darling, are you limping? What’s wrong?” and he stood still and gave me his paw when I reached for it. I couldn’t find anything wrong with it – he didn’t complain when I touched it and there was no thorn or stone or anything caught in it – so I attempted to resume our walk. George made an immediate U-turn and pulled back towards the house so I gave in and let him lead me back. When we got to the front door I opened it, took off his lead and he ran to his food dish – no sign of a limp whatsoever! He has not limped at all since. He is a liar! He pretended he’d hurt his foot so that he didn’t have to go!
He is a clever clever naughty boy 😀
40 year old vegan
Filmed at Wishing Well Sanctuary, Bradford, Ont. L3Z 3L3
For more great vegan music check out the Music Page 😀
and please let us know of any more good vegan songs 🙂
Listening to the mouse in the wall
I lay in bed listening
To the mouse in the wall.
He doesn’t know I’m here,
I think I’ll call him Paul.
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He always comes at bedtime
To find his winter stash.
He must be very hungry,
Scratch and scrape and bang and bash.
It sounds just like marbles
That he rolls above my head,
But I think it must be nuts,
They sound loud when I’m in bed.
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I’m glad Paul won’t go hungry,
He works hard for every bite,
But I wish he’d work the day shift
So I could sleep at night.
Why must we eat the animals?
I love this song, and we just saw the lead vocalist in Ghost Whisperer!!! (Season 2, episode 2). Greg Cipes is an actor, musician and professional surfer – now there’s a vegan who lives life to the full! 😀
For more great vegan music go to the Music Page 😀
Vegan Style
Check out the Music Page for more great vegan music and let us know of any good stuff we’ve missed 😀
Plastic Avoidance: Part 6
Toiletries
Update 23.11.21:
You can get vegan plastic-free toothpaste, mouthwash, floss, toothbrushes – everything your teeth could ever need from Georganics, including cardboard-packaged tooth soap and refills. Check it out! 😀
Toothbrushes
According to the Australian Environmental Toothbrush website, over 30 million toothbrushes are used and disposed of by Australians annually, amounting to approximately 1000 tonnes of landfill each year. The plastic they’re made of won’t break down in our lifetime. Nor within the lifetime of our children. Imagine that on a global scale. This is what inspired a Brisbane dentist to invent the wonderful Environmental toothbrush.
Thankfully they are easy to get hold of in this country too and you may well find them in your local health food store. If not you can get them from Living Naturally (the soapnut people) and of course they sell them on Amazon 🙂 I recommend ordering a few from Living Naturally when you get your soapnuts 😉
These toothbrushes are lovely and they come wrapped in nothing but a little cardboard box. Being made of bamboo they are safely compostable if you remove the bristles – they haven’t been able to find natural bristles yet so they’re made of a BPA-free polymer, as they explain here, but still this toothbrush is far superior to one made entirely of plastic.
We use our toothbrushes for cleaning the bathroom when our teeth have finished with them.
Toothpaste
Toothpaste is very difficult to find without plastic, so let us know if you find any. We’ve just discovered Remineralizing Tooth Salve, haven’t tried it yet but it looks very promising. It’s made by Ophir Naturals and we came across it at Living Naturally. These little tabs come in a glass jar (unfortunately it does have a plastic lid) and according to the manufacturer, they enable the teeth to re-propogate enamel through the process of remineralization (you can read the scientific details here). They’re vegan, sustainable and fair trade; and their customer testimonials are very impressive. It’s quite expensive but if it does as it claims it’ll be worth every penny for what you’ll save on dental work. I’m really looking forward to trying these – I’ll let you know how we get on 🙂
post script: 10.42pm – we’ve now tried them and, well, the soapy taste is gonna take some getting used to – Miranda ate a cake afterwards to get rid of the taste 😉 – but I’m so encouraged by the testimonials on their website that I have high-hopes for their effect on my teeth and I will continue using them 😀
pps: Just wanted to add that I’m now really enjoying Ophir Remineralizing tooth salve – it’s so soft on my teeth and I got used to the taste very quickly. Unlike conventional toothpaste, this tooth salve is not abrasive. It cleans your teeth like you clean the rest of your body – with soap. And it is genuinely effective at getting your teeth back to their natural pearly colour! It’s worth noting that it’s not actually a good idea to use abrasives on your teeth too often because if you grind down the enamel you’ll be able to see through to the dentine underneath which is yellow 😀
Update:
For those who prefer the more conventional minty white toothpaste, you can buy Denttabs!
According to their website, DENTTABS Toothpaste Tablets are THE sustainable alternative to toothpaste. They are 100% plastic-free, ecological and free from preservatives, artificial stabilizers and any other unnecessary ingredients! They do a lovely job polishing your teeth once a week (if you’re using the Ophir Naturals the rest of the time) or for every day use if you prefer. They’re available with fluoride or without. Find a zero waste shop near you and ask them to stock them, or google them to find out where you can buy them online. They come in a glass jar, with refills in paper bags.
Plastic-free VEGAN floss
Georganics Charcoal Dental Floss is a natural floss made with bamboo charcoal fibre, candelilla wax and peppermint essential oil. This 30 metres floss clew is packed in a zero-waste and plastic-free glass container with a metal dispensing lid to allow you to easily cut the floss. When you’ve used up all the dental floss you buy refills to put in your little glass dispenser. We found this in Infinity Foods health food shop in Brighton so check out your local health food store and if you can’t find it there you can order it online 😀
Deodorant
We use natural volcanic alum stone instead of packaged deodorant and we get on very well with it. After washing and drying your skin, you just wet the stone, rub it under your arms and leave your skin to air dry. Rinse the stone, dry it and put it somewhere safe for next time. One stone will last for months. This really works!
Admittedly I don’t often do activities that make me sweat but when I occasionally do get hot and sweaty and have been a bit worried that I’m starting to smell, I notice a few minutes later that the smell has completely gone. It’s like the alum, which inhibits the growth of the microbes which cause the smell, takes a couple of minutes to neutralise them. So even if you get sweaty and start to notice an unwelcome odour, you’ll find that it disappears after a few minutes 😀 When this has happened to me I check my skin again at the end of the day and find it smells lovely and clean, not a suggestion of anything unpleasant. The only thing to be aware of is that your clothes may start to smell if they are in close contact with your armpits, so it’s best to wear things that are loose under your arms so that they don’t become contaminated if you do sweat. The stone will only keep your skin smelling sweet, not the fabric that sticks to it 😉
You can get the potassium alum stone from Natural Spa Supplies – and you’ll find a lot of other gorgeous stuff in their shop too. “Alum stone can also be used as a fantastic natural aftershave, ideal for sensitive skin, which reduces the appearance of shaving burn, and can help stem bleeding from nicks. Alum styptic have long been used by traditional barbers. In addition, Alum stone can also be used to relieve insect bites.” They send it to you wrapped in paper and an eco-friendly paper padded envelope 😀
For those who feel they need a little more protection, Miranda uses this in the summer when she’s cycling. She gets really sweaty and says this works brilliantly. It’s a lovely cream which goes a long way because you only need a very thin layer on your skin. Packaged in a glass jar with a metal lid, it is provided by the lovely people at Living Naturally. It comes in Rose & Lavender, Citrus & Ylang, or fragrance-free.
