Preparing the Soil, Planting the Seeds

As any gardener knows, to get a good start on anything you plant, you have to prepare the soil to plant the seeds. Despite the fact that I am an excellent gardener, I jumped headfirst into the Pepsi Refresh Grant projet. As  it turns out that I didn't get the grant, but it did open up a new section of the garden of my creativity. When I started the Magic Hat Stories (MHS) blog, I had no idead where it would lead. That is part of what the blog is about. The focus of the blog is about changing the world one story at a time. The people or organizations that I write about have taken the step to do something they believe in will benefit society in a positive way. There's a certain magic that occurs in this or any process really. It undefined at the start, but people who are visionaries are open to possibilities in the many guises that they come in.

In the course of writing stories for MHS, I found the seed that will grow into Vanishing Feast. There are many heirloom varities of food that are endangered. They can vanish forever. The focus of Vanishing Feast will be to alert people to this, and provide them with things they can do to prevent it.

Much like grandmom's jewelry, which is a family heirloom, her choice of flowers and vegetables for her garden are a reflection of her soul, but in a natural way. The aromas, textures, colors, and tastes that tickle and feed the senses of the person who choses them for their garden, make a powerful statement of who that person is. Why not raise this to the level of a family heirloom to honor and preserve your heritiage on the micro, and on the macro, help keep plants or food sources from vanishing from this earth forever. It a winning situation all around.

In the interim from my attempt to win a grant to pursue this topic, I have created the storyboards, a rough script that is more of an outline of the topics and who and what I want to feature. I have acquired an digital slr which will shoot HD quality video in 3 different speeds, and allows me to record stereo sound with an external mic. There is still some eqiuptment to get, but that I am in the process of doing that.

I started out as fine art photographer as an artist. I somehow how found my way to become a storytelling milliner from there. Now that's a pitch fork in the road less travelled. And now here I am out of the weeds and into a garden patch where all the tilling, composting and fertilizing has been complete.

I will be writing more about this since spring planting in just around the corner, and it will help flesh the idea out even more.

You can check out my photography here.