It was a good weekend. On Saturday, Erin and I drove out to write. Skipping past Bronte, we headed straight for downtown Oakville.
At the Trillium Awards, Erin received a recommendation about a coffee shop attached to a bookstore that would be a good place to sit and write. So, we checked it out. Bookers Bookstore was indeed where the writer said it was, and it had a good atmosphere. I love small, intimate bookstores, even if Bookers was so upscale, it felt like a mini Indigo. The coffee shop was good, although we did feel like interlopers, sitting around and doing nothing but write. We would recommend going there for lunch, however; the food looked great! There's a smaller coffee shop two stores down that was emptier and, next time, we may try that to see if the atmosphere is more welcoming to coffee guzzling writers.
Oakville is, incidentally, one of the richest communities in Canada, and that is reflected in its downtown. You've never seen such a collection of prosperous stores outside of Chicago's Miracle Mile, Manhattan, or one of the chi-chi'er streets of Miami or Fort Lauderdale. However, it's extremely welcoming because it's of a much smaller scale, and there's a real history behind the town. Oakville is an old community, with roots dating back to the early 19th century. For a long time, it actually rivalled Toronto as the premiere port on Lake Ontario, before Hamilton and Toronto pulled out of reach.
After the coffee shop, Erin and I strolled through the downtown, visiting consignment shops, an ice cream store (I had a cotton candy milkshake, much to Erin's disgust) and a few other places before walking down to Lake Ontario. Before our parking meter ran out, we headed out and found another park by the lake where we could skip stones. This day was one of those days we live for.
Oakville, incidentally, has one of the better official municipal websites I've seen. There's nothing flashy about the design, so it loads up quickly, and the wealth of information that's available (from maps to official planning documents) does this town a lot of credit. Unfortunately, all I was looking for was pictures of the city, and those were rather hard to come by.
Fathom Five is approaching 30,000 words, and I've released chapter six to my unsuspecting Beta readers. I'll know soon (I hope) whether or not they liked it. As for the Trenchcoat Farewell Project, more artists are coming on stream. Pat Degan finished his work for the New Orleans Film Festival and has told me he now has time available. We're still on track for going to the printers this August.
The photograph here is courtesy of the Oakville Economic Development Alliance.