The curse
There’s no longer any need to use disposable products for your monthly curse – go to Earthwise Girls to get everything you need in terms of washable, reusable, organic, natural, eco-friendly alternatives 😀
Hand Creams and Moisturisers
This cream is gorgeous. It’s organic, it’s vegan and it’s the best moisturising cream I’ve found. It’s perfect for making dry skin (hands and body) silky smooth (I used it on my tattoo and it was perfect for the job), and it says on the tin you can also use it on your face. It smells heavenly and comes in a tin with a foil seal over the top. No plastic at all. You can get it from Holland & Barrett 😀
Alternatively, you can get a selection of soapnut moisturisers in glass jars from Living Naturally 🙂
Soap
For those who don’t want to wash their hair and bodies with soapnut water, Living Naturally provides lovely soap and shampoo bars. You can buy all sorts of varieties, singly or 5 at a time. If you buy one singly, it comes it a little drawstring linen bag; if you buy 5 for a little discount, they come wrapped together in a single sheet of paper.
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Click for PLASTIC AVOIDANCE parts two, three, four, five and seven 😀
Plastic Avoidance: Part 5
Other things for cleanliness
It’s not difficult to buy recycled toilet roll and kitchen roll, but getting it without plastic wrapping is impossible. Or so I thought until I opened a wonderful Christmas gift from Miranda – toilet rolls: 100% recycled paper wrapped in nothing but 100% recycled paper! (She discovered them thanks to a post by The World According To Plumes) 
“Toilet roll so soft it’ll make your bottom smile” is the slogan of who gives a crap, a wonderful organisation which donates half of its profits to help build toilets for people who don’t have them (that’s about 40% of the world’s population).
They might seem, at first glance, rather more expensive than what you can get at the supermarket but there is actually very little in it. You see the rolls are double length (we have noticed a roll lasts twice as long in our bathroom than the ones from Waitrose) and the people at who gives a crap have already done the maths for you: a box of 48 double length rolls costs £36 which is 18.8p per 100 sheets. Compare that to Waitrose who say their recycled toilet tissue costs 16.9p per 100 sheets.
See? Not much in it. And just think what you get for your money: a clear environmental conscience and a warm glow derived from the knowledge that you’re helping people build much-needed toilets.
Each roll is beautifully wrapped in decorative recycled paper which you can save and re-use as wrapping paper. It really is gorgeous 😀
So what are you waiting for? Get over to who gives a crap and satisfy all your toilet roll and kitchen roll needs. Initiate a regular order (every 8 or 12 weeks) to get £5 off, and shipping is free in the UK if you spend over £20.
********************
Click for PLASTIC AVOIDANCE parts two, three, four, six and seven 😀
Plastic Avoidance: Part 4
Personal and domestic hygiene
Soapnuts are fantastic!
You can find out all about soapnuts here 🙂 We love ’em and have used them for years. We started using them as a laundry detergent, as directed by the vendors at Living Naturally (soapnuts.co.uk) but soon found they could serve all our soap needs. We now use them to wash the dishes, to wash ourselves, and to wash our hair.
Living Naturally Soapnuts (dried fruit shells which contain natural saponin) are a natural, non-polluting, compostable, alternative to conventional laundry detergents and synthetic soaps. No fillers, foaming agents, bleach, phthlates, phosphates or parabens.
For the laundry:
Put about 6 soapnut shells (or 12 half shells) into the little linen bag provided when you order your soapnuts from Living Naturally, and bung it into the machine with your wash. That’s it. Oh, if you’re doing a cold wash, or a quick wash, it’s probably a good idea to put the little bag of shells into a glass of warm water and let them soak for twenty minutes first. Then put the bag and the soaking water into the machine and start the cycle. When the cycle is finished take the bag of shells out and use them again for your next load. You can usually use the same shells two or three times, unless you do a boil wash. I’ve found that if I do a boil wash it uses them up. Anyway, you can tell when they’re used up when they go soft and beige, and when that happens, just bung them in your compost bin. Oh, by the way, if you don’t have a little linen bag, you can put the shells in a sock and tie a knot in the open end.
For the washing up:
Put 4 soapnut shells in a clean jar and cover them with water. Leave to soak for at least an hour, but preferably several hours. Then tip the whole jar (water and shells) into your washing up bowl and add fast flowing hot water. Look what happens:
Do the washing up 🙂 Don’t worry if the bubbles disappear while you’re doing it because you know the soap is in the water. Artificial detergents add foaming agents to make it seem soapier – don’t let them fool you. You only need as much as the soapnuts provide. We’ve even found they’re great with greasy things. You shouldn’t put anything oily or greasy directly into your water for obvious reasons, but if you wipe off as much as you can with kitchen roll, then vigorously rub a single soapnut all over the greasy surface, it will cut through the remaining grease and will be lovely and clean when you rinse it with clean water. You can put that particular soapnut into the compost, but the others in your bowl can be put back into the soaking jar and covered with water to be used again tomorrow. You should be able to use them two or three times before they need composting and replacing.
For washing hands, bodies and hair:
For this you need a plastic bottle but you don’t have to buy one – just walk down any street and before long you’ll find a discarded plastic bottle (we found these on the beach). Bring them home, wash them and stab a few holes in the lid (you can use a sewing needle for this but it’s difficult and potentially painful. The most effective tool we found was a stitch ripper).
Now, you might be thinking that the lid on the bottle in the photo looks rather dirty and unpleasant. It isn’t, it’s just a bit brown from the soapnut liquid. You can see from the bottle on the left that the shells will turn the water brown. It’s not dirty, just soapy.
Okay, once you’ve got your clean bottle with holes in the lid, put a few shells in it. For these bottles (600ml) we put 4 to 6 whole shells in. Fill it with water and leave it to stand for at least 24 hours.
When they have soaked for at least a day they should be ready to use. Put your hand over the lid and turn the bottle upside down to mix the clear water with the brown and there you have it. Tip some of the soapnut liquid into your hand, rub your hands together, rinse and repeat. You’ll probably notice it’s a bit lathery when you rub your hands together the second time. Rinse and dry. Put some more shells to soak in another bottle so that you’ve got some ready when you’ve used up the first one. If you find your skin starts to become dry after washing with soapnut liquid, just put less shells in your bottle. Adjust to the right concentration for you.
We also use our soapnut liquid for showering and washing our hair. I used to wash my hair every day but now I only do it twice a week. Be aware it might take your hair a couple of weeks to get shampoo out of its system (those products make your hair very needy) and you might have to put up with it being a bit greasier than you’re used to at first, but after a couple of weeks of using soapnut water you’ll find your hair looks and feels as soft and clean as it ever did with shampoo and you might find, like me, that you don’t need to wash it so often. Oh, I should mention that your hair won’t lather up when you use soapnut water, but that doesn’t matter. Just massage it in like you would shampoo, leave it in for a couple of minutes while you continue with your shower, rinse and repeat. After the second rinse you’ll notice that your hair squeaks when you rub it, – it’s squeaky clean.
WARNING: WHEN WASHING YOUR HAIR WITH SOAPNUT WATER, TILT YOUR HEAD BACK AND KEEP YOUR EYES CLOSED. IF YOU GET IT IN YOUR EYES IT WILL STING!!!
Don’t worry, we’ve got it in our eyes more than once and the stinging subsides after a couple of hours and vision goes completely back to normal, but still, for your own comfort, it’s best avoided 😀
So there you have it – not only plastic-free, but completely compostable when finished with. It doesn’t get any greener than that.
We’ve bought soapnuts from a couple of places but Living Naturally are the best because they don’t use any plastic in their packaging. Well, if you do get plastic outer packaging in the post from them it’s only because they’ve re-used plastic that they’ve been sent, and they do give you the option to request no plastic when you order 🙂
Check them out, they’re brilliant 😀
Multi-surface cleaner
Vinegar makes a great multi-surface cleaner – for bathrooms, toilets, sinks, windows and paintwork, we’ve used it for years. Plus, if you’ve got any black mould trying to tattoo your walls and ceilings this winter, zap it with vinegar and scrub it off. Vinegar is mild acid which can kill 82% of mold species.
