On A Fair On A Green

 

Once, to a city that was not too big and not too small, with a cathedral in the centre and a green all around, came a storyteller a-walking, name of WynnAlice.

 

Came she to hear their story, and a delight to hear were their tales; He of Fine Integrity, in addition to his hospitality, told tales of the wondrous Book Cycle http://www.book-cycle.org which wasn’t a cycle at all, but a big old warehouse where books of all kinds and covers were collected in big heaps, saved from the fate of being consigned to the rubbish, and redistributed far and wide across the land, aye and across the oceans too.

 

To countries where books were expensive and education hard to come by were they sent, free of charge, and to the people in the city that was not too big and not too small, were they made freely available, not more than three at a time, for an amount of pennies that each person could decide according to their means.

 

At Book Cycle met WynnAlice with He of Wondrous Love for the Equine and heard the tales of how he tamed horses by love and needed not to break them, and worked with them to provide horse drawn chariots for the disabled. http://www.facebook.com/simon.saddlechariot

 

On the Transition Well Being Show (Phonic FM 106.8) Positive News did they tell in place of doom and gloom, and He of Kindness and Compassion phoned in to help find WynnAlice a place to rest her head on the next stage of her journey walk.

 

From She of Community Mind WynnAlice did learn of her dream, the Harvest Project, and too of the dream of the city to grow its own food and sell it in its own local shop.

 

Time it did pass in transition fashion and came one day WynnAlice back to the city that was not too big and not too small. To a Green Fair did she come, on the green, and there wondrous things did she behold. Next to the place where she lay her storytelling rug, was the Real Food Shop stall.

 

The Real Food Shop stall sold Emma’s bread (www.emmasbread.co.uk ), which wasn’t just any bread, but bread made by Emma in the very city itself, each morning, in the Real Food Shop in the centre of the city. Quite the most delicious bread you ever did taste it was, and the people did tell her that in the morning you did need go early for to get your freshly baked bread.

 

And not just bread did the Real Food Shop (www.realfoodexeter.co.uk) sell; a stroll up the high street and a visit to the shop did show that the dream of the city that was not too big and not too small was come true; for fruit and vegetables, milk and yoghurts, herbs and chocolates, juices, and potions for health did the shop stock, and all of it locally grown, made, and produced.

WynnAlice’s heart it did sing for to see the dream come true; to admire the brightly coloured cafe upstairs and see the happy workers, and know that all is possible once it has been dreamt. Awards had the shop and its cafe won, run by volunteers, and supplied by nearby community organic farm; it was a joy to behold and an inspiration to experience.

 

What else, wondered she, of the vision of this fair city, was now dreamt into being? On the Green at the fair did she wander, tasting tasty local field grown strawberries, and talking to growers and volunteers alike. Come to the City Fruit Harvest said they, and on enquiry learnt that this Big Exchange of city abundance was organised by She of Community Mind, who had indeed made her dream come true and you can find them here http://www.eci.org.uk/HarvestHarvest .

 

At the fair on the green  He of Fine Integrity did she meet again, and received from him her very own copy of the first Transition newspaper, and He of Kindness and Compassion was there too and asked the storyteller to please come soon to a forest nearby where he and Tom the Enthusiastic had set up a school on the edge of the organic farm that supplied the fruit and veg to the Real Food Shop.

 

Once that was agreed, WynnAlice sat down upon her woollen blanket for around her sat children, eager for stories. And so there came to exist two new tales, for as everybody knows where there are children new stories are bound to appear. And so it was that the tale of Mr Hedgehog and Pugsy the Rainbow Coloured Bat, and that of The Super Heroes of FunTown were born.

 

‘Twas indeed a day to remember, with sun shining down on the Green Fair, on the green around the cathedral, in the fair city of Exeter.