New Fairy Tale – Coming Soon!

March 5, 2015

By Violet's Vegan Comics

Our new fairy tale, Marcus’s Wishes, will be here very soon!

Tomorrow in fact!

Watch this space 😉

D is for Donkey

March 4, 2015

By Violet's Vegan Comics

Donkey noun

Oxford Dictionary definition: 1. Domestic ass 2. colloquial stupid person

Our definition: The donkey’s wild ancestor, the African Wild Ass, is well suited to life in a desert or semi-desert environment, having a tough digestive system which can break down desert vegetation and extract moisture from food efficiently. They can also go without water for a fairly long time. Their large ears give them an excellent sense of hearing and help in cooling. Because of the sparse vegetation in their environment wild asses live somewhat separated from each other (except for mothers and young), unlike the tightly grouped herds of wild horses. They have very loud voices, which can be heard for over 3 km (1.9 mi), which helps them to keep in contact with other asses over the wide spaces of the desert.

Mature males defend large territories around 23 square kilometres in size, marking them with dung heaps – an essential marker in the flat, monotonous terrain. Due to the size of these ranges, the dominant male cannot exclude other males. Rather, intruders are tolerated—recognized and treated as subordinates, and kept as far away as possible from any of the resident females.

Wild asses can run swiftly, almost as fast as a horse. However, their tendency is to not flee right away from a potentially dangerous situation, but to investigate first before deciding what to do. When they need to, they can defend themselves with kicks from both their front and hind legs.

Though the species itself is under no threat of extinction, due to abundant domestic stock, the two extant wild subspecies are both listed as critically endangered. African wild asses have been captured for domestication for centuries, and this, along with interbreeding between wild and domestic animals, has caused a distinct decline in population numbers. There are now only a few hundred individuals left in the wild. These animals are also hunted for food and for traditional medicine in both Ethiopia and Somalia. Competition with domestic livestock for grazing, and restricted access to water supplies caused by agricultural developments, pose further threats to their survival. The African wild ass is legally protected in the countries where it is currently found, although these measures often prove difficult to enforce.

There are more than 40 million ‘domesticated’ donkeys in the world, mostly in developing countries where they are used principally as draught or pack animals. Working donkeys are often associated with those living at or below subsistence levels. Small numbers of donkeys are kept for breeding or as pets in developed countries.

The Donkey Sanctuary in Devon works hard to transform the quality of life for donkeys, mules and people worldwide through greater understanding, collaboration and support, and by promoting lasting, mutually life-enhancing relationships. They work inclusively with people frequently marginalised within their own countries and communities, whether due to poverty, ignorance, race, gender or disabilities. They treat every interaction as a two-way opportunity to learn and to teach. “We know that it is only together that we can help donkey owners and carers become donkey welfare ambassadors wherever they live and work.”

Dr Elisabeth Svendsen, in love with them since childhood, made it her life’s mission to rescue abused, neglected and abandoned donkeys and founded The Donkey Sanctuary in 1969. She said,

“To me they are the most beautiful, the most underrated animals in the world – and, as long as they need my help, they shall have it.”

********

is finished for the time being.

Click on the picture or go to the dictionary in the sidebar 🙂 And now, on to E e

C is for Crab

March 3, 2015

By Violet's Vegan Comics

Crab noun

Oxford Dictionary definition: 1. Shellfish with 10 legs 2. This as food

Our definition: 1. Crabs are sentient beings who live in all the world’s oceans, in fresh water, and on land, are generally covered with a thick exoskeleton and have a single pair of claws. They attract a mate through chemical (pheromones), visual, acoustic or vibratory means. Pheromones are used by most fully aquatic crabs, while terrestrial and semi-terrestrial crabs often use visual signals, such as fiddler crab males waving their large claw to attract females. Crabs are mostly active animals with complex behaviour patterns. They can communicate by drumming or waving their pincers. Males will fight to win females or to defend territory. Fiddler Crabs dig burrows in sand or mud, which they use for resting, hiding, mating and to defend against intruders. Crabs are omnivores, feeding primarily on algae, and taking any other food, including molluscs, worms, other crustaceans, fungi, bacteria and detritus, depending on their availability and the crab species.

2. Crabs are boiled alive by humans who want to eat them.

*************

The Cc page is done now (click on the pic or go to the dictionary in the sidebar).

I’ll be starting on Dd today 😀

C is for Cake

March 2, 2015

By Violet's Vegan Comics

I’m working on the Cs now and was delighted to find that the first word which needed redefining was Cake:

Oxford Dictionary definition: Mixture of flour, butter, eggs, sugar etc. baked in the oven.

