And the Open House continues on Violet’s Veg*n e-Comics (vegan comics for children; vegan comics; veggie kids – for the benefit of google 😉 ) with the stories in the 5 years and up age range (which can also be enjoyed by people of any age!)
This is the smallest collection with only 3 stories in this category at the moment, but we will strive to add more as soon as is humanly possible!
First (since new stories will always be added to the top of the page, you will come to the later episodes before the earlier ones) Luke Walker episode 2:
Luke Walker is an 8 year old with a strong sense of right and wrong which tends to conflict with that of his teachers and parents. AWOL is the second story in the series
and
“Why are you a vegan?” is a rhyming story about a conversation between Andrew Jones (meat eater) and Jamila (vegan). It’s a bit of a laugh xx
and finally
This our introduction to the delightful Luke Walker
I like to have a change from time to time and since there were quite a few stories to scroll through on the comics (home) page I thought it would be better to do things like this now.
So if a newcomer finds us, and wants a story to read to little Jimmy, he can go straight to the right age-group and hopefully find something he likes. Of course it’s not foolproof because there’s no hard and fast rules about which age will like which stories, so I hope people will still browse the whole lot, no matter how old they are 🙂
Plus, the comics are still all listed alphabetically in the sidebar.
I’d be interested to know what you think and feel free to let me know if you liked it better before I changed it 🙂
PS I’m also experimenting with more words on the page (as opposed to just on the pictures) because I don’t think google’s noticing us enough! So, with that in mind, here’s a few more words: veggie kids, vegan children, vegetarian children, vegan kids, vegetarian kids, veggie, vegan, vegetarian, veg*n, vegan comics, vegan comics for children, Violet’s Vegan Comics, Violet’s Veg*n e-Comics. That’ll do for now 😉
“Well consider the word ‘people’, for example. If I asked someone what the word ‘people’ means they would probably say: “It’s the plural of ‘person’ and a person is a human being.””
“Ok, I’m with you so far …”
“but I think that definition is incomplete.”
“How do you mean?”
“To my mind, the definition of ‘a person’ is anyone with an individual personality. Like you Chiksa, you have your own distinct personality don’t you?”
“Absolutely!”
“And you’re not like every other chicken in the yard?”
“Certainly not! I’m not bossy like Henny-Penny, or painfully shy like Henrietta.”
“So you see my point. You are not human but you have a personality and that makes you a person. That makes all animals people.”
“That’s the logical conclusion to draw, yes.”
“Which brings me to my next thought: why do people think it’s ok to eat people?”
There once was a vegan called Megan
Whose best friend was a fish-shaped alien,
She did love to read,
And to grow things from seed,
She loved animals and never would eat one!
🙂
Go to the Megan & Flos stories to read more about Megan 🙂
Knitting is a very enjoyable hobby as well as being a very useful skill. To be able to make your own clothes, toys and accessories is a brilliant way of being self-reliant and can also be eco-friendly.
As a vegan shopper you won’t want to buy wool or alpaca or silk, but as an eco-minded shopper you won’t want to buy acrylic. The problem is that organic, eco-friendly, natural yarns are very expensive.
So what do you do if you can’t afford the eco-stuff? Simple – you Re-Knit!
Browsing in charity shops and second hand shops you’re bound to find knitwear that is a pretty colour, but unattractive design. If you buy it, wash it and unravel it, you can re-knit that colour into something beautiful. It’s just another way to recycle, or upcycle if you like, and it’s very enjoyable and satisfying. Here are a few things we made with unravelled yarn and oddments:
This matching hat and mittens was made with acrylic yarn unravelled from 2 different machine-knit jumpers. The problem with unravelling mass-produced machine-knits is that the yarn is cut at the end of each row, it’s not continuous like with hand-knits. So the ends of the yarn had to knotted together as each row was unravelled. Quite tedious and time-consuming but it results in interesting balls of yarn which, when knitted together, produce a unique effect. Leaving the dangling ends of each knot untrimmed creates a shabby chic effect .