It’s easy to get organic vinegar in a glass bottle with metal lid, and if you’ve got an old plastic spray bottle from a previously-bought multi-surface cleaner, then you can just wash it out, fill it with vinegar and you’re all set. Cider vinegar is just as good, but we switched to white wine vinegar because cider vinegar can leave a yellowish discolouration on white paintwork 🙂
******
Click for PLASTIC AVOIDANCE parts two, three, five, six and seven 😀
Plastic Avoidance: Part 3
Real Food
Once you’ve accepted that you can’t always get organic, it’s not difficult to avoid plastic. If you can’t find enough loose produce at your usual supermarket, find out if there’s a good old fashioned market in your town. We’ve found one which is just a big fruit and veg stall in the town centre, once or twice a week. The guys who run it are really friendly, they sell quality seasonal fruit and vegetables, provide small (compostable) paper bags to fill, and it’s very good value for money – much better even than the supermarkets. Just take your own shopping bags and get them to weigh as much as you need. 
We bought a big 12.5 kg sack of Desiree potatoes from them for just £5!
We also have a health food shop not too far away which sells a small selection of loose organic produce which is great although we can’t get there every week.
Or you might be able to find a local organic produce grower who operates a veg box scheme whereby you order a weekly veg box from them and they deliver it to your door. They will be happy to leave the box in a designated safe place if you’re going to be out and you’ll get a great selection of whatever is in season. The soil Association will help you find a scheme near you 🙂
As for other necessary staples – you can probably get most of them in glass jars or tins. We used to buy lentils, sultanas, pasta, tofu, cereal etc etc in plastic packets because we thought we couldn’t avoid it, but now we’re getting our lentils in tins and we’ll manage without cereal, pasta and dried fruit. We buy organic oats in paper bags and I’ll mix them with fresh fruit for my breakfast instead of sultanas.
*Since writing this I have discovered the Zero Waste Club – a wonderful mail order company in London from whom you can order organic dried fruit, nuts, grains, pasta, sugar, pulses, seeds, cocoa, popcorn, herbs and spices and more! You order it by weight and they mail it to you wrapped in paper bags. See Plastic Avoidance: Part 7.
Things like vinegar, ketchup and oil are easy to get in glass bottles, although sadly I don’t think there’s any way of avoiding the plastic pouring spout they put in the oil bottles. But I always think, even if everything is not as perfect as you’d like it to be, the world would be a better place if everyone at least did this. Same goes for things like cocoa powder and gravy granules – they come in cardboard tubs with metal bottoms and a plastic lid. Sometimes mostly plastic-free is the best you can do.
Lots of other staples that have always been wrapped in paper, still are. You can get bread in paper bags from a bakery, or you can make your own. I haven’t been able to buy salt without plastic wrapping but if you buy things with salt already added – like the stock cubes above (paper-wrapped in a cardboard box) – then you can manage without it.
Something else to be aware of is that tea bags (which are supposed to be compostable) are actually made of 20% plastic. See here for a great post with more details about that and sign this petition aimed at getting Unilever to remove all plastic from their tea bags. Be aware though, it’s not just Unilever that does it, this is common practice. The only way to be sure you’re not getting plastic is to buy loose tea leaves 🙂 And if you check this out you’ll see that there are a lot more uses for tea leaves than just a relaxing drink.
Need a meal in a hurry? Well, you can’t buy hash browns or oven chips anymore, but look what you can buy! There are all sorts of delicious and convenient ready-prepared vegan goodies in cardboard containers in the freezer section of your supermarket.
So whadaya need plastic for?
Not much!
ps I’ve just found out you can even buy plastic-free crisps 😀
Click for PLASTIC AVOIDANCE parts two, four, five, six and seven
PS:
Now you can get frozen ORGANIC veg that’s just packaged in a cardboard box – no plastic bag inside! 😀
Look for it at your local health food shop and if they don’t have it, ask them to stock it 😀
Plastic Avoidance: Part Two
Update 23.11.21:
You can now buy Vego hazelnut chocolate bars (yum yum yum) in compostable wrappers:
And Plamil Cocoa Bites – chocolate chunks (yummy yummy) in paper bags:
Sweet Treats
Doing without plastic doesn’t have to mean doing without.
Let’s get our priorities straight and start with chocolate 😀
The chocolates pictured above tick all the right boxes:
1. They’re vegan
2. They’re fair trade (included on the ethical chocolate list)
3. They’re organic
and
4. They’re not wrapped in plastic 😀
- Since I wrote this, Vivani have replaced the aluminium foil in their chocolate wrappers with a new clear film called natureflex foil. It is a completely sustainable film made on the basis of wood fibre which is fully compostable (in good composting conditions approximately within 40 days).
In fact, as far as we can tell, there is only one downside to these particular chocolates – they don’t last long! 😉
Vivani is new to us and we’re so glad we found them. Their chocolate is absolutely gorgeous – I’ve eaten a lot of chocolate over the years and I think I can confidently say that this is the best ever! My favourite is the White Nougat Crisp, no, the Mandel Orange Rice Choc, no no, it’s the Crispy Corn Flakes Rice Choc …. no, I can’t choose between them, their entire vegan range is completely amazing (be aware that sadly not all their products are vegan, but a lot of them are). Check out their whole range here 🙂
The Ombars are gorgeous too – especially for those who like their chocolate rich and dark and nutritious, coz it’s raw 🙂 Everything is wonderfully vegan and look what they say about their packaging:
“Like you, we believe in recycling. So we wrap our bars in recyclable aluminium foil and paper, and ship them in fully-recyclable cardboard. Did you know our button bags are fully compostable? Just throw them in your compost bin with vegetable peelings – within a few weeks the bag will have completely broken down and returned to nature.” (see their FAQs)
We got all these treats from our local Health Food Shop, and we’ve seen Ombars in Waitrose, but if you can’t find them near you, you can buy Ombars online here and Vivani lists their worldwide stockists here 🙂 And of course you can probably find them on Amazon 😉
Ask whoever mails them to you not to use plastic wrapping 😮
***
If you want more than just chocolate in your plastic-free sweet treat artillery, you can make cakes and biscuits yourself. Vegan recipes use oil instead of margarine, which can be bought organic in glass bottles; flour comes in paper bags, and sugar … well, I have in recent years felt compelled to buy sugar in plastic bags because I wanted organic fair trade. However, in prioritising plastic avoidance, I have discovered that I can buy paper-wrapped sugar that is pretty ethical 🙂 I had mistakenly believed that all white sugar had been whitened with bone-char. However, it seems that’s just cane sugar, not sugar beet. Sugar from sugar beet is vegan!
Silver Spoon proudly state their commitment to eco-friendliness on their packets:
“Sustainability is nothing new to us – we’ve been working on it for 30 years. Our sugar beet is homegrown and our bags are recyclable, made with paper from certified forests. We send nothing to landfill and our excess production energy helps to power British homes.”
They work directly with 1200 British farmers in East Anglia who grow the beets which are then transported just a short distance to the factory in Bury St Edmunds (also in East Anglia 😀 )
Not bad eh?
So far so plastic-free good.
