Our daughter completed a four year commitment to this practice and we were there to witness the special ceremony. She was given a spiritual name, a bamboo shaft, and a ceremonial pipe.

It was a beautiful experience and both my husband and I felt blessed to be there. Below is a photo with our daughter and a few of the other women dancers. 

 

We followed that up by meeting friends at the Oregon Country Fair. We have heard about this fair for years, but this was our first time experiencing it. If you’ve never been, I highly recommend it!

 

I have been to many festivals and fairs in my life, but this one stood out as the most peaceful, loving and thoughtful fair I have ever been to. It has been going on for 56 years, and is still run as a cooperative, non profit, people powered event. There are multiple stages set up for music, dance, vaudeville, comedy performances and the spoken work, and endless booths with handmade crafts, clothing and food. There are giant sized puppets, people in costumes, on stilts, and an artful parade complete with a marching band and jugglers. But what stood out to me the most was the care and thoughtfulness they put into making sure everyone was comfortable by providing shaded areas for sitting, for quiet, for stretching, for family time, and for resting. They also had misting areas along the walkways and stages to cool you down from the heat, along with people watering the dusty paths to keep down the dust. There are over 10,000 volunteers working the fair  and everyone is friendly and happy!!! It was a multi-generational event, filled with hippies from the 60’s and their children and children’s children, with lots of tie die to go around.

 

I will be going back for sure!

 

 

 

 

Mediterranean Cooking Class on Thursday, July 24th!

Mediterranean Food is one of my favorite cuisines, and reformulating recipes to be vegan is one of my favorite past times! For this class, I will share my best-on-the-planet Vegan Moussaka recipe, as well as Hummus and Baba Ganoush to start.  Then we will make a Stuffed Zucchini with Tomato Coulis, Israeli Cous Cous Pilaf, and Tabouli Salad. We will finish the evening off with a Coconut Rice Pudding with Rose Water.

There’s still time to sign up: for more info, click here