Last night I saw a little sprite
Who told me what to do:
“Eat only plant food,
It’s much better for you.”
****
She fluttered and she floated
And she smiled down on me,
“Plant food is meant for you,
Just try it and you’ll see.”
****
I woke up and I sat up
And I looked from floor to beam.
I saw no sprite, there was no sprite,
She must have been a dream.
****
But still I could not shake her
Which was because, I knew,
She was real inside my head
And what she said was true.
Make your own compost 🙂
Save all your raw fruit and vegetable peelings, apple cores, tea bags, soapnut shells, etc etc
and take them outside to your compost bin (any container will do but make sure it’s got drainage holes in the bottom)
Toss your ‘green waste’ in there, (ie raw fruit & veg waste)
but also add some ‘brown waste’ (such as brown paper, black and white printed paper like newspapers or old paperback pages (no colour print), dead leaves) every so often otherwise you’ll end up with a wet soggy, stinky mess. You want about 2 parts ‘green’ to 1 part ‘brown’ according to the science 🙂
Then eventually it will rot down to something moist and earthy, just teaming with baby earthworms (I don’t know where they came from) and ready to host your new plants. Don’t ask me how long this took, I didn’t time it, but it was probably about a year. We just eventually thought it looked composty and tipped it out of the bin and there you have it. Click here if you want advice from experts 😀
Now you can pot it …
… sow some seeds in it, …
… and in a few days (this is less than 2 weeks later) your old vegetables will be providing you with new vegetables 🙂
I’d better thin these 😉
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vegan, vegetarian, recycling, home-grown, plant-food, plant-based, health, gardening, growing
My friend drew a still life
Which she wanted me to see.
She told me I’d like it
Because it’s good for me.
There’s vitamin A, vitamin K,
And of course vitamin C.
Potassium, phosphorus, magnesium,
Lycopene and manganese!
🙂
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So she told him, “going vegan would solve your bovine TB problem. Leave the badgers alone and grow carrots!”
“Ooh, and what did he say?”
“Nothing yet, he can’t think of an answer.”
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vegan, vegan growing, vegan farming, cows, animals, badgers, food, health, vegan cartoon, vegan comic, vegetarian, plant food
Remember, way back in February 2014, we planted some apple seeds?
and they grew (well some of them died, but some of them grew)
And we checked in on them in 2015 and again in 2016 and they just kept on growing!
So we planted them outside in the ground. We thought the chickens might like them for shade when they’re bigger, but while they’re still young we put some wood around them to keep the girls from scratching the earth off their roots. There’s four in here (I wonder if you’ll be able to spot them all), and two of them are taller than me! The 8 to 10 years wikihow said we’d have to wait for fruit seemed like a long time, but it’s been 3 years already and time’s just flying 😀
NB this is not my garden 🙂 but luckily we were able to plant them here. So, if you don’t have anywhere of your own to plant them, look for a suitable spot on public property where they won’t get hacked down by farm machinery and then everyone can enjoy them. Check out the Scottish Forest Gardener to see how he successfully plants trees on council property 🙂
Plant trees! You know it makes sense 😉
Update 2024:
These trees are now ten years old so they might blossom and fruit this year but sadly we had to move away from that garden three years ago so we’ll never know for sure. But check out the last pictures we’ve got of these trees here [in 2020] and you can see how big they’d grown as I photographed them with a six foot man standing next to them 😀
For the whole story click here 🙂
The End. For now 😉
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Right, that’s that taken care of, now we’re going to watch the new Wonder Woman film, maybe we’ll see Renee there 😉
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vegan children’s story, vegan comic, vegan comic for children, veggie kids, vegan children, vegetarian, animals, badgers, vegan, illustration, comic, children’s comic, children’s story, bovine TB, badger cull, dairy farming, vegan superhero,
For the story so far click here 🙂
Story concludes tomorrow 🙂
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vegan children’s story, vegan comic, vegan comic for children, veggie kids, vegan children, vegetarian, animals, badgers, vegan, illustration, comic, children’s comic, children’s story, bovine TB, badger cull, dairy farming, vegan superhero,
For the story so far click here 🙂
continues tomorrow 🙂
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vegan children’s story, vegan comic, vegan comic for children, veggie kids, vegan children, vegetarian, animals, badgers, vegan, illustration, comic, children’s comic, children’s story, bovine TB, badger cull, dairy farming, vegan superhero,
For the story so far click here 🙂
…. continues tomorrow 🙂
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vegan children’s story, vegan comic, vegan comic for children, veggie kids, vegan children, vegetarian, animals, badgers, vegan, illustration, comic, children’s comic, children’s story, bovine TB, badger cull, dairy farming, vegan superhero, The Pretenders – Chain Gang
For the story so far click here 🙂
… story continues on Monday 🙂
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vegan children’s story, vegan comic, vegan comic for children, veggie kids, vegan children, vegetarian, animals, badgers, vegan, illustration, comic, children’s comic, children’s story, bovine TB, badger cull, dairy farming, vegan superhero,