Our definition: There is absolutely no need of eggs and butter when making a cake. There are so many delicious vegan, and even raw vegan, cake recipes – some very sophisticated and complicated and some, my favourites, needing nothing more than flour, sugar (or other natural sweetener such as agave), vegetable oil and water. And I do not exaggerate when I say that they taste better than any cake I tasted in my pre-vegan days. But you don’t need to take my word for it, look at oatielover’s chocolate cake and Lisa’s vanilla layer cake or any of the thousands of vegan cake recipes out there – there’s something for everyone. All this typing’s making me peckish, please excuse me a moment while I grab one of the blueberry muffins I made earlier 😉

And talking of Blueberry Muffins – this is how I made them:

I mixed together 8 ounces of organic spelt, 2 teaspoons of baking powder, 4 ounces of organic sugar, 4 tablespoons of organic vegetable oil, and about 150 ml of water. Then, when that was all combined into a smooth mixture I added a load of rinsed organic blueberries and mixed those in well. I then generously filled 6 large paper cake cases with the mixture and baked them in a muffin pan at 180°c (fan oven) for half an hour. Easy as pie! Or rather, cake!

Icing is optional but highly recommended 🙂

Don’t fancy blueberries? What about a butterfly cake?

Same recipe, minus the blueberries. When they’re cold, scoop out the top of the cake, fill the hole with icing, cut the cut-out bit in half and stick it in the icing to look like wings.

Anything omnivores can do, vegans can do better! Stick that in your cake-hole Oxford Dictionary!

From caring comes wisdom

February 27, 2015

By Violet's Vegan Comics

“‘From caring comes courage.’ We might add that from it also comes wisdom. It’s rather significant, we think, that those who have no compassion have no wisdom. Knowledge, yes; cleverness, maybe; wisdom, no. A clever mind is not a heart. Knowledge doesn’t really care. Wisdom does. We also consider it significant that cor, the Latin word for “heart”, is the basis for the word courage. Piglet put it this way: ‘She isn’t Clever, Kanga isn’t, but she would be so anxious about Roo that she would do a Good Thing to Do without thinking about it.'”

Benjamin Hoff

The Tao of Pooh

Page 128

B is for Bee

February 26, 2015

By Violet's Vegan Comics

Compiling the vegan dictionary is taking a long time and I won’t be able to complete a letter in one day as I naïvely first thought. I have only just finished Bb so won’t be able to share any C words until at least tomorrow 🙂 In the meantime, Miranda thought it might be a good idea to post an excerpt of Bb – so here it is:

Bee noun

Oxford Dictionary definition: Four-winged stinging insect, collecting nectar and pollen and producing honey and wax.

Our definition: There are lots of different types of bee in the UK, around 250 species – 24 species of bumble bee, 225 species of solitary bee and just one species of honey bee. Honey bees will live through the winter, eating and working all winter long, which of course requires a large store of food – hence the honey they’ve worked hard for all summer. With Bumble bees however, the new queens, after mating, find somewhere to hibernate and the rest of the colony dies off. While hibernating she does not need to eat so there are no honey stores. In the spring when she has to work hard, she makes a small pot of honey for herself. Solitary bees typically produce neither honey nor wax. They are important pollinators as the females, who are all fertile, build their own nests and take care of their own young so pollen is gathered for provisioning the nest with food for their brood. Bees gathering nectar (eg honey bees) may accomplish pollination, but bees that are deliberately gathering pollen (eg solitary orchard mason bees) are more efficient pollinators. There are also 500 species of stingless bee

Bb-Day is here!

February 25, 2015

By Violet's Vegan Comics

Click on the pic and you may Bbegin reading 😉

Rethinking the language with a vegan dictionary

February 24, 2015

By Violet's Vegan Comics

So often we realise, and sometimes we don’t realise, that the words we use normalise animal exploitation and degradation. A man might be angrily referred to as a ‘pig’ because he behaves in an obnoxious or sexist manner; a person might be called an ‘animal’ if they are aggressive or bad mannered; some animals are described by the way they taste instead of by characteristics which actually tell us something about them as individuals; people are desensitised to the harsh realities which face captive animals every day because words, like ‘abattoir’ for example, are defined simply as slaughterhouse which doesn’t begin to convey the horror and becomes an accepted and unquestioned fact that doesn’t make people recoil or revolt.

The other side of this coin is that some words are only described in relation to animal farming when in fact there is so much more to them (see alfalfa).

So we thought it would be a good idea to make a vegan dictionary, with words defined from a vegan point of view, and we’ll keep it high up in the sidebar for easy reference. It will take a long time to complete – so far I have just done A! – but it is a very interesting endeavour and I am enjoying it.

I began by referring to my big old Oxford dictionary. I went through the A section, page by page, and every time I came across a word which normalised animal exploitation or degradation, or which was defined in a way which did, I copied it down and defined it honestly and fully to the best of my ability. I also include the Oxford definition in my dictionary for comparison.

