Vivian's RV Vignettes

Before I skip to the fun stuff, I ought to mention that I’ve found one of the downsides of June in maritime Canada. The black flies are something fierce. There were clouds of them buzzing around my head in Fundy, and I tried to just ignore them, thinking of them as a nuisance like house flies.

Then they started biting me.

These critters swarm like mosquitoes and bite like spiders. By Tuesday morning, I had half a dozen hot, swollen lumps on my arms, shoulders, and head. The worst was on the top of my right ear, which was so swollen that it felt slightly numb (and itchy). When I woke up, my lymph nodes were swollen too, which is apparently a thing that can happen with black fly bites. Basically my poor Texas body just said, “What the heck was THAT?” I drove to Prince Edward Island as planned, but when I arrived in mid-afternoon, I was done and slept for the rest of the day (which is too bad, because that looks like the only sunny weather I’m going to get during my stay). I felt better after that, and the lumps are slowly going down, but the one on my ear was starting to look infected so I’ve been slathering it in antibiotic ointment. Have you ever tried making a Band-aid stick on your ear without getting hair stuck in it? Not easy, my friend. Today I walked around with a lump of gauze stuck on there with Band-aids that probably made the people I met suspect me of a piercing accident of some kind.

Apart from the insect life, though, Prince Edward Island is lovely. Thank goodness for Deet wipes. Last night I took a stroll along the beach and just enjoyed the waves lapping gently on the shore. (No phone with me, so no photos.) This afternoon, I finally went over to check out the star attraction: Green Gables.

For those who aren’t familiar, Lucy Maud Montgomery (LMM) wrote her famous novel “Anne of Green Gables” set in a fictional town called Avonlea, which was very closely based on the real town of Cavendish, Prince Edward Island, where I currently am. LMM lived here in her own childhood, raised by her grandparents after her mother died and her father went out west for work. In the story, Anne was an orphan who came to live with a middle-aged brother and sister in a house called Green Gables.

LMM said that Green Gables in the story was inspired by the house owned by her MacNeil cousins, a short distance from where she lived with her grandparents. Even during her lifetime (she lived until 1942), it became a tourist attraction. In the 1930s, the Canadian government bought up the property (and LMM’s grandparents’ property) as a centerpiece of the new Prince Edward Island National Park. In their infinite wisdom, they painted the gables green to match the description in the book.

LMM married and moved away to Ontario, but her heart always remained in Cavendish. This quote made me happy:

She must have taken joy from knowing that her writing preserved the places she loved best, not only in memory and imagination, but in actual fact.

Inside, the house has been furnished with period items from the area, including a couple of pieces that may have belonged to the MacNeil family (a table and a hat stand).

Of course, they also had to have Anne’s Room, complete with the “first pretty dress” with puffed sleeves that Matthew gave her for Christmas.

But the coolest things to me were the woodland trails outside. I hadn’t realized that Lover’s Lane and the Haunted Wood were real places, trails that LMM loved to walk for joy and consolation.

When I got to the Haunted Wood Trail, I found a nice bench halfway along and stopped to read that chapter on the spot.

Much as the Haunted Woods Trail in the book is described as leading from Green Gables to Diana’s house, today it leads from Green Gables to the homestead site where LMM actually lived. The original house is gone, but they’ve preserved the kitchen where LMM did some of her writing and helped her grandmother run the Cavendish Post Office, using her access to the mail bags to secretly send off her manuscripts.

(I arrived after it was closed for the day, but leaned over the fence and took a picture.)

As per her wishes, LMM is buried in the Cavendish cemetery, in between Green Gables and her grandparents’ land right off the Haunted Woods Trail.

She had a very difficult life in many ways, but she managed to always find, and share, joy and beauty. I’m one of the millions who grew up with Anne and is all the richer for it. I’m glad to have come and seen the places that inspired her, where her heart was at home.