For the story so far click here 🙂
…. continues tomorrow 🙂
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vegan children’s story, vegan comic, vegan comic for children, veggie kids, vegan children, vegetarian, animals, badgers, vegan, illustration, comic, children’s comic, children’s story, bovine TB, badger cull, dairy farming, vegan superhero,
For the story so far click here 🙂
…. continues tomorrow 🙂
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vegan children’s story, vegan comic, vegan comic for children, veggie kids, vegan children, vegetarian, animals, badgers, vegan, illustration, comic, children’s comic, children’s story, bovine TB, badger cull, dairy farming, vegan superhero,
For the story so far click here 🙂
42 minutes later …
…. continues tomorrow 🙂
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vegan children’s story, vegan comic, vegan comic for children, veggie kids, vegan children, vegetarian, animals, badgers, vegan, illustration, comic, children’s comic, children’s story, bovine TB, badger cull, dairy farming, vegan superhero,
For the story so far click here 🙂
…. continues tomorrow 🙂
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vegan children’s story, vegan comic, vegan comic for children, veggie kids, vegan children, vegetarian, animals, badgers, vegan, illustration, comic, children’s comic, children’s story, bovine TB, badger cull, dairy farming, vegan superhero,
For the story so far click here 🙂
continues Monday 🙂
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vegan children’s story, vegan comic, vegan comic for children, veggie kids, vegan children, vegetarian, animals, badgers, vegan, illustration, comic, children’s comic, children’s story, bovine TB, badger cull, dairy farming, vegan superhero,
For the story so far click here 🙂
to be continued …
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vegan children’s story, vegan comic, vegan comic for children, veggie kids, vegan children, vegetarian, animals, badgers, vegan, illustration, comic, children’s comic, children’s story, bovine TB, badger cull, dairy farming, vegan superhero, vegan cafe, vegan food
For the story so far click here 🙂
continues tomorrow 🙂
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vegan children’s story, vegan comic, vegan comic for children, veggie kids, vegan children, vegetarian, animals, badgers, vegan, illustration, comic, children’s comic, children’s story, bovine TB, badger cull, dairy farming, vegan superhero, vegan cafe, vegan food
For the story so far click here 🙂
continues tomorrow 🙂
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While you’re waiting, check out Vegan Hippo (it’s a real place don’t ya know) 😀
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vegan children’s story, vegan comic, vegan comic for children, veggie kids, vegan children, vegetarian, animals, badgers, vegan, illustration, comic, children’s comic, children’s story, London, Westminster, Natural England, bovine TB, badger cull, farming, vegan superhero, vegan cafe, vegan food
For the story so far click here 🙂
continues tomorrow 🙂
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vegan children’s story, vegan comic, vegan comic for children, veggie kids, vegan children, vegetarian, animals, badgers, vegan, illustration, comic, children’s comic, children’s story, London, Westminster, Natural England, bovine TB, badger cull, farming, vegan superhero
For the first five episodes click here 🙂
Episode six continues:
continues Monday 🙂
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vegan children’s story, vegan comic, vegan comic for children, veggie kids, vegan children, vegetarian, animals, badgers, vegan, illustration, comic, children’s comic, children’s story, London, Westminster, Natural England, bovine TB, badger cull, farming,
For the first five episodes click here 🙂
Episode six continues:
continues tomorrow 🙂
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vegan children’s story, vegan comic, vegan comic for children, veggie kids, vegan children, vegetarian, animals, badgers, vegan, illustration, comic, children’s comic, children’s story, London, Westminster, Natural England
For the first five episodes click here 🙂
Episode six continues:
continues tomorrow 🙂
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vegan children’s story, vegan comic, vegan comic for children, veggie kids, vegan children, vegetarian, animals, badgers, vegan, illustration, comic, children’s comic, children’s story, London, Westminster, Natural England
For the first five episodes click here 🙂
Episode six continues:
continues tomorrow 🙂
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vegan children’s story, vegan comic, vegan comic for children, veggie kids, vegan children, vegetarian, animals, badgers, vegan, illustration, comic, children’s comic, children’s story, London, Westminster, Natural England
For the first five episodes click here 🙂
click to enlarge
continues tomorrow 🙂
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vegan children’s story, vegan comic, vegan comic for children, veggie kids, vegan children, vegetarian, animals, badgers, vegan, illustration, comic, children’s comic, children’s story
For the first seven chapters click here 🙂
Chapter 8 continues:
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“Explain. How is this the only waste you personally made this week?”
Luke explained.
“I told my mum not to buy the vegetables an’ fruit in plastic bags an’ nets an’ trays ’cause we don’t need ’em, we just throw ’em away as soon as we get home. So I jus’ put it all loose in the trolley; I laid it on top of a soft bag so it dint get bruises, and then I put it in our own bags when we paid for it.”