Click for PLASTIC AVOIDANCE parts three, four, five , six and seven
Plastic Avoidance: Part One
We have for many years tried to keep our plastic consumption to a minimum but have found it very difficult when also trying to incorporate other ethics into our shopping habits. For example – it’s pretty easy to buy loose, unpackaged fruit and vegetables if you take your own bags to the market with you, but if you want organic produce, it’s usually wrapped in plastic.
We always recycled it of course but we know that a plastic food container, because of its low melting point, cannot be recycled into another plastic food container. It can really only be downcycled into things like plastic lumber which cannot be recycled again. Glass, paper and tin cans on the other hand, can be recycled ad infinitum. Bottles will become bottles again and again; drinks cans and baked beans tins will become cans and tins again and again; paper can be recycled again and again, and eventually composted.
So, even though we were recycling, we felt very bad about the plastic in our bins. Add to that the worry that maybe the plastic being collected by the council recycling lorry wasn’t even being recycled and … well, let me explain:
I had an email a couple of weeks ago from Avaaz campaigning group saying that studies had shown that most (about 80%) of the plastic in the ocean gyres was coming from rivers in Asia and Africa. Finding it very hard to believe that people in Asia and Africa consume more plastic than people in Europe and America, I was reminded of an email conversation I’d had with someone at Waitrose supermarket. They told me that there was no facility to recycle their plastic bags in this country so they sent them to Asia for recycling.
Well – if Waitrose does it, you can bet a lot of other companies do it too, maybe even councils? And if the UK sends plastic to Asia for recycling, you can bet other countries do too. If the same is happening in Africa that would explain why 80% of the plastic in the oceans arrives there from those continents. The plastic that I diligently put out for recycling might be ending up in the ocean!
It’s all speculation but it makes a lot of sense and the only way I can be sure that I’m not part of the problem is to take control of it myself.
We now realise that the good done for the Earth in growing organic, is compromised if they wrap the organic produce in plastic. Plastic not only litters and pollutes when it’s disposed of, the very production of it is toxic since it is (usually) made from oil.
So we’re not going to pay in to that any more.
We have to prioritise plastic avoidance and hopefully these ethical companies will respond with ethical packaging. In the meantime, we’ll show you our plastic avoidance tactics.
Starting tomorrow 😀
See all our Plastic Avoidance Tactics here
Plastic’s Not Fantastic
You know plastic’s not fantastic
And it might seem rather drastic
But the obvious solution
Is a New Year’s resolution
To give unfantastic plastic the heave-ho.
So that’s what we’ve decided,
We’re determined to be guided
By the needs of Earth and Earthlings
To be free of all plastic things,
So to all new things of plastic we say NO!
Check out our Plastic Avoidance Tactics 😀
Good instincts
For all the Luke Walker chapters click here 🙂
Chapter 16 continues from yesterday:
Mum opened the bedroom door.
“Luke, don’t you want to help decorate the tree?”
“erm, no thanks,” he said without looking at her.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah.”
“Are you sure? You haven’t been yourself since we went to the Maybury Centre.”
Luke didn’t say anything. Mum tried again.
“What happened to upset you? I thought you’d like it there.”
Luke let go of his trains, sat back and looked at her.
“I’m fed up.”
“Why?”
“Coz I’m fed up of grown ups not doin’ what they say.”
Mrs Walker waited for more.
“Maybury is a animal sanctry wot says it teaches people to be kind to animals. A man from Maybury even came to give a talk at school to tell us not to keep animals in small cages, or let them have puppies.”
“Okay,”
“So why do people whose whole job is lookin’ after animals and teachin’ other people to look after ’em prop’ly, still let animals be killed for food? Why don’t they care about them animals? Why do they on’y care about some animals?”
“What makes you think …”
“They sell dead animals in their cafe.”
“Really? That does surprise me.”
“If I can’t trust people whose job is lookin’ after animals then I can’t trust nobody. ‘cept myself!”
“Ooh, that’s hard. No wonder you’re fed up,” said Mum sympathetically.
“And Joe,” he admitted.
“Well, that’s something. But you know Luke, you shouldn’t give up. You should tell them how you feel. You should tell them you are offended by their decision to sell meat in their cafe.”
“I did tell ’em.”
“Good. And what did they say?”
“Nothin’ sensible. Jus’ said it was okay coz it was rangin’ and stainable. Rubbish!”
“Tell them again. Write them a letter.”
“What’s the point? They won’t take no notice o’ me.”
Mrs Walker was sorry her son felt so discouraged. It was a terrible thing to lose your faith in humanity at such a young age.
“The thing is,” she told him, “you never know when someone might listen. The only thing you can be sure of is that if you don’t say anything, they definitely won’t get the message.”
Luke looked at her and didn’t say anything.
“Come with me, come and help decorate the tree,” she said.
When they got to the living room Jared and Dad already had things well underway. The tree was gleaming with glittery gold and silver tinsel and different coloured shiny baubles.
“Mm, pretty good,” said Mum, “but it’s missing something.”
“The star for the top,” said Jared, “I’m just about to do it.”
“Something else,” said Mum and she left the room.
A moment later she was back with a small box from the kitchen. She handed it to Luke.
“No Christmas tree is complete without a few sweet treats,” she said, smiling.
Luke looked in the box. It was full of chocolate Santas. On the wrappers were the words:
Moo Free Organic Chocolate,
DAIRY FREE, GLUTEN FREE, VEGAN
Luke’s jaw dropped and his eyes lit up.
“Are these for me?” he asked.
“No, greedy boy, they’re for all of us! Why don’t you hang them on the tree?”
“But, … how come …?”
“I found your leaflets,” Mum explained.
“What leaflets?”
“The ones stuffed in the back pocket of your black cords; the black cords you shoved under the bed and forgot about I don’t know how long ago.”
“Oh, I wondered where they were.”
“Well I found them and I checked the pockets before putting them in the wash, and there were these leaflets. One with a picture of a cow on the front entitled ‘The Dark Side of Dairy’ and one with a cute little brown and white piglet on the front entitled ‘Think Before You Eat’.”
“And you read them?”
“And I read them.”
“And that’s why …?”
“Yes it is,” she paused for a moment, searching for the right words. “Luke,” she went on, “you have good instincts. When you started this crusade for animals you did it on instinct. You hadn’t been told any of the shocking facts and figures that are in those leaflets, you just knew it wasn’t right. And you did something about it. You spoke out bravely and you acted. You broke the rules when you felt you had to and you endured punishments, but you never wavered; you never stopped fighting.”
Luke nodded. He wasn’t sure why his mum was explaining something that she must have known he already knew, but he waited. It would become clear eventually. She continued.
“So I don’t want you to give up hope now. I want you to know that if you keep trying, you will make a difference. You have already made a difference for Curly and Little Squirt and the rabb.., er, the damsons, but even more than that, you’re a good influence on other people.”
Now, those were words Luke never thought he’d hear from his mother.
“You have been a good influence on us.”
At this point she took his hand, led him into the kitchen and opened the freezer.
“What d’you fancy for Christmas dinner?” she asked.
Luke looked in the freezer. It was full – Mum always did a big shop for the Christmas holidays – and there were quite a few unfamiliar boxes and cartons. He lifted them out one at a time to read the descriptions:
Cauldron Wholefood Burgers
Made with Chickpeas, Cauliflower, Aduki Beans, Broad Beans, Spinach, Onions, Garlic & Potatoes
Cauldron Wholefood Sausages
Made with Grilled Vegetables (Peppers, Courgette, Onion), Beans & Wheat
Cauldron Aduki Bean Melt
“The combination of aduki beans, spinach and mushrooms deliciously filled with mango chutney and carefully coated in breadcrumbs gives a satisfyingly moreish taste.”
