wood by walter vendor #56

Wooden vases in various shapes and sizes with glass viles have also been a popular item.  Small items such as honey dippers, toothpick holders, egg cup holders, pencil holders and old fashioned corking spools are all popular and good sellers.  French style rolling pins are also a popular item.  Live edge coffee and end tables are also available to view in my showroom.   I also have live edge serving trays and a variety of sizes and types of lazy susan turntables.

Al Wakelin was born and raised in Stratford, ON. At 15 years old, he was hired as

an usher at the Stratford Festival Theatre; his third and last summer as Head

Usher at the “new” Third Stage, later renamed the Tom Patterson Theatre. The

Festival Theatre productions influenced Al’s love of theatre and his creative side; he

began writing poetry.

Al attended the University of Western Ontario, graduating in 1978 with a BA in

Social Sciences. In May 1980, Al was sworn into the Royal Canadian Mounted Police

(RCMP); his career took him and his family across Canada.  

Al joined the Canadian

Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS) working out of the Ottawa Region from

1985 to 1988 before returning to the RCMP, during which time he was seconded for

a six-month stint as a peacekeeper in UNCIVPOL with the United Nations Protection

Force in the former Yugoslavia, working in Croatia and in Sarajevo when war broke

out in the summer of 1992.

After retiring from the RCMP in 2003, Al took the Western Canadian Security

Manager’s position at McDonald’s Restaurants of Canada Limited where he worked

until 2014, retiring out of Toronto as National Security Manager.

He worked in

Corporate Security supporting franchisees and restaurants across Canada and

proudly worked with McDonald’s Global Security team at several major events

including the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics and the 2010 Vancouver Winter

Olympics.

Al and his wife Sue returned to Stratford in 2013, opened their B&B in 2016, and Al

began writing in earnest in 2020, publishing his first crime mystery novel

Unforgiven Trespasses in 2024 and the sequel, Shadow of Justice, in

September 2025. The third book in the trilogy will be released in the spring of

2026. Al writes what he knows! All three books are set primarily in Stratford at the

Cottage on Caledonia B&B during the summer of 2020. There was NO pandemic.

The Festival’s theatre season goes on as planned. But mysterious crimes abound!