The fact that the bags to which he referred were actually pillowcases was an irrelevant detail unnecessary to divulge.
“Ok, good, loose fruit and veg – no need for packaging. What else?”
“I told Mum to get the loose lentils and raisins that you can weigh, instead of the ones in packets, and we put it in our bags we took with us what we can re-use.”
He paused, waiting for her to acknowledge receipt of this information.
“Go on,” she urged.
“I told Mum to get me the porridge oats what comes in jus’ a paper bag instead of cereal what’s in boxes and plastic bags. An’ we got flour an’ sugar in paper bags an’ bread in paper bags instead of plastic; an’ peanut butter in a glass jar with a metal lid; an’ vinegar an’ ketchup an’ apple juice an’ sunflower oil in glass bottles with metal lids – but we ‘aven’t finished all of ’em so I on’y brought the juice bottle today – an’ two tins of beans. That’s everythin’ I ate an’ I made my Mum choose glass an’ tins because they can be recycled over an’ over forever an’ ever, back into bottles an’ food tins, but plastic is bad an’ can on’y be cycled to things like plastic bricks an’ stuff that can’t be recycled in the end.”
Mrs Tebbut was lost for words. He had read the printouts. He had done the work. Impressively. She looked at the three paper bags, one glass bottle and two baked beans tins and was amazed at how simple it could actually be.
“Well done Luke,” she said, “very well done indeed.”
At the end of the day when everyone else was going to get their coats, Mrs Tebbut called Luke to her desk.
“Good work today Luke,” she said, “is this something you’ve been concerned about for a while? I mean before we started our project?”
Luke was unused to his teacher’s friendly voice being directed at him but he saw no harm in indulging her.
“Yeah. Since I saw Spiker caught in the plastic rings an’ all the litter what hurts the animals. An’ since so many people are jus’ stupid to keep droppin’ the litter I thought the best thing to do is to make shops stop sellin’ it, then there’d be nothin’ to drop, ‘cept maybe paper bags but that won’t hurt no one and it won’t last long. So I’m teachin’ my Mum not to buy things with plastic.”
“Well, Luke, that’s wonderful, I’m very impre….”
“An’ I’m makin’ new things out of old things as well,” being impressive was new to Luke – he couldn’t stop now, “so I’m recyclin’ ’em myself and I’m reducin’ the buyin’ of new things ’cause of fixin’ things and makin’ new ones out of old ones.”
Mrs Tebbut smiled.
“Really? What are you making?”
“At the moment,” he said proudly, “I’m knittin’ a blanket for my pet lamb to keep ‘im warm on chilly nights.”
“Wonderful! And are you using recycled yarn from an unravelled jumper?”
“Kind of, but no, not yarn. Strips of material.”
She looked confused so he tried to explain.
“I got the idea from me Nan’s magazine ’bout makin’ rag rugs by cuttin’ old material into strips an’ knottin’ ’em together to make long long strings of it an’ then knittin’ with it. It’ll make a thick, soft blanket for Squirt to sleep on.”
“Fantastic! What material are you using? What are you cutting up?”
Luke was glad she asked because he’d put a lot of thought into that decision. He answered with the quiet confidence of a wise person enlightening a complete beginner.
“I decided the warmest stuff would be what blankets are made of and I found two big blankets in the airing cupboard what nobody was usin’ so I used ’em. I’m nearly finished now.”
Mrs Tebbut smiled again.
“You’ve got a good heart Luke,” she said, “off you go. Have a nice weekend, I’ll see you Monday.”
Luke, almost overwhelmed by the unfamiliar sensation of being approved of, went to get his coat.
Luke Walker: animal stick up for-er (£4) – the first eight chapters; and Luke Walker: animal stick up for-er: my privut notebook (£2.75) – every member of Luke’s secret sersiety of animal stick up for-ers should have one; are available from Amazon 🙂
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vegan, vegetarian, environment, recycling, children’s story, children’s book, vegan children’s story, vegan children’s book, humour, animals, children, sheep, lambs
For the first seven chapters click here 🙂
Chapter 8 continues:
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At Besco’s Luke watched her closely with his project in mind. To Mum it seemed like every time she reached for something he said,
“No! Not that. Get this one!”
She found it very trying but at the same time was impressed with her son’s commitment to the project and didn’t want to curb his enthusiasm for anything school-related. She bit her tongue and cooperated with most his suggestions.
At the checkout, when the lady asked if she’d like any bags, Luke spoke out before she could answer in the affirmative.
“No thanks. It’s very bad to get plastic bags. They make pollution. You should ban ’em.” Then he put his pile of pillowcases onto the end of the checkout and started filling one with loose vegetables. Mum flashed the checkout lady an embarrassed smile and said,
“School project.”
