Our new book Why are you a vegan? and other wacky verse for kids is finished and ready to be enjoyed 🙂
It is a compilation of our favourite rhyming stories, wacky verse and nursery rhymes, providing over 100 pages of colourfully illustrated bedtime (or anytime) stories and rhymes for little ones.
It includes
and Where are you going Deidra?
Take a look inside:
[don’t worry, there’s a good comeback from Bertie on the next page 😉 ]
It is available from Amazon in the UK, Europe and the USA.
Where are you going Deidra? is one of our favourite, and one of the most popular, stories on this site so when we decided to publish a compilation of short stories and rhymes for little ones we really wanted to include it. Unfortunately the new book – entitled “Why are you a vegan?” And other wacky verse for kids – is full of rhyming stories (of course), and Deidra is not one of those.
So, we made it into one – and here it is, the true-ish story of Deidra the dairy cow, in rhyme, in case you’re interested.
This is how it begins:
Once there was a dairy farm
With fifty lovely cows.
Most of them were black and white
But some of them were brown.
***
Gripping stuff I know! 😉
Where are you going Deidra? – In Rhyme
Well look at the time!
It flies by so fast!
With chime after chime
The present is past!
So we’d better make the most of it!
How much do you wanna bet there’ll be more veg*ns at the end of 2015 than there were at the beginning? 😉
Happy New Year everybody,
Love from Violet and Miranda
xxx
A bonus of Miranda working at Raystede animal sanctuary‘s charity shop is that she comes across lots of useful things like old knitting patterns and left over yarn that people have donated, which she can then buy and make use of. And now you can make use of this one too 🙂
And I know you might be thinking it’s a bit late in the day to start making this – the day before Christmas! – but it’s only a couple of hours’ work Miranda says, so, if you want to do something with your hands while relaxing in front of that Christmas movie, this is it! 🙂
Now, bear in mind that Miranda is very much her own person, who isn’t one for following patterns too closely, so it’s no surprise that her Father Christmas doesn’t exactly look like the picture on the pattern. But he is very cute just the same:
Oh, and just in case you don’t know how to knit yet – these videos (for left and right handed) will solve that problem 😉
Sandra has achieved the unprecedented legal status of a “non-human person.” A court has recognized that she has rights and that being kept in a zoo unlawfully deprives her of her freedom.
Woo hoo!!!! 😀 😀 😀
In November, the Association of Professional Lawyers for Animal Rights (AFADA) filed for habeas corpus, a petition usually used to challenge the imprisonment of a human who has been illegally detained. Instead, this petition sought freedom for Sandra, a Sumatran orangutan. Sandra has spent the last 20 years of her life at the Buenos Aires Zoo. In 1986, she was born into captivity at a German zoo. Nine years later she was sent to Argentina. Sandra is described as very shy, with a marked preference for avoiding the stares of zoo visitors. AFADA’s case asserted “the unjustified confinement of an animal with probable cognitive capability” illegally deprived a “non-human person” of her freedom. AFADA insisted Sandra was a person in a philosophic sense, rather than a biological one. In other words, she’s not human, but she deserves certain equivalent rights. A three-member panel of Argentina’s Second Chamber of the Criminal Appeals Court unanimously granted habeas corpus, deciding that Sandra is a “juridical person” rather than an object.
Congratulations Sandra and well done Argentina!
Let us hope that this decision is upheld and that it will lead to a more enlightened attitude worldwide resulting in person-hood rights being granted to all captive animals.
Happy New Year!!!!!!!
Dashing through the snow
In our purple vegan boots
O’er the hills we go
Eating juicy fruits.
ha ha ha
Bells on bracelets ring
Making spirits bright,
What fun it is to laugh and sing
A jingling song tonight.
***
Oh, jingle bells, walnut shells,
Chocolate raisins taste
Sweet, and so do peanut chews,
Vegan treats won’t go to waste.
