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A veg weekend
October 23, 2006
It was a great weekend celebrating a vegan/vegetarian/plant based eating lifestyle. Firstly, Friday night we had our monthly health course potluck at our home and thankfully a couple people showed up. Saturday was a trip to Boston to attend The Boston Vegetarian Food Festival , heavy emphasis on food. I've never been to any trade show, fair, festival, conference etc. with as much free food as this festival. Not to mention vegan food. We went for the whole day with the kids and they were awesome! I think the food helped. But we were so impressed with their behaviour and general attitude seeing that they spent most of the day (at least 5 hours of the 8 hour festival) in a crowded exhibit hall. We took full advantage of hanging out in the kid's acitivity center where we made animal crafts and read PETA comic books about the life of circus elephants and factory farmed chickens. Ok and now for the shameless bragging - a perfect stranger asked us if we homeschooled our kids because they were "so well behaved". I'm probably setting myself up for a week of tear my hair out misbehaviour & sibling fighting! But seriously, they were great and it's so nice to feel that we can take them almost anywhere with us (no mountain top hiking yet). Perhaps these early years of taking our kids everywhere with us and building family togetherness are starting to pay off. Back to the conference, our family attended one lecture and Damien and I each traded off parenting duty to attend one lecture on our own. A friend carpooled down with us and it was just a great day overall.
Today we celebrated the harvest at the farm's annual bean threshing party. More food; fantastic homemade vegetable dishes and various desserts, farm made hot apple cider. Fiddle music, kid's jumping on beans & playing in the hayloft, visiting with good friends, bright blue sky - ah, I get warm fuzzies just thinking about it.
When we came home I spent more time in a "vegetable frame of mind" and finished getting my vegetable bed ready for next year. Gardening is coming to an end and I'm happily tucking in my perennials for the winter. Thankfully, I still have flowers blooming. I transplanted a late blooming pink & white chysanthemum from a friend this spring. I've watched it grow all summer and into Sept wondering when it was going to bloom. By early Oct I was getting a litte bit anxious but sure enough by mid Oct it was blooming beautifully. What a late season gardening treat. It should last till the end of November.
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Karen on Oct. 23, 2006, 4:15 a.m.
Sounds like a fun weekend. I was thinking about you yesterday in Boston, sure that you would enjoy what the Festival had to offer - and congrats to your children (and to you) for being the great kids that they are. Your front door looks so vibrant and green - like an invitation to come visit! I raked the last of the leaves off the front lawn, planted garlic and lettuce for spring, cut back the flowers in pots in the garage for the winter. Guess you could say I'm ready for winter!