When the day came for the presentations to the class, Luke, because his surname began with W, was one of the last to present. His peers were getting restless. They had already sat through twenty seven similar presentations in which they were shown similar empty packets, cartons and bottles being thrown out that week by each family. Those to be recycled included cereal boxes with their internal plastic bags, plastic milk bottles, plastic ketchup bottles, plastic shampoo bottles, Tetra Paks, glass wine bottles, beer bottles, plastic pop bottles, drink cans, food tins and the like. Those to go to landfill included toothpaste tubes, toothbrushes, brillo pads, polystyrene food trays, plastic straws and crisp packets. Mrs Tebbut herself was having trouble staying awake at this stage and decided that next year she would get the class to work on a single collective presentation for a school assembly.
Luke waited for Susan Vickers to take her family’s waste off the presentation table and then he walked to the front and stood awkwardly facing his class.
“Ok Luke, how have you reduced waste in your household this week?” asked Mrs Tebbut.
Luke reached into his bag and put onto the table three paper bags, one glass 1 litre bottle and two empty baked beans tins. He looked at the class and spoke loudly to conceal his nervousness.
“This is my waste for this week. The yellow and blue paper bag what had oats in will be recycled; the brown paper bread bags will go on the compost; the bottle and the baked beans tins will be recycled.”
Relieved that it was over he waited for Mrs Tebbut to tell him to stand down. She didn’t.
“That can’t be all,” she said, “I told you to show the class how much waste your household had produced and how you’d helped to reduce it.”
“I did.”
“This is all your family’s waste for a whole week?”
“This is the reduced waste what I made ’em reduce. I don’t think it’s fair to include the things I told ’em not to buy. They’re not my fault.”
“Luke, that wasn’t the project. You’ve misunderstood.”
“I’ve done it fair. It’s not fair to say I dint do well makin’ my family’s waste smaller if my family won’t do what I tell ’em. It’s on’y fair to see what waste was made from choices I made ’em make.”
Mrs Tebbut couldn’t argue with that.
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story concludes tomorrow 🙂
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vegan, vegetarian, environment, recycling, children’s story, children’s book, vegan children’s story, vegan children’s book, humour, animals, children, sheep, lambs
For the first seven chapters click here 🙂
Chapter 8 continues:
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Mrs Tebbut continued.
“Now can anybody think of ways in which we could reduce our waste in the first place?”
Several hands shot up.
“Yes, Andrew.”
“Draw on both sides of the paper.”
“Very good. Yes, Katia.”
“Stick a note on your door that says ‘no junk mail’.”
“Good thinking. Yes, Simon.”
“Get your shoes re-soled instead of buying new ones.”
“Ooh, yes, well done Simon. Repair things instead of throwing them out. Good one. Ok, well done, you’re all thinking now. What about the choices we make when we buy things like food. We have to buy food, but how can we reduce waste before we even get it home?”
The class went quiet again. Everyone was thinking but they weren’t quite sure what she was after.
“I’m thinking packaging here,” she explained, “we eat the food but we throw away the packaging. How can we reduce that waste?”
“Buy food with recyclable packaging!” Butler shouted out.
“Yes, if we must, but what would be even better?”
Joe’s eyes suddenly lit up and he opened his mouth as if to speak but didn’t. Mrs Tebbut noticed.
“Joe? Did you want to say something?”
“Buy stuff without packaging,” he said quietly.
There were a few snickers.
“How ya gonna do that? Everything comes in packets!” someone scoffed.
Joe went red and looked down at his hands. Mrs Tebbut frowned.
“Quiet! Pay attention to Joe, he’s got the right idea!” She turned to Joe, “well done, that’s exactly what I was looking for. We need to avoid the waste coming into our homes in the first place by choosing things with the least amount of packaging, and even no packaging when possible. Kenny – see me at the end of class!”
Mrs Tebbut went on to explain their class project: a week on Friday they would all make a presentation to the class in which they would explain how they had reduced waste in their household. As visual aids they were to bring with them everything being thrown away in their house that week (after it had been cleaned if necessary) and tell the class where that rubbish was headed: recycling or landfill. She gave them printouts which told them all about recycling.
********
After tea on shopping night, Luke was rummaging through the kitchen drawers.
“Come on Luke if you want to come, I want to get this over with,” said Mum.
She hated shopping.
“I’m coming …” said Luke, but didn’t.
“What are you looking for?” asked Mum.
“The shopping bags. I thought they were in here.”
“So did I. Oh, I don’t know. I think I put them in the wash. I don’t know where they are now. Never mind, just leave it. Let’s go!”
“Hang on!” said Luke and he rushed upstairs.
Mum picked up the car keys and headed for the door.
“If you don’t come now Luke, I’m going without you!” And she went outside.
Just before she released the handbrake Luke opened the passenger door and climbed in.
