Month: October 2015

A different kind of baptism.

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This evening, Sean and I stood on a flat rock, polished smooth by the ocean, and stepped into the cold water together. 

   
 
We only got wet up to our ankles, but we did it! Neither of us had seen the Atlantic Ocean before last Friday. Now, we’ve had a little ritual of wetting our feet in it together. 

We weren’t born siblings, but we did this together to further cement our mutual adoption.  It’s safe to say that we have really bonded in the past five days. 

  
We’ve experienced many firsts together on our short vacation in the eastern provinces of Canada. It was the first time for both of us to visit Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. Sean had his first lobster. I fulfilled childhood dreams with Sean by my side. We have laughed and talked and taken photos and blogged and got rained on and visited many new places together. And the meals we’ve shared… Oh my. 

This trip out east has been sensational in so many ways. 

It’s going to be really hard to leave him tomorrow and go back to instant messaging. But we will. It’s so much better than nothing!

Lower Bedeque School, Prince Edward Island. 

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While sharing lunch with my friend in Summerside, PEI, sour server mentioned that we were not far from one of the schools where Lucy Maud Montgomery had taught in 1896-1897. 

We decided to go by and see the school house, which now serves as a museum. It wasn’t open, but we did peek in the windows as well as taking photographs of the building. 

   
  

  

How delightful to see another part of Montgomery’s own history on PEI. 

The story of her time here is quite poignant. While teaching at this school, Montgomery boarded with the Leard family. 

Lucy fell in love with the eldest son of the family, Herman, but he ended the relationship because he was less educated than her and believed she could do better. 

Montgomery’s grandfather died suddenly and she left Bedeque before the school year was finished to return to Cavendish and take care of her grandmother. 

When Herman Leard died of influenza in 1899, Montgomery was distraught, even though their relationship had long been over. 

Lucy Maud Montgomery.

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Lucy Maud Montgomery is famous as the author of “Anne of Green Gables” and many other books. She was also a poet – something I did not know until today! 

In addition to visiting Green Gables, I also visited he site of the home in which Montgomery lived with her grandparents at Cavendish and her birthplace at New London, on Prince Edward Island.

Both of these experiences were lovely. The home of Montgomery’s grandparents is no longer standing, but the site is commemorated by a rustic bookstore which specialises in book by, and about, Montgomery.   

  

  

 

Walking through the house in which Montgomery was born was both fascinating and quite moving.

   

To see letters handwritten by her, clothes and shoes that she wore, and to walk on the very same floorboards and stairs that she walked on as a child had a very profound effect on me.  I have always felt connected to her characters, but to feel a sense of connection to the author is another thing again.  

  

  

 

The rooms do not have the original furnishings owned by Montgomery’s family, as the house was sold when her mother died from tuberculosis at the age of 23, when Lucy Maud was only 21 months old. 

It was during her mother’s illness that Lucy went to live with her maternal grandparents at Cavendish. Here, she frequently visited relatives who lived in the house nearby that inspired her to write the story of Green Gables and the red-haired orphan girl, Anne Shirley, who went to live there. 

The house is furnished with authentic items from the time period, according to the way in which such a house would typically have been furnished. Close attention has been paid to every detail.  

  


  
 

I’m so glad we found these places and decided to visit. As well as fulfilling a life-long hope and dream of mine, I discovered some new places and learned new things about this wonderful writer whom I have admired for so long. I really have had an absolutely marvellous day.  

Anne of Green Gables. 

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One of my dreams since childhood has been to visit Green Gables and see the places I had grown to love ever since reading my mother’s old copies of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s books. 

Those books were formative for me. I loved Anne for her feistiness, her wordiness, and her ability to get herself into trouble. Her imagination was inspirational to me. I learned valuable moral lessons. Most of all, I got lost in Anne’s world as the story unfolded from one book to the next. 

Today, I fulfilled that dream. 

I arrived at Green Gables in Cavendish on Prince Edward Island and stepped into the world created by Montgomery in her books about Anne Shirley, Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert, Anne’s “bosom friend” Diana Barry and a host of other delightful characters. 

I found some time alone to shed some tears. It was quite an emotional experience for me. I had dreamed of being here since I was a girl of 7. 

When I joined my friends, I thought I was over the emotional response, but I blinked back tears several more times during my visit. They were all happy tears, though. 

I thoroughly enjoyed my visit. The house has been painstakingly restored and maintained.  

  

  

Other places featured in Anne’s world, such as Lovers’ Lane and The Haunted Wood, are also carefully maintained and can be freely visited by visitors to Green Gables. 

