7 months ago we moved (after 25 years in a big city) to a small seaside town – one not very far from where I grew up and where my husband lived for many years. I’ve lived in small towns before and one of the highlights of a small town calendar is the annual “festival”. Of course, this isn’t limited to small towns – most cities have them too, think Carnivale in Venice for example.
These festivals usually revolve around a “thing” the town/city is known for. Like the pumpkin/watermelon/corn festival if you’re in a rural area. Or the crab etc festival if you’re in a fishing town.
In my small town – Yeppoon – it’s pineapples. When I was a kid, Yeppoon was pineapple central. On the approach to town there were pineapples as far as the eye could see. On every hillside and spare piece of land and you could get a pineapple for 10c! Its not like that any more, but there are still significant amounts of the fruit grown around the surrounding areas.
So, we have the Pinefest every year. On Friday night we went to the Pinefest ball. And on Sunday we went to the pinefest parade. Pics belows!
The theme this year was pirates and, as you can see, a good time and great weather was had by all!
So, what about you? What’s your town/cities thing? Let me know where you live and what you celebrate in your annual festival.
On the flight over I listed to Elianne by Judy Nunn, a family saga set in Australia against the back drop of the sugar cane industry. It jumped between the turn of the 20th century and the turbulent times of the 1960s. The author had done a lot of research and I learned a few things. I LOVE the audio book app that my library offers. Do you listen to audio books? I love to in the car and when I’m gardening and cooking.
My next book was a Young Adult novel I had bought on sale ages ago when people were talking about it. My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick was engaging and the dilemma in the book had me discussing it with the boys at dinner. Of course, in a YA novel the story pretty much demands that parents are absent, ineffectual or badly behaved so that the protagonists can grow. This book did all that and we got a good family discussion out of it!
ita-nominated novel, It had to be You was next on the list. I enjoyed returning to Lucky Harbour. Sometimes it can be tough for a reader to return to a town where the people you love are suddenly not behaving in quite the way you expect but this didn’t lessen my enjoyment. Plus the hero was gorgeous. Nuff said!
ondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz. Big departure from romance and I am glued to my Spanish-English dictionary on my Kindle as there is a lot of Spanish language in it. I am figuring that perhaps now in the USA, there must be a lot of known Spanish in the general community because there is no actual translation in the narrative or hints at what the words mean. Most are not important but I like to know! It’s an interesting read!
Finally, I read the second book in Kristan Higgins Blue Heron series, The Perfect Match. I can always depend on Kristan Higgins to make me laugh and I wasn’t disappointed.
Love is the Best Medicine 