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Confession of a County loyalist
There is a lot to be said for living in the County. However, I sometimes wonder whether we fall under the pleasant illusion that the air is rarefied here and outside our boundaries lies only bleak wilderness. But the truth is that there are all manner of interesting places outside the County within easy reach. I’m going to share some of my favourites and get a load off my chest. Call this the confession of a County loyalist.
I’ll admit at the outset that my brief survey is heavily skewed towards bakeries and bookstores: those of you looking for extreme adventure tips will find no satisfaction here. And I want to acknowledge that I get inspiration from the pages of three local magazines, But for them, I would have missed such delightful events as the Warkworth Lilac Festival and the recent Castleton Yarns from the Mill Festival, held in support of the Mill at Piper Creek Arts and Heritage Centre.
Watershed, which has a Cobourg/Port Hope orientation, delivers timely information about what’s going on in Northumberland County and beyond. I held my breath when the publisher announced a few months ago that the then current issue would be the last, but there seems to have been a change of plan. Our own Conrad Beaubien is a regular contributor.
The other two are Grapevine, which is published by Rednersville’s Tracey and Jeff Keary, and which features our own Sharon Harrison as a contributor; and County and Quinte Living, published by Metroland Media, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation. (A fourth magazine—Country Roads—focusses on Hastings County. I sometimes see copies of it strewn around the Via station in Belleville, but it doesn’t seem to get regular delivery to the County).
So on with my highlight tour. Starting out to the west, I enjoy the laid back ambiance of downtown Cobourg’s The Loft, an art house film and performance venue run by the genial Ken Prue. I have also sampled —on multiple occasions, to make sure my sampling was representative—the home-cooking at the Buttermilk Cafe. Or I can move along to Grafton and try the Grafton Village Inn Café. If I’m just going to Brighton, I will be sure to stop at Lola’s coffee shop and Lighthouse Books.
Heading further east, I will visit Trenton (sorry, I mean Quinte West) to admire the acres of public parks and sport fields and catch the annual Scottish and Irish festival. I will drive to the northern limits of the town to visit the Bleasdell Boulder conservation area, and then a little further into Glen Miller, where I take in the occasional concert at the Old Church Theatre. (No, it’s not that Glen Miller; see the article by Lindi Pierce in the current issue of County and Quinte Living). I might drive through the immaculate landscape of Batawa and wish it good luck on its redevelopment, or I might head north towards Stirling and stop at the Sager Conservation Areas to climb the impressive lookout.
If I’m feeling ambitious. I will mount an expedition to Campbellford to attack the twin delights of the Empire Cheese Factory store and the World’s Finest Chocolate store, as well as to browse at Kerr’s Corner Books. Or I might decide to go into Stirling and from there up to Madoc to grab a sandwich and some peanut butter cookies at the Hidden Goldmine bakery and pay a visit to the O’Hara Homestead Conservation Area.
I voluntarily visit Belleville to acknowledge its heroic efforts to refurbish the downtown core, as well as for Chilangos Mexican restaurant; the Glanmore mansion; the Empire Theatre and the wonderful Belleville Downtown Docfest held every March.
To the east, I visit Desoronto for the O’Connor House Tea Room and Karen Brown’s Antiques and Collectables— the largest antique store in eastern Ontario, where I get to buy back the everyday items from my childhood, priced as “vintage”: I’ll know I’m really over the hill when I see them priced as “antique.” Or I’ll go on to Napanee and visit the Lennox & Addington County Museum & Archive, and then head to Ellena’s Café, the home of the best—and most generously portioned— coconut cream pie within an hour’s drive from Wellington. Justin Trudeau visited the place, so be sure to take a selfie.
I’m overdue for a return visit to Tamworth, which packs a solid one-two punch of a bakery (The River Bakery) and a really good used book store (Tamworth Book Shop), as well as Stinson Studios’ woodwork burls. And I’m looking forward to going back to the annual Art Among the Ruins show in beautiful downtown Newburgh—which also happens to have a bakery.
There are still some big gaps in my experience. Port Hope, Peterborough and Kingston are terra incognita. I’ve never ‘done’ Tweed, and haven’t attended a performance at the Stirling Festival Theatre, or at the newly renamed Westben Centre for Connection and Creativity through Music, nor have I seen a play at the Pinnacle Theatre in Belleville. I’ve never fully explored Amherst Island, or visited the Wilton Cheese Factory north of Odessa.
But I’ll fill in those gaps slowly. After all, I don’t want to be accused of not being a County loyalist.
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