I have just come back from a wonderful reading tour for Sask authors short-listed this year for the Saskatchewan Book Awards. Sask Book Awards began these rural reading tours in about 1997-8 to give the outside-of-Regina-and-Saskatoon authors a platform and to bring new books to rural Saskatchewan. The idea has grown and with the sponsorship of SaskPower and Canada Council, there are now two rural tours.
This was a new venture hosted by a guest ranch at Ravenscrag (love the name!) between the Montana Badlands and the famed Cypress Hills. After a long drive through rolling ranch country, (Sharon Butala country, memorialized in literature by Wallace Stegner’s Wolf Willow) we round a curve leading down into a lovely little coulee where the old Eaton’s catalogue house appears to have ordered up the perfect scenic backdrop for its new role as a Bed and Breakfast.
The Spring Valley Guest Ranch operator Jim Saville, a slight, quiet spoken man (at first glance – maybe an accountant?), not only runs a 25 person B&B plus the ranch single handedly, he has just bought and moved a church onto the property and commenced staging arts events for the community. (The Saville Theatre, naturally!) This is no mean feet when the community consists of one ranch every 10 miles. Ravenscrag is the remaining piece of a partially demolished elevator. The nearest town is Maple Creek some 50 km north. Eastend (in the south-west corner of the province) seems to be somewhere nearby, with Cypress Hills Park off to the west.
In the upstairs hallway of the spacious old home we ran into Rebecca Grambo (author) and Joanne Jarvis, (Community Relations director for SaskPower). An immediate Girls' dorm gabfest ensued. We were delighted to find ourselves enveloped in country warmth and charm and excited about the festivities ahead of us. After the readings the gathering reconvened in Harold LaRat's room with his daughter and son-in-law.
Jim kept unassumingly unveiling more astonishments about his guest ranch. He likes rare or endangered breeds. No common riding ponies here. With his new interest in his theatre, Jim gave up offering wagon rides when one of a his team of Percherons died of West Nile virus, but he keeps the aging Percheron mare who has earned retirement. Ancient White Park cattle grace the pasture – there are only eleven pure-bread in Canada. His chickens are stunning exotic breeds like picture-book cockerels. Blue Andalusians – Spanish, Americauna- blue eggs, French Maran – chocolate brown eggs and Marville (a breed he has developed himself) laying dark green eggs.
A distant neighbour, spotting Jim at an auction sale thought of these seldom seen fowl and called, “Hey Jim, you still foolin’ around with those erotic chickens?”
We left the comfort of our farm-home bedroom and headed for the Reading event at the transpsorted church, the Saville Theatre. Forty people had appeared from over the hills, and were treated to a simple but delicious church basement dinner, readings by three remarkable Saskatchewan authors and musical entertainment by Rachel Cresswell, a young classical singer with one of the truest and strongest voices I've heard. She was professionally accompanied by a pianist on an electric keyboard played with the grace and elegance of a grand piano.
The meal was superb! Better than any restaurant, no matter how expensive. The books held us in thrall and were exceedingly well read. Jim had chosen his readers well - the books seemed written for the people of this area:
- Where Blue Grama Grows -Doris Bircham. A rancher-poet, carving cameos of ranch life and family - each one clear and stunning.
- Wolf: Legend, Enemy, Icon - Rebecca Grambo. Rebecca’s insights regarding the relationship of humans to wolves reveals where humans are in their own development through the ages. An enthralling reader, she would hold school kids spellbound.
- Treaty Promises, Indian Reality: Life on a Reserve - Harold LeRat. With a charming sense of humour, Harold tells the history of the last Indian Chief (of his band) who kept returning to the Cypress Hills there where his heart dwelt, despite the Federal Government's decree that the band move to a reserve near Broadview (small town on the Trans Canada highway, not far from the Manitoba border.) Harold displayed his book but did not read from it. He is a storyteller.
So as you might have guessed, I am high on books again and couldn’t wait to tell you about the Ravenscrag experience. New books, new people and a new/old corner of this province that will lure me back.
Sincerely,
Joyce Wells