Biona Red Lentil Sun Seed Burger
A flavoursome vegan burger made with red lentils, pumpkin and sunflower seeds with a subtle hint of spice. Made using all natural, organic ingredients and free from artificial colours or flavours. Perfect loaded with your favourite burger toppings, added to salads or dipped in sweet chilli sauce as a tasty and nutritious snack.
Can be eaten hot or cold.
Dee’s 6 Leek & Onion Vegan Sausages
The perfect partner to velvety mashed potatoes and homemade gravy, our Leek and Onion Sausages will become an instant family favourite on your weekly menu.
Dragonfly Organic Bubble & Squeak Tatty
Our Tatty is a vegetarian burger that has a real bubble & squeak feel about it, made using locally sourced cabbage and onions
Linda McCartney Vegetarian Country Pies
Vegetarian pie made from a shortcrust pastry base, filled with rehydrated textured soya protein in a rich onion and beef-style gravy, topped with a puff pastry lid.
Linda McCartney Vegetarian Sausage Rolls
Vegetarian Cumberland sausage-style filling wrapped in puff pastry.
And there were three flavours of luxury organic vegan ice cream:
Booja Booja Hazelnut Chocolate Truffle, Booja Booja Raspberry Ripple and Booja Booja Caramel Pecan Praline.
Luke was no longer fed up. He smiled broadly at his mum.
“Are these for all of us?”
“Yes they are. For all of us,” she said happily, “and I got them from Besco’s. They sell them in mainstream supermarkets Luke and that just shows how much progress you’re making. That’s what happens when you speak out and you keep speaking out.”
Mrs Walker was treated to a rare hug which lasted a good half minute, and then Luke ran from the kitchen.
“Where are you going?” she called after him.
“I’ve got some letters to write!” he said.
Happy Christmas everybody!
We hope you have a good one!
❤ ❤ We’ll see you in the New Year! 😀 ❤ ❤
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vegan, vegetarian, vegan children, veggie kids, animals, animal sanctuary, Christmas, children’s story, vegan children’s story, children’s book, vegan children’s book, juvenile fiction, hope
A penchant for wandering off
For all the Luke Walker chapters click here 🙂
Chapter 16 continues from yesterday:
“Luke! There you are!” called Mum, “you do have a penchant for wandering off.”
Luke had no idea what a ponshon was but decided to take her word for it.
“Look what I’ve got!” she said. She sounded excited. “I won it! Well, I bought so many tickets I almost bought it!”
Luke looked at the slightly torn, slightly scratched, slightly coming apart at one end, box she was carrying. He could hardly believe it.
“Is that the same as ..?” he asked her.
“Exactly the same!” she said. She sounded so happy. “Here you are darling, this is yours.”
She was holding a Hornby R.793 King Size Electric train set. It was exactly the same as Grandad Pete’s. Grandad Pete was Mum’s dad and he loved trains. He was a volunteer fireman at his local steam railway and he used to let Luke ride the engine with him when they visited at Easter and August bank holiday. His Hornby train set had three locomotives – a King Henry VIII, a Class 29 (type 2) Bo-Bo, and a Class 3F Jinty Tank. Plus it had coaches, wagons, trackside accessories and buildings. It was brilliant.
Whenever they went to visit Grandad Pete, Luke and Grandad went up to the loft and played with the train set for hours. It was always set up. Always ready to play.
Grandad died the day after Luke’s seventh birthday. He left Luke the train set in his will because he wanted it to go to someone who loved it as much as he had.
Sadly, Mum, because of an unfortunate series of events which were of no interest to Luke, accidentally backed over it with the car. Luke had been devastated. Mum equally so. She couldn’t replace it because they didn’t make them like that any more. And Luke didn’t want just any train set. But now she’d found one. And it really was exactly the same as Grandad’s. Luke was momentarily lost for words. He looked up at Mum’s glowing face.
“Thank you,” he tried to say but the words caught in his throat. He was overwhelmed. “Can we go home and set it up?” he asked.
“Now?” she asked, “are we done here?”
“I’m done here,” he replied.
***
On Christmas Eve, Luke pulled down the peak of his blue engine driver’s cap, blew his whistle and called,
“All aboard!”
The train pulled out of the station. It picked up speed and smoothly rode the tracks through Lego town, across the Scarf-River bridge, under the Bed-Tunnel through Bed-Mountain, and onto the Blue Pillowcase Coast. When it got to Seaside station it stopped to pick up Batman, Spiderman and a couple of soldiers on leave, before continuing on its journey to the end of the line. There was a near accident when a giant brown and white dog stepped onto the track but tragedy was averted when a quick-thinking observer lured the animal out of harm’s way with a Digestive.
Outside, a car door slammed.
“Luke, Jared – Dad’s home. He’s got the tree!” Mum called from downstairs, “come down and help me decorate it.”
Jared thundered down the stairs. Luke was too busy. Batman was late for a job interview – the train must keep going. As it sped towards the old suspension bridge, the driver noticed two of the shoe lace suspenders had snapped, and the others looked like they’d struggle to take the strain. He applied the brake but it was too late, the train was going too fast, it wouldn’t be able to stop in time. Suddenly Spiderman climbed out of the window and ran along the roof of the train to the front. He spun his web and ….
Mum opened the bedroom door.
“Luke, don’t you want to help decorate the tree?”
****************************
Story concludes tomorrow 🙂 or you can read the whole chapter right now 😉
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vegan, vegetarian, vegan children, veggie kids, animals, animal sanctuary, Christmas, children’s story, vegan children’s story, children’s book, vegan children’s book, juvenile fiction
Looking for a squashed cupcake
For all the Luke Walker chapters click here 🙂
Chapter 16 continues from yesterday:
When he got to the cafe he decided to pop in. He knew that 87p wouldn’t ordinarily get him a cupcake but, since the end of the day was approaching, they might have made them half price. Or maybe there was a squashed one that nobody else wanted. It was worth a look. He stepped inside and picked up a menu. That was somewhat disturbing.
This animal sanctuary, this place of love and compassion, of respite and rescue; this place whose slogan, “We care about the well being of every animal”, was written across every sign and above every doorway, was selling dead animals in its cafe.
Luke spoke to the lady behind the till.
“Why are you selling meat?”
“Erm, well, it’s on the menu,” she replied.
“But why is it on the menu?”
“Because it’s a cafe,” she said, not knowing why he was confused.
“It’s a animal sanct’ry cafe,” Luke pointed out, “and meat is dead animals.”
“Ahh,” she replied, finally understanding where he was coming from. “All of our meat is from local, free range farms.”
“What does that mean?”
“It’s sustainable.”
“What does that mean?”
By this time a queue had formed behind Luke and when the manager saw that it wasn’t moving, he came over.
“Is everything okay over here?” he asked the lady on the till.
“Oh, yes, erm, this young man has a question about the menu,” she told him.
The manager steered Luke away from the counter.
“How can I help you?” he asked.
Luke started again.
“Why do you sell meat here?”
“Because people want to eat it,” the manager answered.
“But what about the animals who get killed for your meat?”
“Well, …”
“And your eggs?”
“Ah, the eggs …”
“And cheese and milk and ice cream?” Luke was getting louder and people were starting to look.
The manager spoke quietly in an effort to diffuse the situation.
“I assure you that all the meat, eggs, fish, and dairy sold here comes from local free range farms with sustainable practices.”
Luke was exasperated.
“That’s what she said!”
“Yes.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means that it doesn’t come from factory farms where animals are kept in small cages. The animals are well looked after and are free to walk around.”