“What are you doing with those?” Mum asked with alarm as she looked at a large crumpled pile of flower-print and cartoon superhero pillowcases on his lap.
“Bags,” he said, “we need reusable bags.”
Mum inhaled deeply, checked the mirror and reversed out of the drive.
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continues tomorrow 🙂
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vegan, vegetarian, environment, recycling, children’s story, children’s book, vegan children’s story, vegan children’s book, humour, animals, children, sheep, lambs
Chapter Eight:
Luke Walker and the recycling
*****
“Ha ha ha ha,” Luke laughed, “stop it! I’m nearly finished! Let me finish!”
Luke was sitting on the straw in Curly’s shed, trying to knit a blanket for Squirt.
Curly had given birth to Little Squirt a few days after she arrived at her new home and he was the most playful, affectionate little chap Luke had ever met. Curly hadn’t let Luke come near him at first but after a while she let Squirt go to him.
“Hey! I nearly dropped another stitch! Ok, that’s it! I’m putting it away. I’ll have to finish it at home.”
Luke preferred to do his knitting in the shed on his plot because at home Jared teased him for it. He had laughed when Luke first asked Nan to teach him.
“Knitting? That’s what girls do! You wish you were a girl don’t you Luke?”
“It’s jus’ like makin’ knots at Scouts Jared! Don’t you make knots at Scouts?”
“Yeah – knots are useful, for camping and sailing and stuff boys do.”
“And knittin’ is turnin’ string into material to make blankets or mats or clothes or tents or anythin’!”
He believed an outlaw should have the skills to make his own things and be self-sufficient. Knitting was a useful skill. Nan had been very happy to teach him.
Luke put the half-made blanket back in his bag and played with Squirt until it was time to go home for tea. He had to be home promptly today because it was Mum’s shopping night and he needed to go with her for his school project.
****
This half term’s topic was The Environment and Mrs Tebbut had started by talking to them about rubbish, waste and plastic pollution. This was of great interest to Luke.
On the board she wrote:
Reduce, Re-use, Recycle
“This week we are going to think about how we can reduce waste by the simple choices we make in our lives,” she began. “Although the amount of rubbish being recycled in this country has increased in recent years, the amount being sent to landfill is also on the increase. In England, we only recycle about 44% of household waste when in fact 80% of it is recyclable. This means we all need to try a little bit harder.”
“Or a lot harder,” Luke mouthed to Joe.
“So today I’m going to tell you about The Three Rs: Reduce, Re-use, Recycle. Have any of you heard of this before?”
Lots of blank faces and shaking of heads.
“Ok, well the idea is that, although recycling is very important, we should first try to reduce the amount of stuff we buy in the first place by holding on to the stuff we’ve already got for as long as possible – taking care of it and getting it repaired instead of throwing it away.
“Then, once we have really worn out our stuff and it can’t be repaired anymore, before we throw it out for recycling we should try to think of ways to reuse it. Old clothes, for example, could be turned into cleaning rags.
“And finally, when we can no longer find a use for something, we should recycle it.”
“Interesting,” thought Luke.
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continues tomorrow 🙂
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vegan, vegetarian, environment, recycling, children’s story, children’s book, vegan children’s story, vegan children’s book, humour, animals, children, sheep, lambs
Chapter 7 continues (For the first 6 chapters click here 🙂 )
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“…. She belongs to ‘erself. I think she should be allowed to keep belongin’ to ‘erself, don’t you?” He looked at Joe earnestly.
Joe looked back, wide eyed.
“Yeah, I do.”
Luke smiled, Joe was with him. But now he really had to think. Where would the sheep be safe? If they just left her to wander, someone else was bound to discover her and return her to the farm. No, he couldn’t let that happen. He had to get her to a place of safety where the farmer wouldn’t find her. Joe gently stroked the sheep’s forehead. Luke was thinking hard. There had to be a way. There was always a way if you thought hard enough. And then it came to him.
“I’ve got it!” said Luke, “I know how we can save her!”
“What? What will we do?” asked Joe eagerly.
“You wait here with her,” Luke instructed, “keep ‘er here, out of sight. I’ve got to go somewhere and I’ll be back quick as I can.”
“Where are you going?” asked Joe, a little nervous about having sole custody of the refugee.
“Don’t worry, I’ll be quick,” Luke assured him as he turned to run back along the lane towards the village.
Joe continued to stroke the sheep, telling her softly that it would be ok, that Luke had thought of something and he wouldn’t let her down. Obviously comforted by this, she resumed munching the grass.
It started to rain. Just a few drops at first and then it settled in to a steady drizzle.
“Hurry up,” thought Joe as he became gradually wetter.
The sheep didn’t seem to mind. Eventually, after almost an hour by Joe’s reckoning (seventeen and a half minutes), Luke returned. He was smiling and had with him a piece of rope.