😀
Congratulations hitandrun1964, aka Gigi, a clean, new copy of Well Fed Not An Animal Dead will be winging its way to you as soon as I get your address (I’ll email you) 🙂
Commiserations to everyone who wasn’t as lucky as Gigi, but all is not lost. You can still get a copy of this brilliant little book directly from the source for just £3 plus postage. But hurry, there are only a limited number left as it is not going to be reprinted since Graham Burnett published his new book The Vegan Book of Permaculture
I want to make a yule log for Christmas day so I thought I’d better practise. I found a vegan recipe and really helpful instructions at Vegan Good Things but, being both lazy and impatient, I decided to try to make a simpler version. I am very grateful to Leinana at Vegan Good Things for the how to part of the recipe and you should check out her post as she explains it much better than I will 🙂
So, I adapted the raspberry buns recipe from Well Fed … like so:
(Oh, first I preheated the electric fan oven to 190°c)
7 oz organic spelt
1 oz organic fair trade cocoa
3 tsp of organic baking powder
1 tsp of organic fair trade vanilla essence
150 ml – ish of organic Agave nectar
4 tablespoons of organic olive oil
enough organic oat milk (you can use any plant milk or even water) to make the mixture quite wet
Can anyone spot my mistake? Look at the photo above. Well, I didn’t realise what I’d done until I looked at the photo when I came to write this post. Have you spotted it? …….
Yes, I used corn flour instead of baking powder! Well the packaging is exactly the same, apart from the big black letters that spell CORN FLOUR!!!!
Ok, so I mixed all those ingredients together and poured the mixture onto the tin. Oh, I forgot to tell you – first prepare a flat tin by covering it with parchment paper smeared with margarine. See, I told you Leinana explains it better than me.
Then I smoothed it over with the back of a spoon so that it filled the tin.
Like so. And bunged it in the oven for 10 minutes. While it was cooking, I laid a clean tea towel on the work surface and covered that with another sheet of parchment paper.
Dusted the paper with organic icing sugar. When the ten minutes was up, I took the cake out of the oven.
And tipped it over onto the dusted paper. You have to do it real quick. I was a bit too cautious and it cracked at one end.
Nevermind. Then I quickly peeled the parchment paper off the top and, using the tea towel, rolled up the cake. Again, Leinana explains it better, pop over to her place.
Then I put it to one side to cool. Next the icing, and again I kept it simple. Just vegan margarine, icing sugar, cocoa, a teaspoon of vanilla essence and a little drop of hot water from the kettle.
I don’t measure, just wing it and then adjust to taste. I did of course sieve the icing sugar and cocoa to get rid of all the lumps so I’m not irredeemably lazy 😉
When I was happy with it I put it in the fridge. The next challenge was to distract myself so that I wouldn’t try to ice the cake before it was fully cool. And it was taking a long time to cool. Too long. I gave in in the end – well, it was cold on top 😀
And when I unrolled it, it broke into strips. I continued undeterred. Each strip was still curvy so I hoped it would work.
I pasted generous amounts of icing over top of all the bits and then, using the parchment paper, rolled it back up.
Not bad considering. It did slide a bit – it was too warm and the icing was melting a bit but, nevermind. I put it on a plate and covered it in more icing which helped hold it together.
Then I dragged a fork over it to make bark grooves
Then sieved some ‘snow’ over it
et voilà
Then chill.
And the verdict? Despite being made with corn flour instead of baking powder, the cake itself is very nice. The icing makes the log a bit too sweet and sickly for me, although husband and daughter didn’t think so 🙂 , so I think for my next attempt I will use a raw recipe for the icing – that way the whole thing will be sugar free!
I’ll let you know how that turns out on Christmas Eve 😀
When we began our home schooling adventure all those years ago we were very lucky to find this wonderful book. Unqualified Education is full of inspiring ideas and information, advice and encouragement. It is an absolute joy and still a great resource after the children have grown up.
