Marigold Marigold
Calendula Officinalis,
I planted you for bees,
But for me you have uses.
In salad for food
Or poultice for sting
I welcome the positive
Stuff that you bring 🙂
Author Archives: Violet's Vegan Comics
Spinach
There’s little spinach
Growing here.
It’s so exciting,
This time of year!
Look what I’ve found!
Remember when we had a go at growing our own apple trees from seed? (They’re still going strong by the way). Well, I’ve just come across this brilliant site which shows you, step by step, how to grow all sorts of different trees from seeds you’ve collected yourself!
I can’t wait to have a go!
It just makes you want to plant stuff!
Dirt-Filled Pot
What is that?
A dirt-filled pot!
It’s not just that.
I’m sure it’s not.
***
Look closer,
See what you can see,
It’s tiny lettuce,
There are more than three!
Dandelion Dandelion
Oh glorious dandelion
So misunderstood.
Maligned as a weed
Don’t you wish you would
Be valued and treasured,
Encouraged to grow,
To extend your long leaves
Sun gold flowers to show?
Your leaves make good salads,
Green smoothies and juice,
Your flowers bright and yellow,
Sweet to taste; you produce
Vitamins and minerals
So many in abundance.
One day you’ll be treasured,
Recognised for your brilliance.
Sc-raw-umptious!
A cake is a cake
That you could make
And it’s unhealthy
Make no mistake
Unless it’s a cake
That you don’t bake
Made from fruits and nuts still raw!
My first attempt at making raw cake and it’s deeelicious if I do say so myself 😉
*************
Having just finished reading 12 Steps to Raw Foods by Victoria Boutenko, I couldn’t wait to have a go at making raw cake. At the back of the book are some really useful recipes which are designed to be adapted to suit your own tastes so, using the Generic Cake Recipe, I had a go.
For the chocolate base I combined 1 cup of ground walnuts, 1 tablespoon of flax oil, 1 tablespoon of agave nectar, and half a cup of cocoa (that should have been raw carob powder but I don’t have any of that yet).
This made a stiff, damp mixture which I formed into a cake shape on the plate.
Then for the topping I combined half a cup of fruit (banana in this case), half a cup of ground cashews, and half a cup of fresh coconut. I put all these through my manual juicer (using the smooth screen) so that they were all ground and mushed, and then I mixed them together with a fork.
Then I spooned the topping onto the base and put it in the fridge to chill. So easy.
Now I’m off to have another piece! 🙂
How about a strawberry one?
For the strawberry version I just omitted the cocoa from the base and added a teaspoon of vanilla essence.
Then for the topping I combined half a cup of mushed strawberries, half a cup of ground cashews, (both of these were put through the manual juicer as above) and 1 tablespoon of agave nectar.
And voila:
Vegan!
Green Smoothie Magic
This looks fun!
I am a big fan of the Boutenko family, having 3 of their books already, (and currently enjoying 12 Steps to Raw Foods) so when I discovered that Victoria has also made a few books for children, I just had to share.
In Green Smoothie Magic, beautifully illustrated by Katya Korobkina, Victoria tells a delightful story about a six year old boy who learns about the magic of greens.
Green Smoothie Magic is available from the Raw Family website and on Amazon where you can look inside 🙂
Stop trying to patent the fennel flower!
Nigella sativa — more commonly known as fennel flower — has been used as a cure-all remedy for over a thousand years. It treats everything from vomiting to fevers to skin diseases, and has been widely available in impoverished communities across the Middle East and Asia.
But now Nestlé is claiming to own it, and filing patent claims around the world to try and take control over the natural cure of the fennel flower and turn it into a costly private drug.
They must be stopped!
Imagine if the tables were turned …
Click on the picture to see what it might be like if humans were the main attraction at a theme park
Blackfish Review
We’ve just watched the fantastic documentary Blackfish and had to recommend it to everyone! The film is shocking, moving and heart-breaking but don’t be afraid to watch it because it leaves you with a positive feeling. A feeling that things are changing. That people are waking up to the truth that keeping animals in captivity is simply wrong. That the lies of big companies like SeaWorld are being seen through. Since they are dependent on being able to dupe the public into believing that their performing animals are happy in order to sell tickets, that means time is running out for them.