“Where ‘ave you been? What are we gonna do?” Joe asked as Luke tied the rope carefully around the sheep’s neck so that he could lead her.
“I’ve got a place where we can take ‘er,” Luke told him, “come on.”
The rain ensured their independence by keeping other people indoors. They walked back half way along the lane until they came to the back entrance of the allotments. Luke opened the gate with a key and they went in. He led his old friend and his new friend past many well-kept plots full of rows of cabbages and turnips and carrots and leeks and all sorts of plants that Luke didn’t recognise. The sheep was keen to try a few.
“No! Stop ‘er!” Luke half-shouted as she bent her head to some turnip tops.
Joe stopped her just in time and the boys quickened their pace. After a while the plots began to look a little untidy and, the further they walked, the more unkempt they became. They stopped alongside Luke’s dad’s plot which was one of the unkempt because he hadn’t had it very long.
“Here we are!” said Luke happily to the sheep, “welcome to your new home Curly.”
“Really?” said Joe.
“Yeah!” said Luke, “I think it suits her.” Joe shook his head.
“Not the name, the place! Won’t your dad go mad?”
“Why would he?” Luke asked, a little irritated that Joe was being so negative.
Then Luke realised that from where he was standing, Joe couldn’t see what he and Curly could see.
“No, not here,” he said, “there!”
And he pointed to something behind his dad’s ramshackle shed.
Joe stepped forward to look. The plot behind Luke’s dad’s plot had been abandoned some time ago and was quite overgrown. The former tenant had erected post and rail fencing all around it so that she could keep her Shetland pony there. And there was a big shed that she’d used as a stable. Luke beamed.
“This is my plot!”
Joe’s jaw dropped.
“But how? …. When?”
“That’s where I went. To the ‘lotment committee man’s house. To rent this ‘lotment.”
“But how … I mean, don’t that cost loadsa money?”
Joe knew the answer to his question almost before he’d finished asking it. Luke was so happy as he led Curly to her new home.
“Won’t ‘ave time for bike rides now anyway,” he said.
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The first eight chapters of Luke’s adventures sticking up for animals – only £4! Click the pic!
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vegan children’s story, children’s book, books, children, animals, sheep
Chapter 7 continues (For the first 6 chapters click here 🙂 )
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The lane was quiet, the boys were quieter, until Luke noticed something. As they approached the stile that led to the meadow that was crossed by the stream that was bridged by the bridge on which the boys had planned to play Pooh sticks, Luke saw a sheep.
The sheep was munching the long grass in front of the field gate next to the stile. There were no sheep in the meadow at that time but Luke knew that sometimes there were. He could only assume that this sheep had got separated from the rest when they were being moved to another field.
“A lost sheep!” said Joe when he looked up.
“Yeah,” said Luke, their discord forgotten. They approached her slowly so as not to startle her.
“What should we do?” whispered Joe.
“I don’t know,” said Luke.
“I bet it belongs to Manor Farm,” Joe guessed, “I know they’ve got sheep.”
Luke was deep in thought.
“Maybe,” he said after a while, “but we can’t really be sure.”
“We should prob’ly go and tell the farmer at Manor Farm, then he could come and see it. I think he’d know if it was one of his.”
Luke took his water bottle out of his lunch box.
“Maybe,” he said again as he tipped what was left in the bottle onto the mud, “but then again, he’s prob’ly got hundreds of sheep and they prob’ly all look the same to ‘im.”
He rubbed his hand in the wet mud and then wiped it gently over the red dye mark on the sheep’s back.
“And it would be wrong to hand ‘er over to the wrong person.”
“Why are you doin’ that?” asked Joe.
“Jus’ coolin’ ‘er down. Wet mud really cools ’em down,” Luke explained, “don’t want ‘er to be hot an’ bothered.”
Since it was March, Joe was unconvinced by this explanation. His friend was clearly up to something and he had a good idea what it might be.
“You can’t keep it Luke,” he said firmly, “it don’t belong to you.”
“An’ who does she belong to? We don’t ezzactly know do we?”
“That mark you just covered …”
“What mark? I can’t see no mark! Can you?”
“Not now, no.”
“No. There’s on’y one thing we do know.”
“What’s that?”
“That whoever she does belong to wants to kill ‘er! Do you want to give ‘er to someone who will kill ‘er? Would you do that Joe? Would you?”
Luke was trying to keep it to a whisper so as not to frighten the sheep, but his hushed tones were still fierce.
“Well, you don’t actually know that,” Joe said cautiously.
“Don’t I? Why do farmers keep animals? Is it ’cause they love ’em? Is it ’cause they want to play with ’em and cuddle ’em?”
Joe shook his head.
“No,” Luke agreed, “they keep ’em to make money out of ’em, and they make money out of ’em by sellin’ ’em for meat.”
Joe couldn’t argue with that. He nodded.
“So what can we do?” he asked.
Luke continued.