Blanket made by sewing together little knitted squares
The yarn from these saggy old hats was unravelled and knitted into …
… this gorgeous beret
An enjoyable way to give new life to old knitwear and keep it out of landfill 🙂
Don’t know how to knit? No problem – watch this brilliant video:
And for the left-handed:
UPDATE:
I’ve just finished the hoodie I was knitting in the photo at the top. I wanted a warm chunky knit but didn’t have any thick yarn so this is knitted with 3 strands of unravelled DK acrylic; lots of different colours and oddments. It’s so soft and warm, like wrapping yourself in a blanket before you go outside. Now I’ve just got to find a zip for it 🙂
Further update:
I’ve just finished another one here and if you would like to make one yourself, the pattern is at the bottom of this post 🙂
We had to do some shopping in Brighton today so we indulged ourselves in a visit to the Loving Hut while we were there. Twice actually – once before we started shopping and again when we were finished. On our second visit we were especially lucky because the lovely ladies at The Hut brought out two cupcakes on the house for me and Miranda while my husband waited for the dessert he’d ordered 😀
Art Toppling Tobacco is an anti-smoking campaign in the form of an annual art competition. It is free to enter and open to anyone of any age, worldwide, so why don’t you have a go? Below are some of the children’s submissions from last year.
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 her costume in episode 3 – but you can make any clothes you like, and as many as you like. Place the cardboard doll on a piece of paper and draw round her. To draw where the feet and neck are on your clothes, hold the paper over the doll against a window and trace. Once you have the outlines drawn, you can use your imagination in drawing the clothes. NB You must also remember to draw the tabs that will be folded round her body to attach the clothes.
Colour them in and cut them out.
Now you need to get her standing up by herself. To do this you need a strip of cardboard into which you cut 2 slits (half the length of the width of the strip), the same distance from each end. Then cut 2 slits of equal length in the semi-circle base of the doll (close but not too close to the outer edges).
Slot these pieces together like so. And there she is, your own Reflecto Girl!
Now you can dress her …
… and dress her again (and yes I have noticed that her shoes don’t quite line up with her feet, but nobody’s perfect, so let’s not worry about it).
We hope you enjoy making your own Reflecto Girl and if you do we’d love to see photos 🙂
And whenever you feel like it, you can make her more clothes and accessories.
Miranda wanted her to have some pyjamas and a doll to sleep with:
Venus works hard trying to clean up the rubbish in the ocean in order to save the animals who are being poisoned and ensnared by it. But since 80% of the rubbish in the oceans originates on land, it’s impossible for her to keep her beloved sea clean. So, the rest of us need to make sure that all our rubbish is properly disposed and not littered. More than that, we need to actually pick up other people’s litter in order to protect wild animals and help Venus.
Yuck! That sounds like a dirty job, and it’s important to take care not to pick up anything dangerous like broken glass or needles (ask a grown up to deal with that stuff) but if we don’t do it, who will? Of course it would be better in the long run if we stop buying things that don’t degrade harmlessly in the environment – namely plastic – and then this nasty litter problem might be solved.
Anyway, I’ve invented a board game that you can make for yourself and all you need is paper; something with which to draw or paint; stones or buttons or whatever little things you’ve got lying around to use as counters; and a dice pinched from another game.
1. Paint an aerial view (map-type) picture of Venus’s home town (it doesn’t have to be the same mine, you can use your imagination 🙂 )
2. Add places to visit, like shops and cafes
3. Then add ways to score points like picking up litter; refusing to buy plastic items; recycling what you’ve found or bought; and freeing animals who have been trapped in cages.
4. Finally add stepping stones which link all these places on your map.
Now your picture should look something like this:
IF YOU CLICK ON THIS PIC YOU WILL MAGNIFY IT SO YOU CAN SEE IT BETTER
NOW YOU’RE READY TO PLAY!
Imagine you have come to visit Venus and are staying at the campsite (place all the counters at the campsite to start). But Venus is out diving, cleaning up the rubbish in the sea, so while you’re waiting for her you can explore the town.
Each person rolls the dice and the one with the highest score starts.
When you roll the dice you move that number of spaces (stepping stones) from the campsite. You can go in any direction but you can’t change direction in the middle of one roll.
The idea is to go around the town, accumulating points by landing on the award-giving spots. You have to roll the exact number to land on the award-spots (and that doesn’t mean the stepping stone next to the award-spot – you actually land on the award-spot).
You can go around the town as many times as you like and land on the same awards more than once, but if you go back to the campsite the game will be over.
In other words, the game can last as long as you like. As soon as the first person gets back to the campsite, the game is over and you add up all your points. The person with the most points is the winner (not the first person back to the campsite). So, you need to be aware of when you are in the lead on points and then get back to the campsite as quick as you can before someone else overtakes your score.
EVE PICKED THESE UP IN 20 MINUTES AT THE LOCAL PARK
It is estimated that several trillion cigarette butts are littered worldwide every year. That’s billions of cigarettes flicked, one at a time, on our sidewalks, beaches, nature trails, gardens, and other public places every single day. In fact, cigarettes are the most littered item in the world. Maybe it’s because people think they’re made of harmless biodegradable material,
BUT THEY’RE NOT!!