We are full of admiration for the people who made this film and for the many former SeaWorld trainers who spoke frankly about their own experiences there and the dishonesty of the company they worked for which of course puts money ahead of the welfare of their whales and their trainers.
Please watch this film and share it far and wide. Knowledge is power and the more people have this knowledge, the more power we’ll have collectively to close these types of places. SeaWorld needs bums on seats. Let’s persuade all bums to sit elsewhere!
FIVE STARS! *****
Answerin’ Back
She said
“Do as you’re told
So that as you grow old-
-er, you’ll learn how to be a success.”
****
I said
“What’s that to me
If there’s no bumble bee
And the world’s all polluted wiv mess?”
****
She said
“Be quiet and sit still
Or you certainly will
Be punished and I’ll send home a letter!”
****
“Don’t answer back,
Good manners you lack,
You should know that your teacher knows better.”
****
I said
“That’s not always true,
I mean, wasn’t it you
Who told me people were s’posed to eat meat?”
****
“Now that can’t be right,
We don’t have sharp enuf bite,
To kill a animal for us to eat.”
****
“So if it’s alright wiv you,
I think I’ll just have to,
Answer back when I think of a question.”
****
“Like Tuvok I won’t
Nod my head when I don’t
Agree wiv a nillogical lesson!”
Be like Luke – think for yourself and never stop asking questions 🙂
A wake up call from Megan & Flos
Venus Aqueous demands:
“a rather harsh way of dealing with senior citizens,” wrote Bob Barker, aged 90.
Click the pic for the story
Vegan Food
Vegan food hot
Vegan food cold
Vegan food never gets
Nine days old.
Some like it hot
Some like it cold,
It’s just too good to leave until
It’s nine days old.
Vegan Organic Fair-Trade
Today I ate a bar of chocolate,
Vegan organic fair trade.
For taste, enjoyment and ethics it
Put other bars in the shade.
***
My chocolate went down so smoothly with
A piping hot cup of tea,
Vegan organic and fair trade too,
Happy indulgence for me.
***
Bananas we eat
And oranges sweet,
Are vegan organic fair trade.
***
On porridge we add
Sugar, just a tad,
That’s vegan organic fair trade.
***
The coffee and cocoa
And fruit that we can’t grow,
All vegan organic fair trade.
***
Vegan organic fair trade.
Vegan organic fair trade.
Just make up your mind
To keep purchases kind,
Buy vegan organic fair trade.
I have a dream …
Come on down
I can’t I can’t I can’t!
Let’s eat!
Great planters
Startled
No, really, BEWARE OF THE OGRE!!!
To be continued …
Lurking in the shadows
To be continued …
BEWARE OF THE OGRE!
To be continued …
A Life Less Ordinary
The first episode of Itchycoo Park is here at last. This eccentric story is for little ones so after today you’ll be able to find it on the 2 and up page. Click on the pic to take a look 🙂
Dolphins & Snuggling whales
This is amazing!
Maybe it’s just me and my love for the ocean but wow, this is amazing!
How lucky are we to share this planet with such amazing beings? And to have something as great as the ocean? 🙂
~ Patricia
TICK TOCK
Wait!
Itchycoo Park
New comic for little ones
Coming very soon!
😀
Make some sugar-free jam – you know you want to!
If you want jam but not sugar (nor other added sweetener either) then this is the recipe for you!
In the inventor’s own words “This recipe for strawberry jam does take some time to make in the absence of sugar or a natural sweetener, but the end result is pure strawberry goodness. It is definitely sweet enough and has an amazing buttery smooth and creamy consistency. I guarantee that if you like fresh strawberries, you will love this recipe.”
So go on, pop over to this website – Living Healthy with Chocolate dot com – and give it a go!
