Monday 6 June 2022

Of Vegan Fairs ... and Paddington Bears

It's been a brilliant weekend.  

Possibly far too much television watching but the weather literally did rain on our parade.  So indoor watching and social media following was a much safer bet.  

We rounded off the weekend with a trip to Morecambe and this vegan festival, which was small by lots of standards but perfectly formed ... and very, very tasty.

I perhaps went a little too mad on the gorgeous vegan treats on sale as I usually do when the thrill of not having to ask if things have dairy or eggs in them means I can just buy and eat, but luckily some of them have long dates on and there's no rush to consume them straight away ... and as a former small business market trader myself I think it's nice to support small businesses whenever you can.  

I had treated myself to a VIP ticket for the event and got a goodie bag for doing so, it contained quite a few of the non-fresh food items things in this photo. 

And as well as the recipe cards and leaflets there was lots of really interesting reading and some badges.

I had a really good chat with the guy selling the vegan honey and Alan also bought some flour off him as he was also selling this along with lots of edible seeds.

Then we enjoyed an al fresco lunch break of vegan hot dogs looking out over the sea on the promenade  before the rain drove us back inside where maybe a little bit more buying went on and a couple of coffees each were consumed.

Alan surprised me by buying this patch for himself, he's going to Wonder Web it to his dog walking coat.

And then before the rain got any heavier it was time to come home and settle down to watch the Queen's Pageant.  I thought it was lovely and a brilliant end to the long weekend celebrations for the Queen, with Ed Sheeran finishing the celebrations off just beautifully.

The bit I loved best about the whole televised weekend just had to be the Queen acting alongside Paddington Bear ... now we all know what she keeps in those handbags that she guards so closely!!


And this artwork is available from her website on this page - Jubilee Ma'amalade Tea | Open Edition Print | eleanortomlinsonart


Celebrations over.

Sue xx



32 comments:

  1. Oh yes, the Paddington Bear video was wonderful and so sweet! She is a wonder, your Queen, and I think she is a fabulous, steady, caring leader. I didn't get to see much of the pageant so I will have to check YouTube for clips.

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    1. I should imagine there will be lots of YouTube clips of all the celebrations for you to find. :-)

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    2. I saw this in your Daily Record: "Jubilee Ma’amalade Tea" by artist Eleanor Tomlinson captures the Queen walking hand in hand with Paddington Bear, trailed by a corgi dog. Now fans are calling for it to be on a postage stamp."

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    3. Oh what a brilliant idea!

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    4. Ellen D. Thank you for this information, I have now added her name to the picture and a link to her amazing website where these non-limited edition prints can be bought. Sadly all the limited edition signed copies have now gone.

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    5. It really is isn't it Rambler. It would be a beautiful stamp, and there is also a single Corgi picture that she did for the Jubilee celebrations that would work for the second class version.

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  2. Snap - it was simply genius. xx

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    1. Sometimes you just have to grab these things when you see them don't you. I usually credit the artist or originator when I share something like this for copyright reasons and to be polite... but in this case the signature is too small. :-(

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  3. Oh I loved the Pageant ! And the clip with Paddington was the icing on the proverbial cake, a brilliant sketch above :) You have some great vegan goodies there, Sue, I would have enjoyed attending that fair too.

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    1. She acted so well with our favourite little bear didn't she.

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  4. PS forgot something Sue.....can I ask what a 'matched donation' is on your ration challenge page please?

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    1. There is almost always one date in the run up to the Ration Challenge when the donations you can gather in are matched pound for pound by a mysterious anonymous donor/company who we never know the name of. This year I managed to share the details as soon as I found out about it on the Facebook group and lots of family and friends used that day to make their donations, including Alan making both a personal one AND a company one. It really helped up my total to a very humbling amount.

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    2. How lovely that is, Sue, thanks for explaining it 👍😊

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  5. Tea with Paddington Bear was the highlight of the whole weekend for me.

    We've often been told Her Majesty has a great sense of humour and it is so lovely to have these glimpses of the real person underneath the pomp. And now we know the answer to that perennial question "what DOES the Queen keep in her handbag?"

    Where did you find that fabulous cartoon, it is quite beautiful.

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    1. You can tell by her twinkling eyes that she has a wicked sense of humour.

      The cartoon was shared by someone on Facebook, and thanks to Ellen D. above I have now been able to credit the artist and link to her website.

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  6. That illustration is just adorable. I loved it all but especially the Paddington tea. Such a lovely sense of humour and so beautifully done and as others have said we all wonder what she carries in her handbag. She has such a lovely twinkle in her eye.

