New Blood

As an artist, I have taken the unorthodox step of reworking some paintings and adding more enjoyable men! All characters are purely fictitious. Any resemblance to people living or dead is purely coincidental apart from perhaps Edward from Twilight, who is admittedly living, dead and fictitious all at the same time. You can say that perhaps he's not suitable; too young and not very veggie...but if you watch the films more closely, you will notice that being 17, 117, a vampire and even dead just don't get in the way for him. He's still a principled sort of a guy with a certain gravitas - which I think I've catptured visually with the beard.   

Unexpected Meeting

Camel Preservation

Free To A Good Home!

Did I say I love gardening? I don't think that's strictly true. That I lose track of time? No, this much scutch grass out of this bed took me exactly 3 hours.

Some jobs in the garden are quick and straightforward, like...no, can't think of any off the top of my head.

Some have unexpected rewards like the finding of 3 previously undiscovered potatoes.

Some facilitate another mission, like preparing a space for rose I had bought myself for Valentine's Day...because I'm worth it (as L'Oreal says).

But only worth €2.50! as I found this beautiful red rose in the Chinese pound shop on High Street. I felt a bit sorry for them in there with the other tat. When I opened the box I found that the stems were waxed and elastic banded together and there was mould nearly to the top. The only sign of life was a little sprout.

After my labours, I came out to find that Becky had broken off, systematically, all the new branches of fuschia and I thought:

Do I really love animals? Well, not really. I'm going to try and rehome the lot I think, see if anyone else has time for a bit more training. Does that mean that I think, after all, that they deserve to die young so someone can eat them? No.

I feel so happy at the thought of the house smelling good and clean and tidy, the rolling lawn and wonderful edible garden coming to fruition. So this is a shout out to anyone who would like to adopt any of my animals
2 pigs
3 cats
2 dogs
1 pony
If you can offer any of them a home, THANK YOU! I would love to hear from you. I will happily sponsor them with some food and help to get them settled!

Is it part of the New World Order plan that if you want to eat un-poisoned with pesticide food you have to suffer and wile away days of hard labour on the off chance you manage to produce one or two items yourself?! Why not just make it policy, no more chemicals on any of the food/ingredients in our shops, please. And while we're at it, make it policy, no more killing animals for food and using their remains or fluids as byproducts. It's just barbaric and unhealthy and I can't be bothered to try and avoid the toxicity and cruelty that seems to be the main fare on offer, currently.

I'm thinking that the powers that be want to keep those of us who have awakened really busy, weeding and running around after rescue animals...but I've spotted it now and want a change on a larger level, where the food industry facilitates health, fairness and wellbeing for people places and animals!

My Body Is My Temple...you don't hear this much any more!

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I am pleased today to be promoting a new diet for everyone who has a few pounds to lose or health that is under par.

No.1 Eat Less

 Sounds obvious but if you had to compete for food in the family, you might still be eating more than you want out of sheer bloody mindedness!

No.2 Eat more raw 

51% or more of one's daily food should be raw as it keeps the nutrients.

No.3 Drink more water 

But always filtered, not from the tap.

No.4 Savour Your Food

This involves a) tasting it then loving it or leaving it, depending! If it's good for you but doesn't taste immediately appetizing, hold your nose. Or b) summon up gratitude for each ingredient. 

Think how hard it must be to harvest nuts, let alone shell them. With argon oil, the nuts are shelled by hand by women, in Morocco. But even more famiiar things, every onion, grain and carrot has taken the efforts of people and the good will of nature. Focusing on them for a moment, really makes you appreciate your food more. 

I don’t think there is any big brand that is going to benefit from this strategy as you’re going to have to make most of the raw food yourself BUT that way you’ll find out for yourself that only a small bit is enough as they’re delicious but super rich, which kind of covers effort 1) which was to not eat so much.

Lemon, Buckwheat and Chocolate Wagon Wheels

Sweet but packed with everything a body needs! 

 

Pretty much straight way you’ll think dammit, does that mean I should cut out dairy, eggs, sugar and gluten? And then you’ll realize,… wow! ….I’ve already done it; none of those things are found in those raw recipes I'm making anyway!

And if you're a sucker for bread and rely on it for pack lunches and every other time you leave the house, make the really easy yeast-free one. Its easy, rises, is vegan obviously, has extra key things like rye and molasses in to support your kidneys, is delicious and freezes well if you make 3 loaves at a time, which is the only way!

I know some people may be pessimistic about the cost of good (read organic, not-sprayed) food and ingredients but another part of the diet is to detox from those negative thoughts. 

