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SPRING!    YAY!

hmmm, looks like a very green man.....

What? a green man...? GREEN MAN.... ?

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Just who is this Green Man, anyway...?

Lots of people have asked the Dollmaker that very question.

they ask.. "This Green Man Doll... just what is he about?"

(The Dollmaker is obliged to explain less frequently now,

since more people seem to know who Green Man is nowadays...)

{...an interesting sign of the times}

... be that as it may, the Dollmaker shall now answer the question, her way...

the question being

Who is Green Man?

Once upon a time, on earth...

there lived a race of ancient earthlings who had vines growing from their mouths and noses.

LOL. Just kidding. They were just ordinary humans like you and me.

Except that they were GREEN.

LOL. Just kidding. 

Okay, really now, once upon a time,

there lived an ancient race of ordinary people who were very into

GREENERY....

and I am not kidding about THAT...

This group of ancient earthlings  observed that, by mid-winter, all the leaves had fallen from the trees,

yet this did not mean that these trees were dead.

On the contrary, the trees grew more leaves again in the Springtime.

When the time was right, the trees came back to life.

(Sound familiar, self-evident, even simplistic?) 

Right. But it wasn't just the trees- the bushes and shrubs grew new leaves again too,

the grass came back from dried-up husks, and the flowers popped out in renewed splendor-

 all of which fairly reliably led to fruiting, harvesting and eating...

and indeed, folks back then made eating a priority;

generally speaking, we still feel strongly about eating.

So Nature absolutely awed the simple folks of ancient times-

 they really marveled at the behavior of the Greenery. 

They watched throughout the winter and waited for the Greenery to come back each year

and they saw it as miraculous and darn near religious when the Green came back.

And each year in the Springtime... they called it-

The Return of the Green.

( I believe I mentioned they were simple folks.)

The color GREEN symbolized new growth...a new beginning...a fresh start...new life...food.

And the Return of the Green was a reason to party.

So, the simple Green-loving people of olden days would hold these wondrous festivals

 to celebrate the Springtime and the Return of the Greenery,

during which they danced and frolicked about and found ingenious ways to entice the Greenery to flourish.

Yes, friends, they did think that they could entice the Greenery to flourish,

and they did not use the fertilizers we have today, but that gets us into another story...

...for now let us just say that since the GREENERY was the Theme of the Festivities,

someone had to REPRESENT the GREENERY in the PARADE! 

 Back in those days, the men were the actors; they even played the parts of women onstage,

so of course it was a man who got to wear the costume made of leaves and branches and play the part of the GREENERY in the parade,

waving to the rabble-rousing crowd while perched on a festively adorned donkey who also wore a matching costume of green and leafy branches.

The guy impersonating the Greenery became known as the GREEN MAN.

(LOL!  YES THIS TRADITION LIVES ON EVEN TODAY!)

Now, then. During these ceremonies, there was much gratitude expressed among the ancients to the GREENERY

 for the wine which made philosophers of a few of them...

and when these philosophical elders got together to contemplate the matter of the cyclical Greening,

it struck the ones still standing that the man on the back of the donkey pretending to be a GREEN MAN, really was a GREEN MAN! 

It took centuries to unravel what these wise elders meant...

but evidently the philosophers of old intuited that the individual representing the SACRED GREENERY

 had the same rejunerative properties within himself as the plants he was honoring-

They understood that man can be said to be... well, green.

In other words, Self-Renewable. Capable of new growth.

For most people, some kind of restoration happens

during our "dormant" phase- during sleep.

This just keeps getting simpler and simpler...

.....................

Artists who could understand the philosophy of the day strove to preserve these blinding realizations in painting and sculpture.

They got to work carving the Green Man image into stone walls and into their huge heavy wooden doors. 

Oftentimes they used a human face surrounded by leaves, sometimes with vines twirling in or around the mouth,

sometimes with  rather odd expressions on the face...

Tourists coming across these images might wonder what sort of half-plant-half-human creatures these ancient artists were striving to represent -

...but scholars such as Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell have found the GREENMAN images fascinating

and have written volumes describing Greenman as an ARCHETYPE,

 meaning that GREENMAN, representing  "Self-Renewal" (or- Rebirth- like- you can teach an old dog new tricks),

is a Universal Truth which can be experienced by humans worldwide, all races and nationalities,

in any time period throughout endless Time... wow.

So, into these lofty realms enters yours truly, the Dollmaker.

She who is always on the lookout for unique and powerful, new and meaningful imagery for her dolls... 

 hmmmmmm, what's this?

 Green, leafy and symbolic... oh yeah, got to make HIM!

(mages of Green Man from the Internet)

Savvy men quite often come a-shopping for Wee Peeple Dolls, (no, not just on Mother's Day...),

and these informed gentlemen will often select a Greenman Doll, realizing that

"SELF-RENEWAL" 

applies to emotional and spiritual (translate: relationship) renewal

as much as it applies to the regeneration of fingernails and leaves.

So, the answer to the question, "Who is this Green Man?"

can really be answered in quite a few ways...(there's even an "R" rated answer...)

so that leaves us (pun intended)

to form our own conclusions....

So let me recommend getting to know Greenman personally...