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    1. It really is isn't and yes her twinkle is beautiful isn't it, luckily I think some of her children and grandchildren have inherited it.

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  7. It sounds like you had a wonderful weekend!
    The Queen's handbags are made in Walsall by Launer - after the weekend we now know what Liz keeps in her locally made handbag - marmalade sandwiches! xxx

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    1. What a wonderful bit of information, thanks. I wonder if they make them with special linings that repel marmalade ;-)

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  8. Such a delightful skit on Paddington and the Queen!

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  9. I watched a few of the celebrations and smiled at the Paddington Bear and the Queen. It made my day.

    God bless.

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  10. A vegan festival!!!!! Yeah! I'm envious!!!

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    1. We don't have many in the area I live in so this one was an absolute must to go to, and it was well worth it as you can see ;-)

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  11. The Queen and Paddington were so sweet. I keep wondering what her small grandchildren made of that little video.

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    1. They will love that Grannie had tea with Paddington Bear won't they :-)

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  12. Can you explain what “ vegan honey” is? All honey should be vegan...unless it’s not real honey made by bees....

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    1. NO honey that is made by bees is vegan.

      From the company that the 'honee' that I bought this from, they can explain it far better than me:-

      Is Honey Vegan?
      This is a big question in Vegan circles! The Vegan Society states…
      Honey is probably the product most frequently mistaken as vegan-friendly. There is a common misconception that honey bees make their honey especially for us, but this couldn’t be much further from the truth.

      Honey is made by bees for bees, and their health can be sacrificed when it is harvested by humans. Importantly, harvesting honey does not correlate with The Vegan Society’s definition of veganism, which seeks to exclude not just cruelty, but exploitation.

      What is Honey?
      Honey is the energy source of the 7 species of bee known as ‘honey bees’. Without it, they starve, as it provides essential nutrients during poorer weather and the winter months.
      A single honey bee collects nectar from up to 1500 flowers each day. They store this in their ‘honey stomach’ in which enzymes begin to break it down. On returning to the hive, it is regurgitated and chewed by ‘worker bees’ to complete the natural honey-making process. Each bee will only produce a fraction of a teaspoon of honey in its lifetime, far less than we would expect!

      Honey’s popularity shows no sign of slowing. The honey industry, like many other commercial industries, is profit-driven where the welfare of the bees is often secondary to commercial gain.

      Environmental Effects
      Mass breeding of honeybees affects the populations of other competing nectar-foraging insects, including other bees. Overwhelmed by the ever-inflating quantities of farmed bees, the numbers of native bumblebees have declined.

      The importing of honey into the UK also increases our carbon footprint through the emissions associated with transport. Of the honey consumed in the UK, 95% of it is imported, mostly from China and Turkey.

      Unethical practices
      Conventional beekeepers aim to harvest the maximum amount of honey, with high honey yields being viewed as a mark of success. When farmers remove honey from a hive, they replace it with a sugar substitute which is significantly worse for the bees’ health since it lacks the essential micro-nutrients of honey.
      In conventional beekeeping, honey bees are specifically bred to increase productivity. This selective breeding narrows the population gene pool and increases susceptibility to disease and large-scale die-offs. Diseases are also caused by importing different species of bees for use in hives.
      These diseases are then spread to the thousands of other pollinators we and other animals rely on, disputing the common myth that honey production is good for our environment.
      In addition, hives can be culled post-harvest to keep farmer costs down. Queen bees often have their wings clipped by beekeepers to prevent them from leaving the hive to produce a new colony elsewhere, which would decrease productivity and lessen profit.

      Vegan Honey Alternatives
      Unlike bees, humans can thrive without honey in their diets. Luckily, there are a whole host of readily available vegan alternatives for those with a sweet tooth. NO-BEE Vegan Honee, date syrup, maple syrup, molasses, butterscotch syrup, golden syrup and agave nectar are all viable options, whether you need a product for baking, cooking, as a sweetener for drinks, or to eat a spoon out of the jar at the end of a long day.

      If you wish to support bees, please do not buy beeswax or honey, consider donating to a suitable conservation charity instead.

      Sorry that this was so long, but it is the best and most succinct explanation that I have ever seen.

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    2. That is very informative, and quite scary how little I knew about this. I don’t eat honey, but would have probably considered it to be a good thing for people to consume, had I thought about it. We really are wrecking this world with our over consumption...

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  13. Pleased you got to Morecambe's first vegan fair and enjoyed it!

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