“Until they’re killed,” said Luke.
“Er, yes,” said the manager.
“And are the killin’ sheds free range?”
“Er, no,” the manager admitted.
“Are they special killin’ sheds or are they the same killin’ sheds what the factory farm animals go to?”
The manager knew a lot of eyes were on him and for a few moments he didn’t say anything. Luke, however, had plenty more to say.
“They’re the same horrible killin’ sheds aren’t they? And them animals is the same as the animals who you look after here; who you say you love; who you say should be treated kindly.”
At this the manager felt he had a good come-back. He answered with confidence.
“Ah, no, we don’t sell the meat of any of the species who live at the sanctuary. Only beef and pork and fish.”
Luke looked at him with disdain.
“And,” the manager added with a smile, “we do have vegetarian and vegan options on the menu. We’ve got something for everyone.”
Luke was bitterly disappointed in what he had thought was a wonderful place. That this was happening made absolutely no sense to him. He was so sick and tired of adults saying one thing and doing another. The manager, taking his silence as an end to their debate, turned to walk away. Luke touched his arm and said,
“So, you know about veggietareun food, you know there’s no need to eat animals, but you still have ’em killed because some people like eatin’ ’em. And Maybury says it wants to teach people how to be kind to animals but it doesn’t set a good example of not eatin’ ’em. It lets people think it’s okay to eat ’em. It pretends it’s not cruel to eat ’em so people keep on doin’ it. So it’s your fault when people keep on doin’ it coz you could ‘ave told ’em not to and you didn’t.”
He turned and walked out. He didn’t want a cake any more.
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Story continues tomorrow 🙂 or you can read the whole chapter right now, no waiting 😉
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vegan, vegetarian, vegan children, veggie kids, animals, animal sanctuary, Christmas, children’s story, vegan children’s story, children’s book, vegan children’s book, juvenile fiction
The beginning of the end
For all the Luke Walker chapters click here 🙂
And here is the beginning of Chapter 16, the final chapter of the second book, More Luke Walker: animal stick up for-er:
Luke Walker and the Maybury Christmas Fayre
Luke reached for it at the exact same time as Jared. They scowled at each other.
“Let me have it. I saw it first,” Luke insisted.
“We saw it at the same time,” Jared argued, “and I’m the oldest so you have to do what I say.”
“I do not,” said Luke emphatically.
“Boys!” Mr Walker halted their squabbling, “what’s the trouble now?”
“I want to get this for Mum,” explained Luke, “I saw it first.”
“No he didn’t!” argued his brother, “I saw it first and I want to get it for Mum.”
The item in question was a dainty ceramic ornament depicting Little Bo Peep with a lamb – an ideal Christmas gift for anyone’s mother. Dad took it off them and asked the lady how much it was.
“All the small ornaments are 50p,” she told him.
Dad looked at Jared and appealed to his better nature.
“Luke doesn’t have much money Jared, so this is all he can afford. You’ve got your paper round money so you’ll be able to find something else. Let your brother have this one.”
Jared shrugged.
“Okay,” he agreed and wandered off to the home-made jam stall.
Luke pulled a sticky fifty pence piece out of his pocket and handed it to the lady. She wrapped the ornament in tissue paper for him. Dad smiled.
“Your mum’ll love that Luke, nice find.”
“Where is Mum?” Luke asked.
“Where d’you think?” said Dad, grinning.
“Tombola!” they both said at the same time.
This was the first time they’d been to the Maybury Christmas Fayre and it was pretty good. There were lots of stalls where you could buy Christmas presents for reasonable prices – some things were second hand, some were home-made. There were games, like Mum’s favourite, the Tombola, where you had to get a ticket ending in 5 or 0 to win a prize, and some which had a prize every time like the lucky dip or Luke’s favourite where you paid 50p for a jar wrapped in Christmas paper without knowing what was in it. If you were lucky it might be a jar full of sweets or marbles; if you were unlucky it might be full of tea bags. But even that wasn’t a complete loss because it could be a Christmas present for someone. Nan liked tea. There was also a cake stall, a raffle, and a dog show to see who was the prettiest dog and who was the cleverest dog and who was the most obedient dog. Luke knew that Dudley wouldn’t enjoy that because he was the type of dog who had no interest in performing. He was clever, but didn’t feel it necessary to prove that to anyone. He was his own dog and Luke respected that.
The other good thing about the Christmas Fayre was that it was in aid of helping animals. Maybury Centre for Animal Welfare was a sanctuary where they looked after horses and donkeys and sheep and chickens and tortoises and anyone else who needed help and came their way. They also rescued dogs and cats and rabbits and guinea pigs who’d been abandoned or neglected or cruelly treated, and they found happy new homes for them. Luke was very glad that his Christmas shopping money was going to such a good cause.
By three o’clock Luke had done all his shopping and was very happy with what he’d got for everyone: Little Bo-Peep for Mum; gloves for Dad; football book for Jared; jar of tea for Nan; bowling DVD for Grandad; and a jar of marbles for Joe. Plus he’d been lucky enough to score a jar of gobstoppers and a really cool stainless steel whistle for himself.
Luke had 87p left so while Dad went to find Mum, he decided to have a final look round. In doing so he came across a man wearing climbing gear standing behind a table with a pen and a long list of names and numbers.
“Sponsor me to abseil down the clock tower?” he solicited.
“What’s that?” asked Luke.
“Abseil means to descend down the side of a building on a rope.”
Luke looked confused.
The man tried again to explain.
“So, I’ll stand on the top of the tower wearing this harness attached to a rope which will be doubled through a loop. And I’ll jump off the top and bounce my feet on the side of the tower, going down bit by bit, sliding the rope through my hands until I get the bottom.”
“Yeah, I get what you mean, but why would you do that?”
“To raise money for Maybury.”
“But why don’t you get sponsored to do somethin’ useful, instead of abstainin’.”
“Abseiling,” he corrected. “Raising money is useful for Maybury. They can do a lot of good things with it.”
“Yes, but if the thing you got sponsored for doin’ was useful as well, like you could get sponsored for pickin’ up litter, then you would get money and at the same time you would have done somethin’ really useful.”
The man looked over Luke’s head at the elderly couple approaching his table.
“Sponsor me to abseil down the clock tower?” he asked them.
Luke moved on.
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Story continues tomorrow 🙂 or you can read the whole chapter right now, no waiting 😉
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vegan, vegetarian, vegan children, veggie kids, animals, animal sanctuary, Christmas, children’s story, vegan children’s story, children’s book, vegan children’s book, juvenile fiction
The Christmas Market
For all the Luke Walker chapters click here 🙂
Chapter 15, the denouement :
At ten forty-five on Tuesday morning, Luke and Joe climbed aboard the school minibus and grabbed two of the back seats. Tania and Isabel grabbed the other two.
“This should be good,” said Isabel.
“Yeah, I need to get something for my mum and something for my grandad,” Tania replied.
“Is that all?” Isabel was impressed, “I’ve still got to do all mine.”
The engine started.
“Okay everybody,” Thomas shouted from the front, “seatbelts on. Off we go!”
Luke and Joe pulled their lunch boxes out of their bags. Isabel laughed.
“We’ll be there in ten minutes,” she said, “you shouldn’t spoil your appetites – I bet there’ll be some delicious Christmas food at the market.”
“Nah, we’d rather eat now,” said Luke as he bit into his blueberry muffin.
Tania looked over at their lunches and it reminded her of something she’d been meaning to tell them.
“Thomas is a veggie.”
“Is he?” said Joe.
