Last day in PEI

So last night I was trying to put up the last photos with my blog post but gave up at 1am as the internet was so slow. So here are a few photos continuing on from yesterday.

Lover's Lane

The Haunted Wood 

The Haunted Wood

The Haunted Wood

I found another lighthouse yesterday, completely by accident. This one is abandoned so I snooped around a bit and had a little look in the window to see what the accommodations were like for the keeper. Pretty basic but what an amazing view to wake up to every morning! Walked along the beach for a bit and admired the red sand.

I also treated myself to staying in a B&B called Kindred Spirits. It was lovely to have soak in the jacuzzi tub and get all cosy on the bed in my robe, while drinking some raspberry cordial. And what a scrummy breakfast this morning. I loaded up so as I wouldn't need to really eat lunch (traveling on a budget).

Very nutritious Raspberry Cordial

Kindred Spirits Inn

I slept in the Gatehouse

Today was a bit of a non-event for my last day. It drizzled most of the day and as I didn't really want to travel with wet shoes, I spent most of the day in the car. Saw some lovely countryside, some quaint villages and just enjoyed the scenery whizzing by. I also went into a lot of craft type shops in the towns just for a stretch of the legs. I got back to the University and checked in again, and thought I would walk around and see what the place looks like. It's very small so that didn't take long. I drove into the hear of Charlottetown and had a wander around the shops and looked at touristy type things. There were some buskers playing jazz so listened to them for a while. And after a picnic dinner in the car (the drizzle had returned) I went and picked up my ticket for Anne of Green Gables: The Musical. Was a whole lot of fun and they kept pretty close to the story. The actor who played Anne was amazing. Great cast, great orchestra and sat next to a lovely mother and her 10 year old daughter, so great company too.

Old Kensington train station - gave the history of the railway in PEI

Off to Berlin tomorrow (via Montreal and Zurich).

An education in L.M. Montgomery

Today was spent in the world of Lucy Maud Montgomery. I grew up with her as my most favourite author. I have read all her novels and most of the books I own are my grandma's and her sister's from when they were children, pages worn and spines falling apart. So even though I know a lot of today was for the tourists, to me it was like I was there with Maud and imagining her sitting at the windows and her writing what was in her imagination...I ignored the tourists milling about with their imposing cameras (I was amongst them to at times) and felt like I was in her life. Even though she has said that none of her novels are based on the non-fiction you can see how much her life influenced her writing. So now I will share my education with you...

Maud (as she was known) was born in a house in New London (Nov 30th 1874). Her father was a shop keeper but when her mother became ill with tuberculosis when she was almost 2, her father moved her and her mother back to her mother's parent's place (the Macneill Homestead), where her mother died.

The house where Maud was born

The room Maud was born in

After her mother died, her father moved out west to Saskatchewan (he later remarried and had 5 other children) and left her in the care of her grandparents. She grew up in Cavendish on their property. Their house was also the local post office. After she had grown up and gone away to teach in various parts of the island, her grandfather died and she returned to look after her grandmother. It was while she was here and had time on her hands that she started to write her novels (and wrote 4 of them in this house). Because their home was the post office she could field all the rejection letters and not have anyone know (Anne of Green Gables was rejected 5 times before it was picked up). During this time she attended the Presbyterian church where she  met her husband who was the minister there (she taught Sunday School and played the organ). He left for a posting in Ontario and said he would wait for her (Maud said she would not leave her ailing grandmother and so remained secretly engaged to Ewan MacDonald for 5 years). After they were married no one ever lived in her childhood home, and so it eventually became dilapidated and nothing but the cellar remains today (her relatives, John and Jenny Macneill still live on the property and even in their 80s tend the historical site and gardens).

All that is left of Maud's childhood home - the root cellar & foundation

The path leading up to her house. She would have traveled this to go to school and Green Gables

The church where she met her husband

The fields next to her home

Green Gables is not where she lived, but rather a farm next door that was owned by her grandfather's cousin. She visited there frequently and it inspired her to be Anne's home.

That's me in front of Green Gables

One of her favourite places to visit was Silver Bush which was where her Aunt Annie lived (her mother's sister) with her family. Maud would go there on holidays and always had a rather jolly time with her cousins. She loved this place and felt that it was pretty near perfection on earth and that if she ever had a house she would want one just like it. It was here that she wrote Pat of Silver Bush and the family of Aunt Annie still live here. All the furniture is from when Maud stayed there and the Blue Chest from The Story Girl is really there and is from the real story of her cousin Eliza. This is where Ewan and her were married and the organ that played at their wedding, is still used at weddings there today.

Silver Bush

I'm not sure if this was her inspiration for the Lake of Shining Waters or if they call it that for the tourists. It's right below Silver Bush

Maud's wedding gown (replica as the original is too fragile and in storage)

Fireplace Maud and Ewan were married in front of (she was 36 years old)

Silver Bush front view

Near her house in Cavendish there is Balsam Hollow Trail, which Maud actually re-named Lover's Lane, and there is the Haunted Wood which connected her house with her cousin's Green Gables.

Lover's Lane

Was such a lovely day of an education into what is still one of the heroines of my childhood.