I know I’m going to! 🙂
Ladybird Ladybird
Ladybirds are good for the garden as they will eat the insects that hurt your plants. A ladybird house, as well as planting things they like (like dandelion and fennel), will encourage ladybirds to stay in your garden because it provides them with a safe roosting place during cold and frosty nights in early spring and a safe place in which to hibernate in winter.
So why not make one?
Put your bug house under a shrub or against a wall where it is warm and sheltered but not hot.
And if you’re feeling a bit more ambitious look at this! Amazing!
Don’t use chemicals in your garden, encourage nature to do the work for you 🙂
Storytime
When you’re sitting quietly, we’ll begin 🙂
Inspired to help some elephants?
Why not pop over to The Elephant Sanctuary and see how you can help out?
Don’t forget to wave
Prompted by our new and exciting interest in growing our food we’ve found something garden-related for you to enjoy 🙂
And if, after that, you’re feeling inspired, as we are, to indulge in some forest gardening, take a look at this gem of a blog I found yesterday – Of Plums and Pignuts – it’s choc full of inspiration. This post in particular gives you that “anything’s possible” excitement that makes you want to just get out there and do it! 😉
Please look after this bear
The Wombles – Rubbish Collectors & Recyclers Extraordinaire!
Sunshine and Showers
What are you looking at?
Forest Gardening
I have a mini-forest in my back garden. It represents a pioneer experiment in restoring a tiny segment of the primeval Long Forest, which once covered a wide area of the Shropshire Hills bioregion. Like the natural forest, it comprises a wide diversity of plants, occupying seven levels or ‘storeys’, but, unlike the natural forest, almost all its plants have been carefully chosen to meet human needs. It is, in fact, an attempt to create a model life-support system, which would enable a family or small community to achieve a considerable degree of self-sufficiency in basic necessities throughout the year, while enjoying health-giving exercise in a beautiful, unpolluted and stimulating environment. – Robert A de J Hart
Those who are concerned with the full implications of the ecological crisis which we now face generally agree that urgent steps should be taken to plant many millions of trees. …. It occurred to me that there was no reason why many of the desperately needed new trees should not be fruit-trees planted by the owners of town and suburban gardens, who would gain the bonus of growing nourishing food. If one could persuade 100 000 Londoners to plant just ten fruit-trees each, that would be a million trees – quite a forest!
That’s a great idea Robert! We don’t have a garden of our own, or any prospect of acquiring one, but we still want to join in! So we’ll just plant them in public places, places where we’ll be able to keep coming back to nurture our trees, and eventually to gather fruit from them, as will anyone else who wants to. 🙂
Nutritious Still Life
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!
🙂
The Car Free City Project
Brilliant!
The city council of Hamburg (Germany) has plans to divert most of its cars away from the city’s main thoroughfares in twenty years.
The city is planning to lay out new green areas that will bridge existing parks, community gardens, and cemeteries with another. The aim is to bring together the outer skirts of Hamburg and allow pedestrians and cyclists to reach every area of the city by foot.
When the project is completed 40% of Hamburg will be green places. In this large area residents will be able to hike, swim, do water sports, enjoy picnics and restaurants, experience calm, and watch nature and wildlife right in the city.
How does it get any better and what else is possible?!
~ Patricia
Source of Information: bbc.com
Grow your own apple trees
One day we caught the bus into the city and on the way, in the middle of nowhere, the bus stopped to pick someone up. Right next to the bus stop, on the wide grass verge, was a large apple tree. It was full of apples. An apple tree, in the middle of nowhere, by a bus stop, apparently not belonging to anyone. Free apples for anyone who chose to help themselves.
“How brilliant!” we thought. We should all plant fruit and nut trees at every opportunity, and provide free food for foragers. Food that will keep being produced year after year without any help from us.