“Here is a brave sheep who has prob’ly bin hidin’ from the farmer for days or weeks. And he prob’ly hasn’t even noticed she’s missin’; or he has noticed but he’s given up lookin’ for ‘er. So she’s free. She belongs to ‘erself. I think she should be allowed to keep belongin’ to ‘erself, don’t you?” He looked at Joe earnestly.
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continues tomorrow 🙂
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vegan children’s story, children’s book, books, children
Chapter 7 continues (For the first 6 chapters click here 🙂 )
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Twenty two minutes later he suffered a bitter disappointment. In truth Dad hadn’t been surprised to learn that the blue bike Luke had set his heart on a year ago wasn’t there anymore, but he’d assumed Luke would happily choose a different one from the same shop. But Luke wouldn’t even look at a different one. He wanted the blue one. It was perfect. He could describe every detail of it and why it was perfect in every detail. For this reason the bike shop man knew which make and model he was talking about and looked it up on his computer. He said he could order another one, especially for Luke. It would take two weeks to get there. Luke smiled with relief.
“Yes please,” he said.
He’d waited a whole year, what was another two weeks?
By the time they got back home he was feeling much better and cheerfully returned his money to the safety of his money box. Just two weeks – then he’d have it for sure. It was ordered. The order was in his name. Just two weeks more.
Luke sat in his room and drew a grid of fourteen squares. In each square he wrote a day of the week. At the end of every day he put a big red cross through one of the squares. When there were fourteen red crosses it would be time to go and get his bike. He could think of nothing else. He could talk of nothing else. To tell the truth, even his devoted friend Joe was getting a little tired of it.
It was the thirteenth day, Friday afternoon. The boys were sitting at either end of their desk, doing their sums. At least they were supposed to be doing their sums. In actual fact Joe was drawing dinosaurs and Luke was daydreaming about how much faster than Butler’s bike his new bike would be.
“He won’t even be able to keep up with me,” he chuckled, “I’ll be so fast that when I pass ‘im he won’t even know it was me. I’ll jus’ be a blur to ‘im!”
“Mm,” Joe nodded.
He’d stopped listening half an hour earlier but it was easier to nod along than admit that he’d lost interest. Joe was a ‘path of least resistance’ sort of boy. However, by the end of the afternoon, when they were walking home from school, he couldn’t help expressing his wish to change the subject. Luke was more than a little affronted.
“Oh I’m sorry, ‘ave I bin borin’ you?” he said in mock apology, “I wun’t want to bore you with somethin’ as borin’ ‘n’ unint’restin’ as a new bike! I’m sorry to bother you with the unint’restin’ information that it took me a whole year to save up for it! I’m sorry I got so excited ’bout somethin’ so borin’!”
An awkward silence followed during which the friends walked at opposite edges of the country lane. They had been given permission to walk home without adult accompaniment as long as they stayed together. They therefore kept pace with each other whilst keeping as far apart as the width of the narrow road allowed. Joe looked at his shoes. Luke looked straight ahead.
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Continues tomorrow 😉
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vegan children’s story, children’s book, books, children
For the first 6 chapters click here 🙂
Chapter 7:
Luke Walker and the saved up money
Luke didn’t complain about helping Dad on the allotment because it was part of their agreement. After he’d commandeered the vegetable patch for the damsons, Dad had made a deal with him. He said the damsons could stay there if Luke agreed to help him every week on a new allotment.
The allotment cost Dad £80 a year, which seemed a heck of a lot of money to Luke, but Dad said it was a good deal because it gave him plenty of room to grow things – much more than he’d had in the damson patch. It would be a lot of work so Luke had to help. Luke thought that was fair, and earning the damsons’ keep made him feel like a bread-winner. So everyone was happy.
On this particular Saturday he was in an especially good mood. He had finally saved enough money to buy his bike. The pocket money he had been given that very morning brought his total up to £100. £100! He had been saving for ever. Actually, for a year. But it felt like forever. And now he had enough. He could buy the bike; the blue one; the blue one he’d seen in the bike shop window; the blue one that was perfect for him; the blue one that was meant to be his. Dad said they could go and get it when they’d done the morning’s digging and weeding. They were going that afternoon.
After lunch Luke rushed up to his bedroom and emptied his money box. Mum had changed his coins for notes every time he saved £10 so now he held ten crisp, or rather soft and tatty, £10 notes in his hands. Never before had he held so much money! He tucked it carefully into his wallet, the Batman one with the keyring attached, tucked his wallet into his front right trouser pocket, and padlocked the keyring to his belt loop. He wasn’t taking any chances. Then he waited in the car for Dad.
“Where have you been?” Luke asked him when he finally arrived.
“You know where I’ve been Luke. You saw me. You passed me, eating my lunch, on your way out to sit in the car.”
He turned the key and the engine coughed to life. Luke could hardly contain his excitement.
