Thursday, June 27, 2013

Day Six: Canadian Children's Book Week 2013


This is the sixth installment about my week long tour for TD Canadian Children's Book Week 2013. I toured in northern Saskatchewan. More on the whole idea/background of Book Week here. Catch up on: installment one, or maybe installment two, number three, number four or even number five.

Friday May 10, 2013
I was kind of sad to be heading out for my last day of touring. So to cheer myself up I stopped at a Timmies in Saskatoon to get a coffee for the road. When I got out of my car I almost stepped on a chunk of lettuce and an orange triangular piece of cheese lying on the pavement. Literary allusion alert! Of course I thought of the cheese in Wimpy Kid, and also I’d just read “Wonder” a couple days before which itself had a reference to said Wimpy Kid cheese. Life meets art? Wish I’d taken a picture of it.

I headed south for about 1 hour and 40 minutes to Loreburn. Another lovely route.

Sprinklers span the horizon
Roadside slough?
The road ahead
Blackened field. I swear smoke was coming off it still.
Loreburn grain elevator
Loreburn Central School! Here I had a lovely greeter named Natasha, a Hunger Games fan. She showed me around the school and answered all my questions. She even introduced me to the kids for my first presentation. This time it was a workshop on writing. The kids and I had a great time coming up with story premises based on asking why about that cheese I’d seen earlier to prove that you can make up a story starting with almost anything. And then the kids came up with their own story ideas based on a photo I showed them of my cat on a skateboard.

 The staff invited me to join them for a pot luck lunch. What a feast! Pasta salad, lettuce salad, roast beef, sliced chicken, and kiwi pavlova for dessert. Yummy!

My second presentation at Loreburn was about “Sorting through Spring.” They were a great group and a wonderful way to wrap up my week’s presentations. Thank you Loreburn!

After good byes it was back up the road to Saskatoon.
Loved the contrast here

Amazing view
Abandoned building...schoolhouse? Story!
Field and fluffy clouds
Touch the clouds?
That night a group of perhaps high schoolers shared my hotel floor. Much laughter and door slamming ensued until they all left for somewhere. It was peaceful for about fifteen minutes until the clock radio alarm went off in the room next door. And didn’t shut off. For like an hour. I had to catch a flight that left at 6:00am the next morning so I finally had to call the front desk to get someone to come shut it off. Last night in Saskatchewan. :<

Random Memorable Moments

  • The duck that flew right across the road in front of me. Not sure how I didn’t hit it but very glad I didn’t.
  • Realizing a "wide load" sign here really means a wide load, as in move onto the shoulder or you’ll hit the wide load coming at you from the other direction.
  • The thrill of thinking that a tumbleweed might have just zipped across the road in front of me and disappeared into the field. It was blown vegetation of some sort. Cool.
  • Wind in action: Got out of my car to take one of the photos above and the wind blew the car door back into me. Ouch. Bruise.
  • Noting that drivers actually take turns merging at the “Zipper merge” sign. Maybe we should adopt that signage in Ontario because using “merge” alone seems to mean: quickly try to get in the appropriate lane while cutting off anyone else who might get in front of you 
  • Count for Macklemore’s “Thrift Shop” on the Satellite Radio: 2
  • Count for Fall Out Boy’s “My Songs Know” on the Satellite Radio: 3
  • Count for Macklemore’s “Ceiling Can’t Hold Us” on the Satellite Radio: 4 

I'll have one more post about my TD Canadian Children's Book Week tour to wrap things up. It'll be here later this weekend after I take a brief break to bring you the June Carnival of Children's Literature.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Loved reading your Saskatchewan adventures, Lizann - especially the random memorable moments! (Next time cut down on the fiber and you won't fart so much during your presentations... :) )

Dianne said...

Oops! Clumsy fingers on a new keyboard. Didn't mean to be anonymous.

Unknown said...

Dianne, I just about died laughing from your fiber comment! Thanks so much for reading and commenting.