So, we looked up how to grow an apple tree from seed (turns out there’s seed drying, seed damp-wrapping and seed cooling to be done, plus some weeks of waiting) and began 🙂
This was taken in January of our first seedling
And this is what it looks like now
So far we have 3 little apple trees going strong, all different varieties as advised on wikihow
It’s very exciting to watch them grow 😀
According to wikihow these trees, grown from seed, will be big (so we’ll have to carefully consider where we plant them) and it will probably be 10 years before they produce any fruit – but so what? We’re planting for the future, and that’s very cool! It doesn’t cost us anything and it’s a very positive thing to do. Why don’t you have a go? Here’s how
Fancy growing other types of tree from seeds you’ve collected? No problem – just look at this brilliant web page
UPDATES:
Look here to see how our little apple trees are doing 14 months later 🙂
And look at them now – after 2 and a quarter years 😀
And the year after that! (2017)
And in 2019!
Walnut Counting Rhyme
Up and down the walnut tree,
The squirrels run,
Just for fun,
Collecting nuts for free.
1, 2, 3.
The 4th they drop for me.
***
From branch to walnut branch,
The squirrels jump,
Without a bump,
Collecting nuts for free.
5, 6, 7.
The eighth they drop for me.
***
Round and round for walnuts bound,
The squirrels dance,
They skip and prance,
Collecting nuts for free.
9, 10, 11.
The 12th they drop for me.
***
Squirrels full of energy,
Go from tree to walnut tree,
Collecting nuts for free,
And dropping them for me.
When they have 30
How many will there be for me?
Did you know that squirrels communicate with each other through various vocalisations and scent marking. They also use their tails as a signalling device, twitching it when uneasy to alert other squirrels of potential danger. I have seen this and it’s fascinating to watch.
For more interesting facts about squirrels pop over here
Welcome Home
My friend Ellen shared this video yesterday on her blog Moonside and I just had to reblog it 🙂
Puddlesplashers
Wetsox Puddlesplasher,
That is my name.
My job is important
But it feels like a game.
***
We clamber through ditches,
And sink in the mud.
We jump down from earth mounds
And land with a thud.
***
Soggybottom Puddlesplasher,
My close relation,
Is my partner at work,
This mucky vocation.
***
***
***
But that is no matter,
There’s no turning back.
We have to keep going,
And fill our sack,
With bottles and cans,
Some broken, some shredded,
That were dropped by the stupid,
The thoughtless, wrong-headed.
***
These everyday things,
Used once and tossed out,
Are dangerous now,
To the others about
Their business as usual,
Living their lives.
They step on a shredded can,
That cuts like knives.
They eat plastic pieces
Or cigarette butts,
Which hurt them as much,
As the broken glass cuts.
***
So our job is important
And we’ll always stay
Proud Puddlesplashers,
Day after day.
Five years later …
Here we go again
Here We Go Round The Shopping Mall
All together now:
Here we go round the shopping mall,
The shopping mall, the shopping mall,
Here we go round the shopping mall
On a dirty, dusty morning.
***
This is the way we’re kicked about,
Knocked about, blown about,
This is the way we get about
On a cold and windy morning.
***
This is the way we go for a swim,
How we slip in, how we drop in,
This is the way we go for a swim
On a bright and blustery morning.
***
This is the way we float down stream,
We float down stream, we float down stream,
This is the way we float down stream
On a hot and sunny morning.
***
This is the way we go to sea,
We go to sea, we go to sea,
This is the way we go to sea
On a calm and cloudy morning.
***
This is the way we poison the life,
Strangle the life, entangle the life,
This is the way we choke the life
Out of each and every ocean.
***
Here we go round the ocean gyres,
The ocean gyres, the ocean gyres,
Here we go round the ocean gyres
For a hundred thousand mornings.
***
vegan nursery rhyme
Three Brown Cows
Three brown cows. Three brown cows.
See how they run. See how they run.
They all run after the human ilk,
Who kidnap their calves and then steal their milk,
The cows want their calves back, the humans can’t bilk,
The three brown cows.
For more nursery rhymes and wacky verse for kids click here 😀
*****************************
vegan nursery rhymes
Hickety pickety …
Hickety pickety my red friends,
They go where they want, there is no fence.
They wake at dawn, eager to go out,
And scratch with their pals, around and about.
*******************
vegan nursery rhymes
Violet's Vegan Comics 
