In mid-July when we were in Kawartha Lakes area on vacation, we heard the radio announcer report about the Lakefield Literary Festival. What we didn’t know then was that the event was already happening. Our son-in-law Dave suggested that we (read “I”) might like to attend  when we stayed on.

 

The next day, after a bit of Internet research and a look into the Lakefield weekly paper, the July 11th Lakefield  Herald, we learned that the event ran over the weekend and we had missed it. The Lakefield Herald showed a preview photo of Sheree Fitch, children’s author from Nova Scotia, one of many guests who were to attend and read or perform at the festival. Among them were Richard Wangamese, Alison Wearing, local (to Lakefield) author John Craig, Werner Zimmerman and others. A special preview photo of the well known children’s author Sheree Fitch was in the paper. “Hey, I’ve met her before,” in  Halifax at the Editors’ Association of Canada conference in 2013 when I was her workshop assistant.

And so we missed the Literary Festival, which was a bit disappointing, but we decided to take a drive there before our return home. After a visit to the Canadian Canoe Museum (another upcoming post) we crossed the bridge, looked around in a new craft shop then crossed the bridge again and  wandered around the town  near the end of business hours.

 

Sound of mighty rushing water here

 

 

Municipal building, a fine red-brick structure

 

 

 

 

Another public building, but which one? You can see the kind of sunny day we had.

 

 

 

The municipal building again. See the outlook on top? I don’t know what you call it, but I think it would be a great place to see the land around the town. Has anyone been up there recently?

 

 

I loved this stack of cups and pots in the garden. They looked as though they would fall over

 

And on the other side of the garden,  a stack of rocks too, all in a pretty wildflower garden…

 

 

in front of this restaurant… or is it  a coffee shop. I would have loved to go in this place but we were there near closing time.

 

Ah, but this shop was not closed, among my favourite kinds of store. Yarn and books at Happenstance on 44 Queen Street, almost across from the pretty garden.

 

                                                                                                                                           Photo shared by permission. Find them on Facebook

 

An interesting combination in a shop. Plenty of yarn in many colours and shades as well as shelves full of books. I picked up a list of recommended books, compiled by a store employee. She’s read plenty of books. We asked about the Literary Festival we’d missed and learned that the events were held mostly at the college and a few other public places that had more room for crowds of people.

Judy Caulfield, fellow storyteller, attends this event every year and may know this store quite well. A neat little shop that from our perspective is well run.

While I was there I saw some square knitting needles. The employee, Sue (on the far right on their Facebook photo), said she likes these needles and finds the stitches stay on better. I got a pair for knitting mittens.

The remaining stores would be closing soon and so we headed for the car and drove back to the Grandview Resort where we were staying. Perhaps next year, we can come a little earlier and make it to the festival. I wonder who’ll be there next year.

 

Photos  ©  C. and L. Wilker, except for the one posted by permission