We decided to home school when my eldest daughter was just 12 and my youngest was 9. It was not because they were bullied or anything, and they were not struggling with any of the work. It was just that life is short, and childhood so short that they should be able to enjoy it all. In school they were forced to conform to the ‘norm’, to study a set curriculum. It was so rigid. My eldest was so stressed. She got detention for wearing the wrong colour socks for PE; her friend who had cut his hair into a mohican, and had assured his teacher that he would wear it flat and combed tidily for school, was told “Absolutely not! Shave it all off!” They simply weren’t allowed to be individuals.
At home we were free. They could study what they wanted, how they wanted. We went bike riding and swimming. We grew vegetables and cooked and sewed and painted and, yes we did maths and English, but we read and read and read – really good books. We did history and learnt Welsh (a bit). What I knew I taught them; what I didn’t know we learnt together. It was the best time.
This book was a wonderful support and inspiration. Mind you, it’s a good book for anyone, whether home schooling or not. As you can see from the Contents page, there’s a lot in there, and the recipes in the cooking section are all vegetarian and nearly all vegan! There is the most amazing chocolate chip cookie recipe – mm mmmmm!
****
Anyway, I needed a new apron so I got out the book, looked up the apron pattern and upcycled myself one:
(You can click on the pics to enlarge them by the way)
I didn’t have a broadsheet newspaper but luckily Miranda had an old pad of flip-chart paper which she’d rescued from the bin at work and that was just right for this job.
I upcycled an old duvet cover – thoroughly washed of course! I didn’t do the little pocket because I wanted a big pocket – read on 🙂
You can sew it by hand, it just takes a while. Luckily I had use of a sewing machine – thanks Mum 🙂
After the hemming was done I attached the ties as shown in the instructions.
I decided to make a pocket out of this gorgeous vintage tea towel found in a charity shop. I cut off the bottom row of dogs and hemmed the raw edge.
Then I put on the apron so that I could position the pocket and put in a pin to mark the position of the centre of the top of the pocket.
Then I sewed it on. With a pocket this size you have to sew up the middle, effectively creating two pockets. No dogs were harmed by this procedure – I was very careful not to sew over any of them 🙂
All done!
The compost bin was hungry
And it wanted something new.
It’d reduced old fruit and lettuce leaves
To gloopy, slimy goo.
“Enough with all the green waste,
For now I’ve had enough.
I need something dry and brown
Like paper and card and stuff!”
So strips of card were fed to it
And more and more and more,
‘Til finally an old paperback
Was swallowed whole and raw.
Miranda and I are delighted to be able to give away a new copy of the brilliant Well Fed Not an Animal Dead
Remember I recommended it a few weeks ago? (See here ) Well, I ordered a couple of copies for Christmas presents and got a free one thrown in. So, I would like to give it away to one of you lovely people.
Now, if you don’t already have a copy of this book, you’re going to want one – it’s full of brilliant recipes and vegan lifestyle advice and information – so go on, enter this prize draw!
🙂
All you have to do is comment on this post, telling me you want to enter. We will put the names of all the entrants in a box and pick one out on Saturday, so you’ve got until Friday the 19th of December 23:59 GMT (2014 of course 😉 ) to enter.