47 pendulums of a bead variety I must have made on Valentia one time, for Arts Week, but I love my ceramic ones too and often resort to swinging a nearby phone charger if I can't put my hand on anything else to use. Just swing it clockwise and say to yourself, something like 'thank you for the money and motivation to make all these positive changes in my life'. Let it swing until it rests naturally.

Also remember, less is good. So get 400g of organic nuts rather than 800g of sprayed and just use them more sparingly.

N.B. If there is nothing mentioned on the label that means the produce is covered in pesticide and produced at the expense of some poor country and people in the supply chain.

Instead I, for one, am focusing on my emotional and physical health. This is where I find myself  saying ambient things, before eating, like ‘My body is my temple’ and ‘Thank you for all the remarkable people and their activities who manage to grow this stuff.’

Let this diet also get you out in the garden or planting tomato seeds in your window, opening up another avenue again to health and happiness

Misunderstandings in the Way?

I wonder if most people hear 'My body is 'A' Temple or 'YOUR' temple': Implying somewhere where someone else is being expected to worship!! No, no, no! Your body is your own temple. Even if you are not spiritual; adorn it, keep it elastic, spend time there, clean the windows and only  allow in the most dedicated friends.  Others will surely nick the trinkets or even your soul, if you don’t preserve the sanctity of the space!

In third dimensional terms, this involves looking after yourself. You only have one life in the sense that this day, this moment and this body are some of the main things you have to play with right now!

Should we be driven or relaxing right now?

Today, I have been considering how humans are the only 'driven' species. Yes, we can call it a ‘self determining’ species but I’m not so sure we are determining and deciding how we spend our days and consequently our lives. It is like we are driven by some invisible force shouting in our ears; do more, clean up, apply for that, take more exercise, cook something, do the shopping, ring everyone who might need to hear from you, apologize for that, work out how much money you’ve spent, be creative…And all the while, the cats sleep in two or three different positions around the house and garden. The pigs visit the pony then sleep in the shelter of the hedge, then forage a little by the stream. The dogs chew their sticks on the off chance I want to get involved in the game. The pony sunbathes standing up and eyes closed, pretending he doesn’t notice what everyone else is doing. 

Me? I cut 500 willow fronds from my epic hedge. I dig over two beds and plant flower and veg bulbs, on the off chance that it is not too late to put them in. I cut out endless strong brambles and rotting montbreti leaves to make way for the emerging geraniums. I clean the house, light the fire, carry in the animal feed and coal. 

I make dinner, try a raw banoffi pie, analyze why a gluten free banana cake was amazing the first day and not so nice at all the second, send messages to lots of friends and family, meditate, levitate, land and set off again, to re-wire the DVD player…total success! And think about who to invite to the Exhibition Opening on the 9^th March, in the Café Kitchen in Bray. I have a glass of Guinness (thank goodness that is vegan now) and even watch the first Twilight to celebrate the newly working old technology. 

Is it possible that we as humans have lost the run of ourselves? Gone too far? Perhaps we should be practicing stillness more? Patience? Wait for things to unfold and not keep going so much. It just doesn’t feel in keeping with nature and when I look around, no one else at Harmony Hall is doing it. They’re just chilling out and living. Interacting and playful. Yes, sometimes they bicker but only for a few moments. They don’t go around with their heads wrecked by the contratemp! And there are as many cuddles and laughs and shared investigations as there is argy bargy. I take some credit for this at least because recently I cleared the power struggle that had dominated this place since time immemorial. Now, I reckon, I’ve got to learn to play well with others myself and practice less striving more arriving…or whatever that nice phrase was! 

Yes, that is Don Juan stuck in a blanket and Softie playing mercilessly with his tail!

For the moment, I carry stuff around mentally for days sometimes - currently the conundrum of getting organic pig food. I had to go in several times to order it. I had to be thankful that they could still get it as they have stopped the organic horse nuts. Then I have to put up with it being called pig finisher - just so some brute can make the pigs into sausages. Then I have to question whether they're as much of a brute as the non-organic pig farmers as at least there are standards of welfare and of course food that are better on organic farms. Maybe I'm being unfair to someone. Pretty sure that everyone eating meat still is alot more unfair though.

I think the key is to be sure we are governed by our souls rather than driven by ego need. We will know the former as it will be accompanied by an inner peacefulness.

Paintings selection possibly suitable for hospital

This is the angels of abundance arriving - also framed in the gold and glass

Blue Family, also framed in the gold!

Framed in white with glass

Framed in white with glass

Framed in white with glass

Framed in white with glass

Framed in white with glass

Framed in white with glass

Framed in white with glass

Are Vegans Unfairly Accusing Farmers of Teaching Their Children To Abuse Animals?

Article In The Independent About Vegans Accusing a Farmer of Teaching His Children To Abuse Animals! 

I was asked my view on whether that was unfair treatment of the farmer and wrote this response.

