Wow, what a whirlwind! My last email was sent out on May 1 and you will not believe everything that has happened since then.
In the first week of May we hosted The Inaugural West Feliciana Children’s Book Festival. The weather was beautiful, we had a fabulous group of authors, illustrators and story tellers as well as wonderful community volunteers that all pulled together to make the event a success. I can hardly wait until Saturday May 5, 2018 when we will host our SECOND ANNUAL WEST FELICIANA CHILDREN’S BOOK FESTIVAL . To see pictures and news articles from the event and to stay up to date on plans for next year’s event be sure to follow our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/WFCBF/ .
Soon after wrapping up the children’s book festival I was able to check a whole bunch of things off of my bucket list. It all started several years ago when my husband, who of course knows what a fan I have become of gardening and all things British, started talking about going to see the Chelsea Flower show. We have talked about it for several years but when he floated the idea of going last year I refused because the dates of the show fall the week before The Walker Percy Weekend . Over the course of the year I have finally come to realize that life is short and we have to grab hold of experiences like this when they are available because they may not ever come around again. So just before Christmas time last year we made a plan and started to get things in line and I tried to come up with something I could add on as a Christmas surprise for Rob. As luck and coincidence would have it when I looked up information on touring Highclere Castle (we are both huge Downton Abbey fans) there was a notice on the website about a special event which happened to be taking place while we would be in England. Did you know both Jane Austen and Henry James had once lived within 10 miles of Highclere? Well they did and in celebration of this fact Highclere was staging a “Landscapes and Literature” tour where you would tour the gardens, the house, have tea and hear a lecture on the great age of British Literature. The lecture we attended was titled Women Behaving Badly . It was delivered in the main hall of Highclere Castle (yes the room with the staircase and the stone pillars and arches encasing the upstairs gallery – yes, where the annual Christmas party is held in Downton Abbey!) . The talk focused on the impropriety of the heroines in Jane Austen’s : it was shocking that women would walk alone, speak up for themselves, basically have a backbone. It was a fabulous day. The flower show was Absolutely Amazing – I can’t even begin to try to describe it but if you are ever given a chance to attend TAKE IT ! And in between the two my sweet husband arranged a spontaneous Saturday for me where we went down to Nottinghill, wandered through the Portabello Road Market and best of all paid a visit to The Nottinghill Bookshop. But eventually we had to return to reality and home sweet home.
No sooner were we home than it was one week out from The Walker Percy Weekend. This event is my favorite annual event in St. Francisville, it has been since the first year when I was an attendee not at all involved in the planning or staging of theweekend. This year’s event did not disappoint – even though it rained cats and dogs! And the best part of this year’s event was hearing people making plans to come back next year and what friends and family they were inviting to join them here in St. Francisville. We are already underway making plans for the 2018 event which will be held June 1 – 3, 2018. Mark your calendars and make plans to be here – you won’t want to miss our Fifth Annual Walker Percy Weekend. Get more information on The Walker Percy Weekend at www.walkerpercyweekend.org or on Facebook at : https://www.facebook.com/walkerpercyweekend/
So now it’s time to breathe, restock the shelves, play in my garden, chat with people about books and basically live the dream. Why don’t you come visit Buster and I at The Conundrum some day ? Tell us about what you are reading, or what you think we should be reading, or just grab a seat and visit a bit? See you soon!