Cigarette filters are made of cellulose acetate tow (plastic fibers) and they can take decades to degrade. Not only does cigarette litter ruin even the most picturesque setting, but the toxic residue in cigarette filters is damaging to the environment and the animals that mistake them for food. The filter is specifically designed to trap toxic chemicals (to stop the smoker sucking them in) and when they’re discarded, these toxins leak into the environment (and the bodies of those who eat them).
In the secrecy of the wooded back hills of rural Tennessee an unusual relationship had developed. Some speculated but
no one really knew what attracted the two opposites or the length of time their enchanting relationship had gone
undetected. What we do know is that on the surface it appeared that these two had little in common; one was singularly focused and soft spoken, even a little shy, but a proud territorial type with an appetite for meat. The other a gregarious chatterbox with a wandering nature and a taste for a plant-based diet. This remarkable friendship could be considered a love story of sorts; definitely what fairy tales are made of.
In 2003 the white stray canine wandered into our habitat and befriended The Sanctuary’s founding elephant, Tarra. The inseparable friends were incredible in their devotion to each other. Bella trusted Tarra so completely, she would let the giant elephant stroke her stomach with her foot and caress her with her trunk. Bella and Tarra found sanctuary together in the 2,200 acres of the Elephant Sanctuary; swimming in ponds, exploring new paths, and resting side by side in the sunshine until Bella passed away in October 2011.
The Elephant Sanctuary have set up a fund in memory of Bella which will be used to support both the ongoing care of their elephants as well as the care of strays, like Bella, who wander into Hohenwald seeking sanctuary and friendship. A portion of the proceeds will be used to support efforts of local humane associations and their efforts to care for strays in need of a permanent home. CLICK HEREif you want to contribute to this very worthy cause.
Shirley was captured in the wild in 1953 when she was 5 years old. She performed for twenty-four years with the Carson and Barnes Circus, then lived at the Louisiana Purchase Gardens and Zoo for another twenty-two years.
Her back right leg was broken thirty years ago when she was attacked by a fellow circus elephant. She is missing a large section of her right ear as result of a fire which not only injured her ear but also left several scars on her back, side and feet.
July 6, 1999
Shirley and Tarra liked each other right from the start! Shirley showed Tarra all her injuries that she received when attacked by another elephant at the circus. Tarra sympathetically inspected each injury and the two elephants caressed each other with their trunks. Fruits and vegetables awaited Shirley when she entered the Sanctuary Barn. Cabbages, oranges, watermelon, squash… all sorts of yummy food to show Shirley how much we already loved her! Tarra squashed the watermelon, then helped herself to much of it.
July 22, 2013
Shirley’s 65th birthday party was a BLAST! Shirley has given us every reason to believe to that we will be celebrating her birthday for many years to come.
Sissy was captured and separated from her mother and family in Thailand in 1969 when she was one year old, and then shipped to America where she became the favourite attraction at Six Flags over Texas Amusement Park petting zoo.
Sissy lived alone in a zoo for many years with no friends. She had to be creative and improvise. The tyre she carries is not the exact tyre she had growing up but it has become an acceptable substitute. Sissy likes to take her tyre with her just about everywhere she goes.
She was at the Frank Buck Zoo during the record flood of 1981, when she and many of the Zoo’s animal collection were swept from their enclosures. Sissy was presumed dead but when the waters started to recede, she was spotted. Actually it was her trunk that was spotted, wrapped around a tree limb, sticking just above the water line. It would be another 24 hours before the water level dropped enough for Sissy to free herself from the tree that her body and trunk were wrapped around. Sissy suffered long-term emotional trauma from that horrifying accident. Several who were close to her have said that the threat of a pending storm causes Sissy to become petrified with fear. Her phobia of water was so deep that for years Sissy would allow only one keeper to give her a bath.
In 1986, Sissy was shipped to the Fort Worth Zoo for breeding. This was the first time since infancy that Sissy would be with others of her own kind. Sadly her socialization skills were not developed, making interaction with the other elephants difficult for her. Additionally, Sissy was now separated from her longtime keeper and was now expected to respond to strangers. She reportedly showed signs of aggression toward her new keepers and did not relate well with the other elephants. Those who knew her well observed that Sissy was miserable.
After some time at El Paso zoo where she was mistreated, she was finally allowed to retire to the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee –
and look at her now!
Sissy with her sanctuary pal, Winkie
Sissy and Winkie, best pals
Sissy watches as Winkie takes her first tentative steps into the sanctuary pond
Violet's Vegan Comics 