This is open to anyone, anywhere. Good luck! 😀
On the first day of Christmas my true love sent to me
A little organic pear tree
On the second day of Christmas my true love sent to me
Two purple gloves
And a little organic pear tree
On the third day of Christmas my true love sent to me
Three corn pens
Two purple gloves
And a little organic pear tree
On the fourth day of Christmas my true love sent to me
Four gaming boards
Three corn pens
Two purple gloves
And a little organic pear tree
On the fifth day of Christmas my true love sent to me
Five compost bins
Four gaming boards
Three corn pens
Two purple gloves
And a little organic pear tree
On the sixth day of Christmas my true love sent to me
Six Christmas crackers
Five compost bins
Four gaming boards
Three corn pens
Two purple gloves
And a little organic pear tree
On the seventh day of Christmas my true love sent to me
Seven chocolate buttons
Six Christmas crackers
Five compost bins
Four gaming boards
Three corn pens
Two purple gloves
And a little organic pear tree
On the eighth day of Christmas my true love sent to me
Eight packs of crayons
Seven chocolate buttons
Six Christmas crackers
Five compost bins
Four gaming boards
Three corn pens
Two purple gloves
And a little organic pear tree
On the ninth day of Christmas my true love sent to me
Nine unshelled walnuts
Eight packs of crayons
Seven chocolate buttons
Six Christmas crackers
Five compost bins
Four gaming boards
Three corn pens
Two purple gloves
And a little organic pear tree
On the tenth day of Christmas my true love sent to me
Ten mince pies warming
Nine unshelled walnuts
Eight packs of crayons
Seven chocolate buttons
Six Christmas crackers
Five compost bins
Four gaming boards
Three corn pens
Two purple gloves
And a little organic pear tree
On the eleventh day of Christmas my true love sent to me
Eleven reels of cotton
Ten mince pies warming
Nine unshelled walnuts
Eight packs of crayons
Seven chocolate buttons
Six Christmas crackers
Five compost bins
Four gaming boards
Three corn pens
Two purple gloves
And a little organic pear tree
On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love sent to me
Twelve toys for cuddling
Eleven reels of cotton
Ten mince pies warming
Nine unshelled walnuts
Eight packs of crayons
Seven chocolate buttons
Six Christmas crackers
Five compost bins
Four gaming boards
Three corn pens
Two purple gloves
And a little organic pear tree
****
Click on the pics for links to websites selling ethical, fair trade, organic, vegan Christmas gifts.
The Hillside Animal Sanctuary Christmas Fayre this weekend!
CLICK THE PIC FOR MORE INFO
If you live in Norfolk or the surrounding area I highly recommend you pop over to Hillside’s Shire Horse Sanctuary for a lovely day out and a chance to help the animals with your Christmas shopping. Hillside is a fantastic charity which not only provides sanctuary for over 2000 formerly abused or neglected animals, they also do in depth investigations into animal abuse so that perpetrators can be prosecuted.
And they need all the help we can give them, so have a great day out helping the animals that need you – get over to Hillside at the weekend.
Have fun 😀
Story begins tomorrow 🙂
When you’re waiting for your human, you might as well be comfortable
I’m tired, my knees ache, I have sore feet,
My belly is heavy with child inside.
Head is aching from the blistering heat,
What’s coming is worse, I’m desperate to hide.
****
Last year I cheerfully bore my first child,
All the discomfort and pain were worth it.
My love for him instant, instinctive, wild,
Overwhelmed me, the light in my heart lit.
****
I washed him and nursed him, my suckling angel,
My purpose in life was now clear to me –
To love him, protect him and teach him well.
Like any other mother I would be.
****
The sun set that day and the bright moon rose,
And we spent a blissful night together.
Brief nirvana before that bitter dose,
When hell swallowed me whole, meat and leather.
****
At dawn I heard their heavy stomping feet,
They approached us as I was feeding him.
Without shame…
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“T-wit T-woo,” go the owls,
Sc-ratch and dangle, the spiders.
The witch is thinking, she frowns, she scowls,
New brooms fly by with riders.
***
A flickering light, the rising of smoke,
From the clearing, through the trees,
Gives away the location of quivering folk
Around the fire, on their knees.
***
In a fairy tale world with fairy tale rules
The wicked have much to fear.
They’ve been unkind, selfish, heartless fools,
Which won’t be tolerated here.
***
Fairy tales, creepy tales, mystical magic tales,
Castles and fairies and witches and ghosts.
Suspend disbelief for these ‘anything can happen’ tales,
Where innocents get rescued and evil gets smote.
Click on the pic to enlarge and read
I bought this little book about 4 or 5 years ago at VegFest in Hove and it is the best, most useful little book I’ve got. You can see from how grubby my copy is that it has been well used! It’s only 50 pages long and has everything from vegan lifestyle tips, to recipes, to how to grow your own food and brew your own booze. It also lists vegan sources of essential nutrients (as you can see above), contains advice for mothers and infants and includes addresses of many other vegan resources. Whether you’re an experienced vegan or just embarking on this journey, this book will definitely be a valuable addition to your reading material. [Sadly this book is now out of print but maybe the people at Spiralseed, who made it, might have something else just as good].