Not everyone will be able to do this... but... every once in a while, on certain days in the Spring or Summer,

if you look into the trees just right...

there, constructed of shadows and light, you MIGHT be able to see him- the Greenman...

not the doll, not the archetype, not the parade-walker or the legend,

 but the real thing made of branches and leaves which move and breathe in the wind...

 watch for him.

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MORE DEALS WITH THE DOLLMAKER....

The Wild and Crazy Girls from last month's issue are back-

This time the neighbor girls decided they wanted to MAKE the Yarny Things.

Ok, said the Dollmaker. (She happened to have a small bin of fancy yarns in the back room.)

Here's the DEAL...

You make five sets of Yarny Things for me, and you get to make one for yourself.

Five/One. OKAY, they said, and got to work.

The next thing the Dollmaker knew, there was a Yarny Thing Class going on in the back room-

those girls had FRIENDS ... and the FRIENDS wanted to make Yarny Things too.

Same Deal goes for all of you, said the Dollmaker. Five/One.

OKAY they said and got to work.

Many Yarny Things were made that day,

yarns flew through the air and were snipped and tied, tried on, arranged, and displayed,

and there was much smiling and vacuuming afterwards.

Yay for the Yarnies!

This is the song the girls made up about the YARNY THINGS:

YOU CAN WEAR THEM ON YOUR HEAD

YOU CAN WEAR THEM ON YOUR WAIST

ANYWHERE YOU WEAR THEM

THEY WON'T BE OUT OF PLACE

COME AND GET YOUR YARNIES AT THE WEE PEEPLE SHOPPE!

YOU CAN WEAR THEM AS A TAIL 

YOU CAN WEAR THEM AS A SHAWL...

ANYWHERE YOU WEAR THEM

IT WON'T MATTER AT ALL.

COME AND GET YOUR YARNIES

COME AND GET YOUR YARNIES

AT THE WEE PEEPLE DOLL SHOPPE!

Pretty good, huh?

Well, girls will be dolls...

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OH and yay for the beautiful Scarborough Faire

which has only been a little bit muddy and not very very very muddy this year.   

  (OF COURSE IT'S NOT OVER YET... cross your fingers...)

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OK, now a big round of applause for everyone who helped make this season

 at Scarborough Faire as good as it has been!

THANK YOU!

A Great BIG THANKS goes out to our shoppe helpers, Kelaine and Kena

Good job girls!

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Another  GREAT BIG THANKS (and KUDOS for all his help- driving, loading, packing, and being present IN COSTUME-what a guy!)

goes out to

Mr. Bill 

who can hardly believe he made it now through two Renaissance Festivals.

Way to go, Bill!

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 MORE THANKS goes to Parade People Kat and Jimmy

who carried Wee Peeple Dolls in the Parade.

HAVE A GREAT SUMMER- see you next year!

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At Scarborough Faire we hit three holidays- Easter, Mother's Day and Memorial Day.

Mother's Day! A JOY!

Hope all you Moms out there enjoyed YOUR DAY!

A group of proud Mothers on Mother's Day at the Faire

yay.

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OK <Now who are THESE guys?

This- is the FUTURE of the MINI-WEE Dolls...

Noses.

Really. We have to have noses.

Remember those flat wooden faces?

Well, now the  Mini-Wee faces are going 3-D folks!

These guys (unfinished in the photos)

will be at Scarborough this coming weekend,

but they will be present in greater numbers 

at Texas Renaissance Festival in the FALL.

Watch for them......

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

NEWS FLASH !

TEXAS RENAISSANCE FESTIVAL 

SELLING DISCOUNT TICKETS NOW!

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Okay- this just in-

 I got this MEMO from the Texas Renaissance Festival in my email:

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Advance Discount Tickets on Sale Now

for the 

34th Annual

Texas Renaissance Festival 

Saturday, Sunday and    Thanksgiving Friday

October 11 - November 30, 2008

The Texas Renaissance Festival, the nation's largest, most acclaimed Renaissance Theme Park,

invites you to purchase your advance tickets for our 34th season.  A variety of discount ticket options offer tremendous savings

 over the gate ticket price of $21.00 for adults and $10.00 for children ages 5-12 (children ages 4 and under are always free). 

 Discount price

options include:

Opening Weekend Discount Tickets: 

Good only on Saturday or  Sunday, October 11 and 12, 2008. 

Adult  Tickets (Ages 13+)- $11.00          Child Tickets (Ages 5-12)- $5.00 

  Advanced Discount Tickets: 

 Good for one day of the Festival (including Thanksgiving Friday).  

Advance Discount Tickets must be purchased by September 26th, 2008. 

Adult  Tickets (Ages 13+)- $16.00               Child Tickets (Ages 5-12)- $6.00 

  After September 26th, Opening Weekend and $18 Discount Tickets will be available online, by phone, or at participating HEB, Randall's,

Market Basket and Woodforest National Bank locations.

  To purchase your tickets or to receive more information, contact TRF

at 800-458-3435 or visit their website at

www.texrenfest.com 

The Texas Renaissance Festival 

A New Adventure Every Weekend!

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THOUGHT  YALL  Lords and Ladies  MIGHT  LIKE  TO  KNOW  ABOUT  THAT.

Could save some money...

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Til next time....

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Don't forget to send in your own stories about the Wee Peeple in your lives!

to bigkandra@aol.com

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