You can find the dictionary by clicking on the picture at the top of this post, or on the picture of the dictionary in the sidebar and that will take you to links to the lettered pages – so far, as I said, just A, but I’ll get started on B today!

I believe that most people, whether they be veg*n or not, have compassion for animals and the reason that many of those who feel love for other species still eat some of them is because they have been conditioned from birth not to question it. It is deeply embedded in the language they speak.

When I was 13 I told my dad that I wanted to be vegetarian and he asked me why. I told him that it was because I didn’t want animals to be killed. He explained to me earnestly that it was all done humanely; that they don’t suffer. He didn’t know that. He didn’t know anything about animal farming or slaughter, but he believed it to be true. He had been told that there were regulations in place to make sure the animals didn’t suffer and he believed it. And he told me that it was true. And that’s what most people think: it is normal, it is natural and it is humane.

But it isn’t any of those things so we need a new normal, and it starts with the language.

Sherman & Geynes are here at last!

February 23, 2015

By Miranda's Vegan Comics

Finally episode 1 of Sherman & Geynes: Expert Sleuths is safely ensconced on the 5 and up shelf or if you don’t want to go all the way over there, click here

I hope you enjoy it 😀

A few minutes later …

February 20, 2015

By Violet's Vegan Comics

For the whole story, click here

And on a little-known website, three weeks later:

CLICK TO ENLARGE

And that’s it for Episode 4.

Join Megan & Flos again in Episode 5, some time in the future, when Megan’s dream of space travel comes true 😀

What were you thinking?

February 19, 2015

By Violet's Vegan Comics

For the story so far, click here

Concludes tomorrow …. probably 😉

What on Earth????

February 18, 2015

By Violet's Vegan Comics

For the story so far click here

To be continued ….

Fading Fast

February 17, 2015

By Violet's Vegan Comics

For the story so far click here

To be continued ….

Can’t Stop

February 16, 2015

By Violet's Vegan Comics

For the story so far click here

To be continued ……

Creak

February 13, 2015

By Violet's Vegan Comics

For the story so far click here

To be continued ….

Here we go

February 12, 2015

By Violet's Vegan Comics

For the story so far click here

I am Flos

February 11, 2015

By Violet's Vegan Comics

For the story so far click here

To be continued …

5 minutes later …

February 10, 2015

By Violet's Vegan Comics

For the story so far click here

To be continued ….

Green for ground

February 9, 2015

By Violet's Vegan Comics

For the story so far click here

To be continued …

Wobbly

February 6, 2015

By Violet's Vegan Comics

For the story so far click here

To be continued ….

I need you.

February 5, 2015

By Violet's Vegan Comics

For the story so far, click here

To be continued ….

35 Minutes Well Spent

February 4, 2015

By Violet's Vegan Comics

I know everybody’s very busy, but you really need to see this – just the animation in the first 7 minutes if that’s all you can spare – but the rest of it really makes it real and drives home why Flos is so determined to make it stop.

And in the UK?

Everything’s changed.

February 3, 2015

By Violet's Vegan Comics

For the story so far click here

To be continued …..

Venenosa Clades

February 2, 2015

By Violet's Vegan Comics

For the story so far, click here

“Venenosa Clades was once a beautiful, flourishing planet on which vast numbers of plant and animal species thrived due to the miraculous, life-sustaining element: water. All the different life-forms, whether they dwelt on land or sea or spent most of their time in the air, had one thing in common: their need for water. Venenosa Clades had so much water, above ground and deep under the surface, that there was never any need to worry about not having enough. And this was the case for millions of years.

“But, tragically, the planet suffered a severe volpar infection. Volpars are nomadic, seeking out vibrant host planets on which to settle and multiply. And they multiply fast, killing native species to make room for themselves and spreading across the whole world. Their propensity to reproduce is equalled only by their belief that they are the superior species and as such have a much greater entitlement to a planet’s natural resources than all native species put together.”

“The infection on Venenosa Clades was typical. It spread fast and was soon depleting the planet’s resources, to the point where it began to spread underground. With tremendous force it struck at the ancient clay rocks deep below the planet’s surface and the result was predictably disastrous. There were earthquakes where previously there had been none, and the pure underground water became contaminated with the gas released from the clay and other noxious substances. Still, awareness of the results of this activity didn’t halt the infection which continued its violent assaults on the planet.

“Venenosa Clades’ native species’ subconscious cries for help were so loud and so desperate that we heard them, though we were thousands of light years away. Not knowing if there would be anything we could do, we answered their telepathic calls, travelling as fast as we could. But we arrived far too late to help anyone. The planet was devoid of life and had been for several years. However, the thoughts and memories of its former inhabitants were still floating in the ether so we were able to piece together what had happened. They called it vis unda protero, which roughly translates to your language as hydraulic fracture.”

Oh No!!!!