“I think so. I saw Mrs Tebbut offer him one of her homemade mince pies yesterday and he asked if they had vegetable suet in them. She said she wasn’t sure so he said no thank you.”
“He’s cool,” said Luke approvingly.
“Yeah,” Joe agreed, “it’s good he works in our class and dint stay with Ms Robinson.”
***
The Christmas market was really crowded. It stretched the whole length of Fish Street which had been closed to traffic. Mr Beardsley told everyone to make sure they were always in sight of himself or Thomas. They were not to go off anywhere by themselves.
There was a Christmas tree at the car park end of the street, huge and covered in twinkling white lights. Next to it the Salvation Army band played Christmas carols and the whole atmosphere was happy and festive. The first stall sold reindeer food at a pound a bag, for anyone who wanted to leave a treat for Santa’s friends on Christmas Eve.
At the second stall, if you weren’t short of cash, you could buy a hand-calved Buddha.
The third stall looked more fun – they were selling robots playing snooker. Luke thought he wanted one but forgot about it as soon as he saw the bird whistles on the next stall. He’d always wanted to be able to communicate with birds.
The fifth stall sold snake-length marshmallows; the sixth sold Turkish Delight; the seventh had models of owls and elephants in jars; the eighth sold rock crystal lamps; the ninth had reindeer-shaped planters. Before long the market lost its charm for two boys with no money.
“Let’s go over there,” Luke suggested, pointing to an empty bandstand on the lawn behind the stalls.
“Mr Beardsley said we’re s’posed to stay in sight,” said Joe.
“We will be,” Luke assured him, “we’ll be able to see everybody from up there.”
The boys squeezed between the chocolate scissors stall and the cannabis incense stall and climbed onto the raised platform of the bandstand. They sat comfortably with their feet dangling and tucked into their sandwiches while they watched the merry throng.
“This is good,” said Luke smiling, “I don’t mind shoppin’ if I don’t have to actually shop.”
By the time they’d finished their lunches their classmates were out of sight and Joe felt they should try to catch up. Luke disagreed.
“No, we might get lost. We should wait coz they’ll have to come back this way. Look, I can see the minibus from here.”
“That’s not our minibus. Ours doesn’t have a green stripe down the side.”
“Doesn’t it?” said Luke, a little thrown. “Oh, well, they’ll still have to come back this way. I think we should wait.”
They only had to wait for another quarter of an hour before they saw a couple of familiar faces. Tania and Isabel were hurrying across the lawn towards them.
“There you are!” said Isabel, gasping for breath.
“Luke! – You’ve got to come! They’re selling reindeer skins!” said Tania.
“And reindeer burgers!”
Luke and Joe, crestfallen, climbed down from the bandstand and followed the girls to the far end of Fish Street, where all the food stalls were. Luke was sad but not surprised to see what looked like hundreds of people eager to indulge in deep fried flesh foods, jostling to hold their positions in the queues.
“Say something!” Tania implored.
“What d’you want me to say?” Luke asked.
“Tell them they’re despicable to kill reindeer! Tell them it’s sick to sell reindeer burgers at Christmas!”
In addition to the stalls selling reindeer, there was one selling inferno cheddar (cheese laced with chillies); another was selling turkey sausages spiced with chilli and paprika; another was using a cute-looking model pig to sell pork scratchings.
“You can tell ’em that if you want,” Luke said, loud enough to be heard by anyone who wanted to listen, “an’ I agree with you, but it won’t do any good. Not while there’s so many stupid people who want to buy this stuff.”
“Who’s stupid?” said a large man in the spicy sausage queue.
“You lot,” said Luke unapologetically, “all you lot in these queues.”
“Is that right?” he said slowly, turning to face Luke with eyes narrowed.
Tania and Isabel blushed and took a step back. Joe looked at his feet. Luke didn’t move.
“Yeah,” said Luke, “Don’t you think it’s stupid to pay for somethin’ what’s killin’ the planet?”
A few more people turned to listen. Luke went on.
“Well, I call it stupid coz animal farmin’ kills the sea and the rainforests and makes more greenhouse gases than cars an’ planes an’ all transport put together!”
“Says who?” asked the man sceptically.
“Said the United Nations. Over ten years ago.” He paused briefly to let them absorb it before concluding. “Yeah, it’s pretty stupid to spend your money on killin’ the planet you live on. You’re killin’ yourselves. An’ your children. An’ your children’s children.”
Luke was surprised and disappointed to get almost no reaction to his shocking revelation, but he didn’t give up. He had more.
“An’ I should say it’s pretty stupid to let people starve coz you paid for their food to be given to seventy billion farm animals, just so you can eat meat an’ cheese. Yeah, anyone who pays for that is pretty stupid alright. And selfish.”
The large man laughed stupidly.
“But it tastes so good!” he scoffed and turned back to wait for his sausage.
In the silence before the conversational hubbub rose again, three or four people walked away from the food stalls. Luke turned back to Tania and Isabel.
“See, there’s no point tellin’ people they’re horrible for sellin’ horrible things. They don’t care. They’ll sell anythin’ if people’ll pay ’em for it. It’s the people what pay for it who make it happen. If they didn’t buy it, no one would sell it.”
The girls nodded. Isabel looked guiltily at the half-eaten bag of pork scratchings in her hand and quickly tossed it in the bin. All four children walked back to the bandstand to look out for the rest of their class returning to the minibus. When they were back in their seats on the bus, Tania made a declaration.
“I’m going to make an early new year’s resolution,” she paused for effect before announcing, “I’m going vegan!”
“Me too,” said Isabel, smiling.
Luke looked wonderingly at Joe. Joe nodded.
“D’you want to join our secret society?” they asked.
- “Good Spirit, your nature intercedes for me, and pities me. Assure me that I yet may change these shadows you have shown me, by an altered life! I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach. Oh, tell me I may sponge away the writing on this stone!”
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Christmas is just around the corner, for Luke as well. Join us tomorrow for the beginning of a Christmassy final chapter of the second Luke Walker book 😀
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vegan, vegetarian, Christmas, veggie kids, vegan children, vegan children’s stories, vegan children’s book, fiction, juvenile fiction, animals, environment, humour, adventure, activism
Everything was tidy except Mr Beardsley’s desk
For all the Luke Walker chapters click here 🙂
Chapter 15 continues from yesterday:
The chairs were turned upside down on the desks; the bins were empty and the paint pots were washed up and stacked on the draining board. Everything except Mr Beardsley’s desk was swept and dusted and tidy.
Mr Beardsley’s desk was always a mess – he said it was the only way he knew where to find anything. Luke decided to see if there was anything worth finding. There were post-it notes, pencils, pens, two coffee mugs, a pencil sharpener, a stopwatch, a calculator – a calculator?!
“One rule for them, another rule for us!” thought Luke.
There were two piles of exercise books – blue maths ones and yellow history ones. Luke sought out his own for a sneak preview of his grades.
“He hasn’t even marked ’em yet!” he grumbled, exasperated, “what’s the point of makin’ us hand ’em in on Friday if you’re not gonna mark ’em ’til next week?!”
There was nothing else of interest on top of the desk so Luke tried the drawer. It was unlocked.
“Aha!” He lifted out a large hardback diary, “let’s see what you’re gonna make us do next week.”
He dropped the dog-eared book onto the desk and opened it to the first week of December.
Monday was left blank so Luke, cleverly imitating Mr Beardsley’s handwriting, wrote:
On the Tuesday page was a barely legible scribble which seemed promising:
The Wednesday page foretold a spelling test and a fire drill.