 

Let’s see if there’s any truth in it first! I’m slightly of the belief that 99% of parents are handing down a complete indifference to animals and the planet, all in the name of convenience, fear of change and embarrassment that their child might turn out to be empathetic or allergic to something and have no friends at school and not be invited anywhere for tea!

So, at the moment, I’m planning to acknowledge the feelings of the 56 billion animals slaughtered each year plus the animals and birds enduring the endless cruelty inherent in dairy and egg production. I don’t think I have the emotional energy left over to worry about the feelings of a farmer or any lazy parents or other influencers, really.

I generally feel that the next generation are going to have to get over their addiction to animal ingredients anyway and get way more observant about chemicals too, to stop polluting the place, so teaching regard for and fresh observation of other lives is a good place to start. Also, teaching children to look at their choices and make changes if they’re not that kind or they’re going to have a negative impact on something or someone. That, as well, can only be taught by example!

As a vegan campaigner myself,  I have often been called names – I was called a wanker actually yesterday at the Hare Coursing Finals! That was just for standing there on the side of the road, saying nothing, with a poster of a hare sitting in a field! Luckily, I love that word, always have done. It brings me straight back to being fifteen and everyone called everyone a bit of a wanger!

I agree it’s probably not a great plan to blame one person at a time or accuse people of perpetuating abuse but I don’t see any harm in saying it. Animals are vulnerable and always exploited – and I’m on the ‘If you see it, say it’ buzz at the moment. If you are producing dairy, you are also producing calves that never get their mother’s milk at very least and more often than not become veal or beef themselves and often get pneumonia for the first few months of their short few months’ of life as any youngster would without the colostrum and being sent off from it’s natural setting (it’s mother, the dairy cow). And don’t get me started on the artificial insemination. Let’s just say, I don’t think any of us would like it. I know that farmers are also a bit vulnerable (to the meat producers, dairy giants and vets, with their price setting and endless shots, respectively) and so are also a bit abused.

But is anyone really okay about using animals and the massive emissions from agriculture or have we all just been taught not to think about it? As George Bernard Shaw said, it is not hatred that is worst, it is indifference.

I bet you 50c though that that farmer in question was questioning himself a bit that’s why he found himself in the conversation with vegans in the first place and getting offended. That or the activists actually observed abuse happening. I bet another 50c that he really is totally passing on to his children every detail of what he thinks is okay and what is not okay. Everyone else does it too but still, why not say it?!

I’m just delighted that someone bothered to write the article. Doesn’t anybody realize how silly it is to be annoyed with ‘vegans’? Be annoyed with the ruthless people, the ones making money at some one else’s expense, the ones trashing the environment, the ones scaling up their animal agriculture operations and providing none of the 5 freedoms an animal should get as basic. When a ‘vegan’ says something just take it as probably a wake up call that there is another conversation or investigation we need to have and another change we might need to make. After all, all a ‘vegan’ is just someone who has bothered to look in to various practices and has decided to no longer support them, buy them, eat them for a variety of valid reasons – all of which they will elaborate on, if anyone asks (like our interview where we got to outline the 30 or so reasons hare coursing should be banned!) Vegans are also good role models for children as we show that if you don’t think something is right, you don’t have to do it.  Most in society are madly addicted as far as I can see. People are slaves to technology and meat and convenient processes and substances and money. If someone who manages to abstain from something (like a vegan for example!!) says something, the likelihood is that they have considered it in some detail.

The thing about addiction is that it favours impulse over deliberation. I’m all for deliberation!! Otherwise, isn’t it just a race to the bottom, with everyone teaching animal abuse and ecocide as perfectly fine to overlook.

 

New Exhibition Opening Tomorrow at The Kitchen Cafe in Bray

Flying ahead with a new catering challenge and new exhibition, both at the Kitchen Café in Bray!

My great friend Omar Sherlock has invited me to come on up and tomorrow, for starters, I will bring veggie sausages and soya milk…two staples for any self respecting café offering the best breakfast in town! They probably already have them but  maybe not enough for my healthy appetite.

In the future, there may be a pop up vegan Sunday Lunch club or raw organic vegan meals on wheels or maybe a week’s supplies to distribute to those people transitioning to a plant based diet but for tomorrow…Valentine’s Day, it will be just the first expedition and the hanging of the paintings.

For a woman who has become a little cynical, it will not be obvious from the romantic collection I have put together to display at the café. I think there is room for four but I will bring a few different ones and see what goes best and where.

Home For The Summer

Looks Like Our Ships Are coming In

Valentia

Beginish

Seven Elephants

Autumn Walk

The Deer of County Clare

Reflections On The Dead Sea

A New Element For The Lioness

Dance it out!