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Continues tomorrow 😉
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vegan children’s story, children’s book, books, children
New Megan & Flos comic!!!
More fan fiction! Such fun!!! This is an especially scary episode of Reflecto Girl – click to the original post so you don’t miss any of it 😀
I’m so excited that we have fan fiction!!!! Look at this gorgeous Venus Aqueous story and artwork 😀
You MUST go over there and read the whole story!!! 😀
The Rebel Gang and the Number Ciphers (which you can find on the 8 years and up page) is now available in paperback!
You could be holding the Top Secret documents in your hands ….
…. including all the evidence and ciphertexts found by the investigators.
You have access to suspect profiles,
and the evidence against them. You can peruse the conclusions drawn from this evidence by M and decide whether you agree with her (or him?).
But most of all, you could have fun reading it 😀
The Rebel Gang and the Number Ciphers, now available from Amazon 😉
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vegan children’s book, vegan children’s story, code-cracking, mystery, conspiracy theory, children’s book, humour, fiction, juvenile fiction, vegetarian
For the story so far click here 🙂
click to enlarge
The End 🙂
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For the story so far click here 🙂
click to enlarge
concludes tomorrow 🙂
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vegan comic, vegan comic for children, children’s story, vegan children’s story, vegetarian, vegan, vegan superhero, aquariums, public aquariums, fish, captive animals, crustaceans, invertebrates, marine animals, children’s adventure story, aquarium heist, aquarium corruption, illustration, art, watercolour, comics, children’s comics,
For the story so far click here 🙂
click to enlarge
to be continued …
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vegan comic, vegan comic for children, children’s story, vegan children’s story, vegetarian, vegan, vegan superhero, aquariums, public aquariums, fish, captive animals, crustaceans, invertebrates, marine animals, children’s adventure story, aquarium heist, aquarium corruption, illustration, art, watercolour, comics, children’s comics,
For the story so far click here 🙂
click to enlarge
to be continued …
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vegan comic, vegan comic for children, children’s story, vegan children’s story, vegetarian, vegan, vegan superhero, aquariums, public aquariums, fish, captive animals, crustaceans, invertebrates, marine animals, children’s adventure story, aquarium heist, aquarium corruption, illustration, art, watercolour, comics, children’s comics,
For the story so far click here 🙂
And 47 seconds later ….
to be continued …
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For the story so far click here 🙂
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So, while the rest of the wild animals hastened their escape, Venus climbed on top of the wreck.
to be continued …
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For the story so far click here 🙂
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And all too soon ….
to be continued …
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vegan comic, vegan comic for children, children’s story, vegan children’s story, vegetarian, vegan, vegan superhero, aquariums, public aquariums, fish, captive animals, crustaceans, invertebrates, marine animals, children’s adventure story, aquarium heist, aquarium corruption, illustration, art, watercolour, comics, children’s comics,
For the story so far click here 🙂
to be continued ….
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vegan comic, vegan comic for children, children’s story, vegan children’s story, vegetarian, vegan, vegan superhero, aquariums, public aquariums, fish, captive animals, crustaceans, invertebrates, marine animals, children’s adventure story, aquarium heist, aquarium corruption, illustration, art, watercolour, comics, children’s comics,
For the story so far click here 🙂
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Upstairs:
And downstairs:
to be continued …
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For the story so far click here 🙂
Meanwhile,
to be continued ….
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vegan comic, vegan comic for children, children’s story, vegan children’s story, vegetarian, vegan, vegan superhero, aquariums, public aquariums, fish, captive animals, crustaceans, invertebrates, marine animals, children’s adventure story, aquarium heist, aquarium corruption, illustration, art, watercolour, comics, children’s comics,
For the story so far click here 🙂
to be continued ….
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vegan comic, vegan comic for children, children’s story, vegan children’s story, vegetarian, vegan, vegan superhero, aquariums, public aquariums, fish, captive animals, crustaceans, invertebrates, marine animals, children’s adventure story, aquarium heist, aquarium corruption, illustration, art, watercolour, comics, children’s comics,
For the story so far click here 🙂
to be continued ….
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vegan comic, vegan comic for children, children’s story, vegan children’s story, vegetarian, vegan, vegan superhero, aquariums, public aquariums, fish, captive animals, crustaceans, invertebrates, marine animals, children’s adventure story, aquarium heist, aquarium corruption, illustration, art, watercolour, comics, children’s comics,
For the story so far click here 🙂
to be continued ….
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vegan comic, vegan comic for children, children’s story, vegan children’s story, vegetarian, vegan, vegan superhero, aquariums, public aquariums, fish, captive animals, crustaceans, invertebrates, marine animals, children’s adventure story, aquarium heist, aquarium corruption, illustration, art, watercolour, comics, children’s comics,
For the story so far click here 🙂
to be continued …
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Violet's Vegan Comics 