In what now appears to be an annual pilgrimage the Grumpy Vegan spends a few days in Swanage, Dorset.
Read about last year’s visit here.
No visit is complete without a ride on the Swanage Railway. This year we took the steam train to Corfe Castle, which can be seen in the top left hand of this photograph taken from the pedestrian bridge at Corfe Castle station.
There’s something truly wonderful about sitting in an old wooden railway carriage pulled by a steam train as rumbles through the beautiful Dorset countryside. A gentle combination of nostalgia and somnolence.
We also visited the model village at Corfe Castle, which intriguingly offers a photo opportunity to capture the complete model castle and the incomplete real thing.
The Grumpy Vegan recommends Animal Rights Zone as an outstanding place to engage in a thoughtful debate on animal ethics and its application to or relationship with animal advocacy. In their own words, ARZone
exists to help educate vegans and non-vegans alike about the obligations human beings have toward all other animals. By providing a space for a variety of blog posts, forum discussions, notes, videos and more, ARZone fosters a sense of community among its members. Through live online chats with a diversity of people who work both within and outside of the animal advocacy community, ARZone supports rational discourse and intelligent dialogue about the most pressing issues facing us today. ARZone is dedicated to seeing an end to the violence committed against all others, with a particular focus on nonhuman animals. ARZone is opposed to speciesism, and all other “isms” that seek to divide rather than unite. ARZone is committed to non-violence, recognition of and respect for basic rights, and ending the commodification of all sentient beings, nonhuman as well as human. While ARZone does not necessarily endorse or promote the views of each of its members, guests and forum participants, ARZone does endorse and promote creative education efforts. We cannot form honest opinions about that which we do not understand, and we cannot understand that which we do not carefully consider.
This long explanation indicates the thoughtful approach taken consistently in everything ARZone does. The regular — often weekly — online debates with various key players is an invaluable resource. Take part in them live or catch up with the text afterwards.
Remarkable photo story of survival and compassion after a tornado in Greensburg, Kansas, USA.
The Hastings Vegan Dining Club held a picnic on the farm of two of our members. They have some 50 acres which they grow veganically (vegan and organic) wheat. Our picnic took place in a small wooded area among the fields and streams. It was a potluck picnic. So, everyone shared and enjoyed various vegan dishes. Afterwards we went for a walk around the fields and enjoyed the beautiful East Sussex countryside. To learn more about veganics, go to the Vegan Organic Network.
Who needs revolting students when you can have drunken men in their Sunday finest brawling in a frenzied stupor on Ladies’ Day at Royal Ascot? Sadly, the Grumpy Vegan can’t legally reproduce any of the photos of said regal punch up but we can always rely upon The Daily Mail to keep us up to date with the news and a finger wag. “Lowering the tone,” laments the guardian of the nations’ standards, “A man wielding a £98 bottle of Laurent Perrier Rose Champagne gets involved as the fight breaks out between racegoers.” Shock! Horror! It’s the end of civilisation as we know it. “Broken chairs and glasses litter the scene,” the guardian of moral values breathlessly tells us, “and one man is still wielding the champagne bottle as another man shields his face.”
Whatever you do….don’t spill the bubbly!
Anyone for Fortnum and Mason Early Grey?
And then it turns positively homoerotic …. “Man down! One racegoer clutches his head in agony whilst another desperately grabs on to another man’s leg in an attempt to floor him.”
Do check out the pickies at the nation’s guardian of moral values.
What ho! Such fun!