Click on the pic to enlarge and read
Click on the pic to enlarge and read
Above is one of my favourite recipes – Lentil Pie – absolutely delicious! I make the pastry with organic spelt to avoid the unpleasant side effects triggered by modern wheat which has been so manipulated since the middle of last century that it bears little resemblance to its natural ancestor and causes negative health affects on the bodies of many people. We’ve found through trial and error that the ancient relative of wheat, spelt, does not cause the headaches, heartburn or back-pain triggered in us by wheat. Which is great news because now we can have our cake and eat it!
Click the pic to enlarge and read
And the recipe above is a great favourite with all the family – Lentil Burgers – or as they call them here, The Big Anti-Mac! These are so utterly delicious you’ll really feel like you’re indulging in naughty fast food but it’s full of nothing but good stuff. This recipe makes about 12 burgers for us which means we freeze most of them for several quick, healthy, delicious meals in the future. They can also be baked instead of fried and are just as scrummy! See here
Click to enlarge and read
Last but absolutely not least, I wanted to share with you the simplest, most delicious cake recipe I’ve ever found. Again we make it with spelt (this time with baking powder added to make it rise). The cupcake/muffin recipe can be adapted to make one large cake by cooking it slightly cooler for slightly longer than the several small cakes. You can add chocolate chips and/or cocoa to make a chocolate version. Whatever you like. Just use the recipe as a basic template. Mind you, the recipe is perfect just the way it is anyway. My husband especially loves these and always wants me to make more when he’s finishing his last one.
I just love this book and I think you’ll love it too 🙂
Try saying these 10 times fast!
Vegan Velma Viewed a Vase of Vibrant Violets
Friendly Felix reFused Forthwith the Foul and Fetid Flesh Foods
Vegan Vendors Val and Victor Vend Veg and stuff at Vegan Venues
Remember this game? You have to see if you recognise anything in these pictures and work out where we were before clicking on the link at the end. Give it a go!
Gorgeous veg*n cafe – clean, bright, comfortable, friendly …
… with a delicious selection of veg*n food to choose from. Sorry I didn’t hold my breath when taking this photo – don’t look at it too long, it’ll make you feel dizzy!
This one’s a bit easier on the eyes – and not just because it’s in focus!
Here’s a clearer look at the menu from the outside. We indulged in scrambled tofu with salad and baked potato, followed by a scrumptious slice of vegan, gluten-free chocolate cake. Mmm mmmmmm!
Have you got it yet?
We loved this place – you should definitely visit if you are in the area. We’ll certainly be returning next time we’re visiting family in that neck of the woods. Do you know where this is?
And the answer is …. here!
There should be one in every town 🙂
Britta, Community, Season 5, Episode 7
Here’s some we did yesterday:
First preheat your oven to 200°C if it’s a fan oven (higher if not), or 400°F or gas mark 6.
Then rinse the chestnuts, trim off the stem, and cut a cross in the outer skin. If you don’t slit the skin they will explode in the oven.
Get a grown-up to help you with this because it’s quite fiddly and needs a sharp knife. We don’t want any fingers getting sliced!
When you’ve done that you can put your nuts on a baking tray or dish …
We only collected a few yesterday because we’d never tried them before and didn’t want to waste too many if we didn’t like them. Of course you may deduce now that we did like them!
Bung them in the oven and roast them until the skin peels open which should take around half an hour.
While they are warm, peel off the outer brown skin and the inner paler skin …
And you’ll be left with a beautiful, soft, creamy-coloured nut which is absolutely delicious:
Yum!
Happy foraging 
We are not fully raw; we still enjoy cooked potatoes, and lentils; we have rolled oats for breakfast; we eat tofu. But we do include as much raw as we can in our diet and it makes us feel great. Energised. I love juicing fruits and greens and making them into ice pops. I love frozen bananas instead of shop-bought ice cream. I love raw, and semi-raw cakes and treats which contain no sugar or added sweetener, and no gluten, are actually good for me, and yet make me feel indulgent as they are superior in taste and feel-good factor to traditional sugar-laden sweets. I am excited about all the new things I have learned this year about raw foods and how good they make me feel and I am grateful to so many people who have shared their experiences so that I can learn more.