January 30, 2015

By Violet's Vegan Comics

For the story so far click here

To be continued ….

Out of sight

January 29, 2015

By Violet's Vegan Comics

For the story so far click here

To be continued ….

Keeping Secrets

January 28, 2015

By Violet's Vegan Comics

For the story so far click here

To be continued …

Fracking?

January 27, 2015

By Violet's Vegan Comics

For the story so far, click here

“They create a mixture of mostly fresh water with sand and nasty chemicals added. Then they inject this fluid at very high pressure, into a gas well, thousands of feet deep into the ground. Now forget the chemicals for a minute and just picture the fact that they use about 40,000 gallons of water every time they do this! And each well can be fracked 18 times. What a criminal waste of water! Anyway, the fluid is going down the pipe at such pressure that when it reaches the end of the well and hits the shale rock down there, it fractures it, making lots of tiny cracks, kept open with the grains of sand in the fluid, and the natural gas – that is methane – leaks out of these cracks into the well. So that’s how they get the gas.”

“What makes this business really horrifying is that during the process some of the toxic chemicals – and they use hundreds of different nasties in there, like lead, uranium, radium, mercury, hydrochloric acid, the list goes on and on – and the methane gas leach out from the system and contaminate the ground water. And the ground water is where our drinking water comes from. They are threatening the health and survival of everyone! In America they have found that drinking water wells near fracturing sites have 17 times higher concentration of methane in them than normal and some people have even been able to light their taps on fire because of the high level of gas in their water. Many others have become seriously ill from drinking it.”

To be continued …

*****

Information from Dangers of Fracking and Food and Water Watch

Fracking infographic adapted from one found at levellers.org

Didn’t I tell you?

January 26, 2015

By Violet's Vegan Comics

For the story so far, click here

To be continued …

Sherman and Geynes are just around the corner

January 23, 2015

By Miranda's Vegan Comics

Sleuthing starts here. 😀

The Very Next Day ….

January 21, 2015

By Violet's Vegan Comics

Click here for the story so far

To be continued ….

Megan & Flos, Episode 4 begins here:

January 20, 2015

By Violet's Vegan Comics

This story continues from Episode 3: The Goblin Did It!

To be continued ….

And the vegan children’s book goes to …

January 19, 2015

By Violet's Vegan Comics

So we wrote down all the entrants’ names,

folded them up, put them in a bowl and, with eyes closed, picked out the winner.

And the winner is:

Congratulations Ady 😀 a copy of Why are you a vegan? and other wacky verse for kids will be on its way to you as soon as you give me your address (which you can do privately via the Contact page).

Thank you to everyone who entered – I wish I had enough to send one to all of you 😀

See you tomorrow when Episode 4 of Megan & Flos begins!

Only 2 and a half days left

January 16, 2015

By Violet's Vegan Comics

Comment on this, or this or this post to be entered into the prize draw for a chance to win a free copy of Why are you a vegan? and other wacky verse for kids

But hurry, you’ve only got until midnight Sunday (GMT), we’ll be drawing the winner on Monday morning 🙂

Good luck!

3 Days And Counting

January 15, 2015

By Violet's Vegan Comics

You’ve got until midnight Sunday (GMT) to let us know if you want to enter the prize draw to win a copy of Why are you a vegan? and other wacky verse for kids

TICK TOCK 😀

Exciting News!

January 14, 2015

By Violet's Vegan Comics

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.

Sneak Peak

January 13, 2015

By Violet's Vegan Comics

Episode 4 of Megan & Flos is on the drawing board. Here’s a sneak peak of what’s to come:

Coming Soon!

January 9, 2015

By Miranda's Vegan Comics

Click here for the first episode!

26 Verses of Deidra

January 7, 2015

By Violet's Vegan Comics

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

Look at the time!

January 5, 2015

By Violet's Vegan Comics

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

Knit your own Father Christmas

December 24, 2014

By Violet's Vegan Comics

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 😉

Happy Christmas Sandra!

December 23, 2014

By Violet's Vegan Comics

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!!!!!!!

And the winner is ….

December 20, 2014

By Violet's Vegan Comics

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

Yule Log mark 1

December 19, 2014

By Violet's Vegan Comics

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 😀

A Good Book and some Upcycling

December 18, 2014

By Violet's Vegan Comics

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 Hungry Compost Bin

December 17, 2014

By Violet's Vegan Comics

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.

Christmas Giveaway!

December 16, 2014

By Violet's Vegan Comics

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! 😀

12 Days of [vegan] Christmas

December 15, 2014

By Violet's Vegan Comics

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.

Ridiculous!

November 14, 2014

By Violet's Vegan Comics

For the story so far, click here

To be continued ….

We interrupt this story to tell you about ….

November 13, 2014

By Violet's Vegan Comics

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 😀