Cavendish, PEI
Trip Start
Jul 05, 2008
1
4
25
Trip End
Aug 17, 2008
Where I stayed
Cavendish,
Prince Edward Island,
Canada
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Tuesday 15/7/08 - Saturday 19/7/08
Prince Edward Island is simply beautiful.
There are so many shades of green - all the different crops turn the landscape into a patchwork of greens! The beaches and unsealed roads are a light red colour, and against the backdrop of a Summer sky in Cavendish, the effect is simply breathtaking. The birds are vocal and the occasional scent drifting across of freshly mowed grass or the woods are delicious memories I'll have of PEI.
The people here are so friendly, polite and lovely - a lady named Eva on the plane gave me her phone number in case I needed it, and a local motorcyclist pulled over to help me find my way with a map (the Chrysler PT Cruiser with Nova Scotia plates I've hired just screams 'tourist') - but it's lovely that they went out of their way to make sure I was alright.
I headed to St Ann's (a church fundraiser for 40 years!) for a traditional Island Lobster Supper. It was accompanied by clam chowder, salad, clams with butter, and even a rhubarb crunch dessert. The spread was absolutely fresh and delicious - I walked away nearly bursting!
I visited "Avonlea" - a themed period park around the 'Anne of Green Gables' books penned by Lucy Maud Montgomery in 1908. Highlights were actors performing scenes from the book, a schoolhouse and spelling bee, raspberry cordial from the General Store, a horse-drawn wagon ride, and high tea in the 'manse' parlour.
I then came back to Cavendish for fish and chips on the beach, where the setting sun cast the most beautiful glow over the whole area. My pictures don't even begin do justice to it!
However, the nearby pond ensured that mosquitoes were never far away. Now, PEI mosquitoes are far from subtle - they're noisy, you can feel them when they land, and they hurt! I can completely understand now why Anne could be kept 'awaker than a bad conscience' with one around!
Visiting the Green Gables house was delightful. It's a big tourist attraction, but despite (or perhaps because of) that it has been well furnished and kept and is a wonderful visual of the rooms so familiar in the novels. I even had ice cream! Perhaps the most lovely thing about Green Gables though are the nearby walks through the "Haunted Wood" and "Lovers' Lane" - these are the real places that inspired Maud to include them in her novel.
Next was a visit to the site of Lucy Maud Montgomery's Cavendish home where she spent half her life. Unfortunately only the foundations remain but the grounds are lovely (and Anne and Diana were there!), and the short walk to the Green Gables Post Office and LMM's grave was hot but pleasant.
On the way to Summerside, I saw the Lower Bedeque Schoolhouse which is set up with all the school objects LMM herself would have used when she taught in the 1890s.
In Summerside I saw "Anne and Gilbert: the Musical" - absolutely fantastic! Coincidentally I sat next to some people from Ontario I had seen at Avonlea the day previously - seems we're all walking the same track. The music was great, the story well put together from a couple of the novels, and I even got to meet some of the members of the cast afterwards.
Next day I took in more of the scenery as I drove to New London (previously Clifton) to visit the house where LMM was born. Interestingly, after her mother died of Tuberculosis when LMM was two and she stayed with her grandparents in Cavendish, LMM's father sold up at the Clifton General Store (which wasn't doing very well) and moved West and started a new family and a new life. Funnily enough, it was his daughter that now ensures there is lots of passing traffic in that same street!
The birthplace had a replica of LMM's wedding dress or 'trousseu' (the real one is too delicate to be in public) and her actual shoes are there. There was no left or right shoe, you could wear either on either foot in 1911! The house also had some of LMM's original journals, full of story ideas, mementos and clippings of her own published work.
Next was the Anne of Green Gables Museum in Park Corner, where I had a delightful wagon ride and saw Silver Bush which inspired some of LMM's other books. In that house, LMM was married to her minister fiance and there were lots of memorabilia that had inspired LMM's other short stories, poetry and novels.
Afterwards, I went for a delightful ramble at the place that Mrs Campbell (a distant cousin/descendant of LMM who helps run the Museum) believed inspired "Four Winds" and the Glen in some later Anne books. There was a beautiful lighthouse and red rocks on the shore.
I thought I'd make a quick (!) dash further West along the North Shore to a place called Bideford. The Bideford Parsonage Museum's claim to fame is that Mrs Estley there once made a cake accidentally flavoured with anodyne liniment - apparently not very delicious - and the visiting minister thought it was how it was supposed to be and ate every crumb.
On the way back I stopped off at Summerside again and took a look around Spinnakers Landing - there for the tourists but nice nonetheless.
Today I'm heading to Montreal to begin my tour of French Canada and Niagara Falls - I'll write when I can, but no guarantees as I won't be completely and delightfully on my own time any more!
Unfortunately there's no USB drive available in this computer (although the internet access is free at the airport, where I am now - so I'm definitely not complaining!!) so I'll upload some photos from PEI when I next get a chance.
More soon...
