All things LM Montgomery

For our entire week on PEI (just Madison and I celebrating her entering the teenage years) we stayed in Cavendish at Shining Waters Inn.  It was an old farmhouse that belonged to a cousin of LMM, Rachel MacNeill (who is generally acknowledged as the inspiration for Rachel Lynde).  It has since been developed into an inn with many cottages surrounding it.  The building itself is over 150 years old.

We first visited "Silver Bush", the home of LMM's Aunt Annie and Uncle John Campbell.  LMM stayed here numerous times, was married here in 1911, and referred to this home as the wonder castle of her childhood.  She wrote several books with this home as the setting (including Pat of Silver Bush and Story Girl).

In this home were numerous pieces of memorabelia from the life of LMM.  2 of my favorite pieces were the Enchanted Bookcase, and the Blue Chest

"In our sitting room there had always stood a book-case used as a china cabinet... When I was very small each of my reflections in the glass doors were real folk to my imagination.  The one in the elft-hand door was Katie Maurice, the one in the right, Lucy Gray... I would stand before that door and prattle to Katie for hours... I never passed through the room without a wave of my hand to Katie..." ~The Alpine Path (from the journals of LMM) - the obvious inspiration for Anne's bookcase friend Katie Maurice!

A true romance from the Campbell home in 1847 is the inspiration for an episode in The Story Girl called "The Blue Chest of Rachel Ward".  It's a story about Eliza Montgomery (distant cousin of LMM) who was to be married at Silver Bush.  On her wedding day the groom didn't show.  Eliza buried her cake and locked all her wedding clothes and gifts in this chest for almost 40 years.  She never married.  LMM obtained permission from her cousin to open the chest, and some of its contents were displayed.

We took "Matthew's Carriage Ride" along the red dirt roads surrounding Silver Bush, and along The Lake of Shining Waters.

Madison and I posed against a little gazebo in the mist, alongside the Lake of Shining Waters.  We included a little pink octopus in many of our pictures - Inky.

 I never got tired of the vivid colors of the island.  LMM was quoted: "I love this island of sapphire, emerald and ruby."  Truly the red dirt, the greenery, and the blue sea created this trio of color.  Something I hadn't expected were the thousands and thousands of lupins in bloom.  They were all along the ditches - everywhere we drove.

We stopped by the birth place of LMM, and wandered through that farmhouse - it was kind of sad b/c she only lived here with her parents for maybe the first 18 months of her life. 

She and her mother went to live with her grandparents until her mother, Clara, died when little Lucy was only 21 months old.  LMM's father remarried and moved to Saskatchewan.  Grandparents MacNeill raised Lucy in Cavendish.

LMM stayed with her grandparents.  When she was 31 the Reverend Ewan MacDonald asked her to marry him, but she chose to stay with her grandmother b/c by this time Grandmother MacNeill was all alone.
5 years later when her grandmother died, Lucy happily said yes when Ewan came calling.  He was now living in Toronto, and they moved there together, and had a family. 
Ewan and Lucy are both buried back in the Cavendish cemetery up the road from our inn.

We visited the tourist Village of Avonlea and were treated to characters interacting all over the streets and on backyard garden stages.  We loved listening to Songs from the Shanty, and the one man tried to teach Madison to play the spoons.

"Oh Marilla! I thought red hair was bad -

but green is ten times worse!"

Josie Pye and Dianna Barry joined our music group for some east coast step-dancing.  The music was FANTASTIC!!

Madison and I stopped for raspberry cordial at the General Store.

 Charlie Sloane grumbled because Gilbert Blythe got to stand beside the pretty Madison.

Another beautiful place was Green Gables - the home of LMM's grandfather's cousin.  They spent a lot of time at this home, and we were able to wander through the Haunted Woods, and down Lovers' Lane.
It truly is an inspiring place of beauty.

We explored the red and white sand beaches, the dunelands, and the cliffs.  None of these figure too much into the Anne series by LMM, but oh how breathtaking everything was! 

 

Our first lobster ever - we also had fresh haddock, halibut, and poached salmon.  I tried my first oyster and it went down fairly well.

We took a horse and wagon tour through old town Charlottetown - and loved every minute of the old buildings and beautiful architecture!

We took in 2 amazing theater performances - Anne of Green Gables in Charlottetown, and Anne & Gilbert in Summerside. 

We finished our week with a Canada Day boat parade out North Rustico Harbor.  We loved the seaspray and friendly people. 

Madison and I are now racing to see who gets to re-read the Anne books all over again - and I'm thinking of getting the LMM journals.  She was an amazing writer, a unique and creative individual; she was quirky and imaginative - and seems quite unapologetic about it all.  I would have liked to have known her.  We surely would have been kindred spirits!