The Thursday page confirmed what Luke already knew: there would be a full dress rehearsal of the Christmas concert in front of the rest of the school and the senior citizens from the village. He smiled, knowing that meant no lessons.
The Friday page contained a still more glorious statement:
-
“Yo ho there! Ebenezer!”
Luke flinched at Kenny’s very loud portrayal of Fezziwig and knocked over one of the mugs which was still a quarter full of cold coffee. Thankfully, his reflexes were second to none and in slamming the diary shut he ensured the rest of the desk stayed more or less dry. He carefully placed the book back where he’d found it and rejoined his fellow Thespians.
***
“Will you check on Curly ‘n’ Squirt for me after school?” Luke asked Joe on Monday afternoon as the credits rolled at the end of Roald Dahl’s Matilda.
“Yeah, why? Another rehearsal?”
“Yeah. I’ll be glad when it’s over an’ done with.”
“Not long now.”
“Thank goodness!” said Luke with relief, “I think it was a mean trick them tellin’ us we can be in the play without tellin’ us we wunt be doin’ the practices in lesson time.”
“It was,” Joe agreed, having had to give up a lot of his own free time to paint the scenery.
Mr Beardsley switched on the lights and clapped his hands to get everyone’s attention.
“Wakey wakey everybody, I hope you enjoyed that as much as I did. It’s nearly half past three, so let me just remind you to bring your Christmas shopping money tomorrow. Full school uniform is compulsory – we don’t want to lose anybody.”
The bell rang loud and long, precipitating a riot of excited voices and chair legs scraping the floor.
“Exit quietly please,” he requested, “see you tomorrow.”
“I haven’t got any money,” said Joe to Luke confidentially.
“Me neither,” Luke replied, “but that doesn’t matter. It’ll still be good to get out of school for a few hours.”
Luke and Joe went their separate ways.
“See ya.”
“See ya.”
***
Luke made himself comfortable in the middle of the row of chairs at the back of the hall. He put his bag on the chair to his left, his coat on the chair to his right and his feet on the chair in front of him. He took out his reading book and his notebook, popped his gobstopper back in his mouth and, keeping one ear open for the approach of his cue, read.
- “Your reclamation, then. Take heed! Rise and walk with me!”
After reading page 71 he wrote:
After reading page 78 he wrote:
After re-reading page 69 he wrote:
-
“Remove me! I cannot bear it!”
- “I told you these were the shadows of the things that have been. That they are what they are do not blame me!”
After reading page 80 he wrote:
-
“… but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased.”
Luke swiftly returned his books and his gobstopper to his bag and hurried to stage left. It was time for the Third Spirit.
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See you Monday for the next instalment 😉
But if you don’t want to wait, you can read the whole of chapter 15 now 😀
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vegan, vegetarian, vegan children, veggie kids, vegan children’s story, vegan books for children, comedy, funny, humour, humor, environment, marine environment, Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol
Luke, it’s your line!
For all the Luke Walker chapters click here 🙂
Are you sitting comfortably?
Then we will begin chapter 15: Luke Walker and the school play
-
“I am here today …”
“Tonight.”
-
“I am here tonight to warn you, that you ‘ave yet a chance and hope of escapin’ my fate. A chance and hope of my procturin’, Ebenezer.”
“of my procuring.”
-
“Of my procurin’ Ebenezer.”
-
“You were always a good friend to me, thank’ee!”
-
“You will be haunted by three spirits.”
-
“Is that the chance and hope you mentioned, Jacob?”
-
“It is.”
-
“I—I think I’d rather not.”
-
“Without the visits, you cannot hope to shun the path I tread. Expect the first tomorrow, when the bell tolls One.”
-
“Couldn’t I take ’em all at once, and have it over, Jacob?”
“Don’t move that, it’s mine!”
“Luke! It’s your line.”
-
“Expect the second on the next night… hey! Leave it I said!”
“Luke!”
“That’s my bag!”
“She’s only putting it in the cloakroom, it’s in the way out here, someone might trip over it.”
“Oh.”
“Can we please finish this scene! Go from ‘Couldn’t I take ’em all at once’.”
Butler pulled a face at Luke who reciprocated.
-
“Couldn’t I take ’em all at once and have it over Jacob?”
-
“Expect the second on the next night at the same hour. The third upon the next night when the last stroke of Twelve has ceased to vibrate. Look to see me no more; and look that, for your own sake, you remember what has passed between us!”
Ms Robinson breathed a sigh of relief.
“Okay, that’ll do. Well done for getting the lines memorised both of you, but try to put a bit more feeling into it. Simon, remember you’re really scared, and Luke, don’t forget to rattle your chains and try to make your voice sound more ominous.”
Simon laughed.
“I don’t think Luke knows what ominous means,” he said with a smirk.
“Yes I do!” Luke replied indignantly.
Ms Robinson elaborated.
“Try to sound menacing, sinister. Make your voice deeper if you can.”
“I knew what you meant!” Luke lied, flashing Butler his most withering scowl.
“Okay Luke, take a break,” said Ms Robinson, “Simon, get in position for scene 3. First Spirit – where are you?”
Luke went to the cloakroom to find his bag. He didn’t trust anyone else with it – there was important stuff inside. He was relieved to find it safe on his peg, looking as though it hadn’t been tampered with. He confirmed this with the retrieval and measurement of his gobstopper – it was the same size it had been an hour and a half earlier when he’d put it in the zip pocket. He put the large sweet back into his mouth, took an orange plastic chair from the stack in the corner, and sat down to read his book. It wasn’t really his book, he’d borrowed it from the library, but it was so good that he thought he’d get his own copy if he got any book tokens for Christmas. The funny thing was, if Mr Beardsley hadn’t given them the book report assignment, he might never have picked it up. Its cover, a boring photograph of a corn field with a mountain behind it, would not normally have caught his attention, but its title – The Sustainability Secret – was intriguing. The word ‘secret’ had made him think of spies, secret agents, action and adventure, so he’d put the book on his ‘maybe’ pile and checked it out. He checked out seven books that day and after first trying and giving up on the other six, he decided, unequivocally, that The Sustainability Secret would be the subject of his book report. It turned out not to be about spies or secret agents but it was engrossing. He read it, and re-read it, every chance he got. Even when he was supposed to be watching rehearsals.
Participation in the school play had annoyingly failed to get him out of lessons because rehearsals were scheduled for after school and at weekends. On top of that Luke had had to spend an enormous amount of his free time learning his lines. Well, not an enormous amount, but some. As it turned out Luke was very good at memorising lines. Not only his own but those of everyone else in the scene. This was a very valuable skill to have and he determined to put it to more productive use in future. For example, there were lots of important facts in The Sustainability Secret that he wanted to commit to memory. A lot of it was scientific stuff which was harder to memorise but he wrote things down, over and over, until they stuck.
After reading page ten he wrote in his secret society notebook:
After reading page eleven he wrote:
-
“Good Heaven! I was bred in this place. I was a boy here!”
Butler’s voice could really carry.
Finding it difficult to concentrate, Luke closed his book and put it away.
“If they’ve on’y jus’ got to ‘I was a boy here’ it’s gonna be ages ’til I’m on again.”
He considered popping out to see Curly and Squirt but since time passed quicker when not at school he knew it was too risky. If he missed his cue again everyone would moan at him. He decided instead to hang out in the classroom. Pupils weren’t really allowed in the classrooms without adult supervision, not since the “mindless vandalism” of class 6, but Luke felt that since he wasn’t a mindless vandal, the rule didn’t apply to him.
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Story continues tomorrow 😀
Enjoy your weekend 😀
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