   

 
I so loved visiting Anne’s Green Gables today. It is a day I will never forget. 

Charlottetown, PEI.

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Oh my goodness. 
I don’t think I have ever seen a prettier city. Vintage brick buildings, gorgeously painted shop fronts, charming houses and a beautiful harbour combine to make Charlettetown absolutely picturesque. Every way you turn, it lookalike a postcard. 

City Hall is magnificent. This building tells you that the people of Charlottetown are proud of their city and the province of which it is the capital.  

   
Another noticeable feature is that it’s clean. Every corner has bins for recycle, waste, and food/organically for composting. There’s no litter, no mess, no smelly embarrassing places. Clean. 

The harbour is also a sight to behold. Boats bob gently, the water sparkles, and the lighthouse on the island in the middle of the harbour stands boldly, as if it were making sure all the boats were behaving themselves properly. 

As the sun sink slow in the sky, we leave the harbour and head to a restaurant nearby where we are meeting friends for dinner. I have been looking forward to meeting these wonderful people for a very long time. 

At this moment, my heart is so full of happiness. I have already seen such beauty on this island, and I’ve only been here a few hours. I know there is more beauty and more happiness to come. 

   
 

Trans-Canada Highway.

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Heading from Nova Scotia to New Brunswick, we found ourselves on the Trans-Canada Highway. For some reason which escapes me, I thought that ran much further  north. 

Then it dawned on me.

I am further north than I have ever been. And yesterday, I was further east than I have ever been. 

So, as we drove along, I started singing Gene Pitney’s “Trans-Canada Highway, take me home…” because my brain-pod had immediately started playing it as soon as I saw the sign. 

There was a moment of awkwardness when I realised Sean had not heard the song before, but then I kept singing it anyway. That’s how I roll. 

We crossed into New Brunswick, bypassed Moncton, and headed to Port Elgin. Once there, we headed over the Confederation Bridge to Prince Edward Island. 

We headed for Charlottetown and found ourselves on the Trans-Canada, yet again. 

  
Three provinces in one day. Not bad for an Aussie maple leaf, adrift on the wind!

Halifax Harbour.

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The harbour was our last stop in Halifax before heading off again. 

It’s very pretty once you are away from the industrial area. Sailboats, motor boats, nautical themed buildings and restaurants characterise the downtown harbour front.  


   
Prominent on the dock is Murphy’s restaurant – the very one we had discussed visiting last night. It looks lovely, surrounded by pier and boardwalk, and enhanced by a paddle boat moored right beside it.   

    
 
We left Halifax this morning very happy with all that we had seen and done while staying there. 

Bay of Fundy.

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After visiting Peggy’s Cove, I wanted to cut across Nova Scotia to see the Bay of Fundy, yet another of my bucket list items. 

We had discussed having dinner at a restaurant with a patio on Halifax Harbour, but we had also discussed how we liked to support “Mom and Pop” businesses. While I was investigating where to go to see the Bay, I noticed a place called Hall’s Harbour that had a lobster house restaurant right on the pier. 

Peggy’s Cove.

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I’ve seen Peggy’s Cove in photographs and books many times, so it was an obvious addition to my bucket list for my visit to Canada. 

We set out this morning from Halifax in misty rain, but it didn’t dampen my spirits. I observed that moody skies and a bit of rain kind of suited this part of Nova Scotia, although I’m not really sure why. 

We stopped at some picturesque places along the way, enjoying the scenery provided by little bays and inlets and the vivid Autumn colours of the trees along the road.  Little white churches, boats, rustic cabins, ponds and rocky outcrops provided stimulus for plenty of conversation as we drove. 

 As we drove into Peggy’s Cove there were so many delightful things to see that it was hard to know where to start.  

We almost overlooked a stunning view over the Atlantic Ocean, but I was so glad Sean noticed that there was something at the end of the Visitor Centre car park. It was a bench, perfectly placed for contemplation. 

  

We turned our attention to the village itself, situated right on the cove. It’s incredibly pretty. Piers, boats, and typically maritime buildings combine to create a gorgeous view.  It’s quite serene, despite the presence of numerous tourists and the cars and buses in which they arrived.


We proceeded up the hill to Peggy’s Point Lighthouse. Perched on a rocky outcrop, the lighthouse stands stark and white, capped with emphatic red, against the natural environment. 

 

It is yet another magnificent view in this most beautiful place. Peggy’s Cove is highly memorable, and definitely worth the drive.