Plastic is already piling up at their residence, where they have vowed to save their plastic refuse for a year as a towering example of modern society's dependence on the stuff. Like the bottom of the ocean, most available surfaces appear to be covered with sea life of all colors, textures and varieties: corals, kelp, anemones, jellyfish and other aesthetically pleasing sea species. She is surrounded by bits and pieces of crocheted "coral," including reconfigurations of doilies snapped up...

Who are they really, these fabulous festival-going mentalists? Last weekend, at the most famous festival of them all, Glastonbury, Style braved mud, loo queues and miniature solar-powered bicycles to find out exactly what it is that makes the modern festival funster tick. The thing we love about festivals is that they represent a true cross section of society, bleat the latest converts to the scene at their midweek sea bass and Sancerre parties. Who are they really, these fabulous...

But Kenny suggests that for Aboriginal people who encountered pastoralism at the same time as Christianity - with its imagery of good shepherds, lost sheep and the blood of the Lamb - this link would have seemed perfectly logical. So when they slaughtered the settlers' sheep without carrying them off to eat, Aborigines were symbolically attacking the settlers themselves. Another of its strengths lies in its ability to convey a sense of what Henry Reynolds called "the other side of the...

Every time George tried to bark, he would make a mooing or oinking sound, until the wise veterinarian saw fit to don his rubber gloves and pull out the gastrically intrusive animals. Her favorite part was at the end of the book, when the nasty troll finally gets his come upins' from the big billy goat. There are more than 1,000 children enrolled in the summer reading program, although Fowler is hoping to get that number even higher before the end of the summer. Children who participate get...

Shop for local product, meat and seafood, baked goods, herbs, cut flower and enjoy music and art during the new farmers' market at Yorktown. Shop locally grown produce, watch chefs cook and listen to music during farmers' market on Merchants Square in Williamsburg. Extended Wednesday and Saturday evening tours of historic Monticello outside Charlottesville offer hour-long guided tours of house, then self-guided tours of gardens and grounds. Hands-on opportunities and a child-friendly focus...