One of these people is Kristina Carrillo-Bucaram, better known as FullyRawKristina
This lady is a positive inspiration, and though many of us may not be in a position to live as she does – such large quantities organic fresh produce are very expensive – we can each do as much as we can within our own means and feel better for it. For example, I have found that when I tried to be fully raw I got too skinny and simply wasn’t eating enough. Now that I compromise by adding cooked potatoes and lentils, for example, to my raw fruit and veggies, I feel great, am back to my normal weight and still getting a very nutritious diet. I love this video because Kristina encourages us to look at her example, and take from it what works for us. It’s all about experimenting until we get it right and being our own best, our own happiest, in our own way.
I used to make crispy cakes which were absolutely scrumptious but really not good for my health because of all the syrup in the recipe. So I thought, I wonder if I can make these gorgeous treats healthier by leaving out the syrup and substituting dates. Turns out – you can! I am therefore very excited to share with you my recipe for yummy, scrummy, chocolatey, nutritious crispy cakes.
Here’s what you’ll need:
Gluten-free, sugar-free, organic corn flakes; nothing-added organic peanut butter; pitted dates, soaked over-night; and chocolate (this one does have sugar in it admittedly, but you could use organic raw sugar-free chocolate instead if you prefer, I just didn’t have any today)
First get your chocolate melting in a little pot over some hot water.
Drain the water off your soggy dates and bung them in the food processor. Process them to a smooth, moist consistency and place them in a mixing bowl like so:
Then add a couple of generous tablespoons of peanut butter:
Combine thoroughly with a fork and then add your melted chocolate and mix that in too:
When that’s all well combined, it’s time to mix in the corn flakes. Add a few at a time and keep adding them until you can’t mix any more in (ie until the mixture is too dry to add more):
When I’d added all the cornflakes my mixture could take, I tasted it and felt it could do with a little more sweetness. So I added sultanas. You suit yourself:
When you’re satisfied with your mixture, spoon it into some paper cake cases :
And chill until ….. you want to eat them:
Done!
Yum!
For the whole episode click here
That’s all folks!
Episode 3 will pick it up from here …. eventually 😉
Make your own Reflecto Girl paper doll 🙂
All you need is some cardboard (maybe from an old cereal box); some paper (I used the back of some sketchbook pages I’d already used); a pencil; some paint or crayons and some scissors (careful with those!)
First draw a picture of Renee in her underwear (include a semi circle at the base which will form part of the stand)
colour her
cut her out (remembering to cut around the semi-circle at the base, not around her feet)
You might find at this point that she flops over a little when you stand her up. If so, you can draw around her on another piece of card, and make her stiffer by sticking that to the back with a little water-based glue
Now draw her some clothes. I chose to draw her Reflecto Girl costume and her dungarees which she wore over…
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Prepare to have your heart melted ❤
I’ve got a bamboo toothbrush,
It’s the best one you can own.
It’s not as good as mine though,
Mine is red and yours is brown
****
Yours is red because it’s plastic,
You know plastic isn’t good.
It is good coz it’s shiny.
Yours is dull, it’s made of wood.
****
Toothbrushes by the millions
Are thrown away each year,
And because they don’t rot naturally,
Lifetimes later they’re still here.
****
Well at least my plastic toothbrush
Won’t make forests get the chop.
Your wood one’s killing all the trees,
You shouldn’t kill trees, so stop!
****
No, bamboo is not like other trees,
Because it grows so fast.
They’re always planting new ones
So their supply will always last.
****
And when my toothbrush is old and useless,
When I have to throw it out,
The natural fibre it’s made from
Will safely, quickly rot.
Would you like a bamboo toothbrush?
Look here
and here
and here
and here
Or maybe they sell them at your local health food store? 🙂
Violet's Vegan Comics 