9: Straw hats and red plats

18.09.2012 – 18.09.2012 sunny 21 °C

Green Gables day today! I had a nice sleep in this morning as the only thing I really wanted to get done was spend the day moseying around Green Gables (GG) and the other sites from the very famous book. The Anne Series has always been one of my all time favourites so in many ways I am living out a real life fantasy spending time in the areas that Anne (or at least LMM) called home.

Anne of Green Gables is loosely based on the town and the happenings of the town of Cavendish, PEI. All of the characters are sadly fictional but I would bet my last dollar that they are all based on someone that LMM knew! LMM grew up in her grandparents’ home in the town of Cavendish. She was a town girl and so lived behind the Cavendish post office (which her grandparents ran). The setting for Anne’s home (GG) is based on the home that her cousins lived in a couple of hundred meters from where LMM used to call home. From what diaries etc that LMM has left behind we know that she loved the GG house and the woods that surrounded the house. Today you can wander through the house and envisage Anne, Matthew and Marilla sitting at the kitchen table enjoying a delicious home cooked dinner.

I was actually surprised to see how different houses were back in the 1800s. This house is still in original condition and is furnished with furniture from the time of LMM. Each room is considerably smaller than its modern day counterpart except the kitchen. The kitchen in this house is really large and I’m thinking that is because it probably was a multi purpose room. In the winter it’s probably the only room that is heated (thanks to the stove) and so was probably the main gathering place in the house.

One step outside of the house and you step into woodlands made famous from the books. I took a wander thru the haunted wood and was disappointed (although shouldn’t have been surprised) to find myself come out of the wood and straight across the golf course! A large part of the GG farm was sold off as a golf course so some of the woodland was converted into fairways. Luckily, much of the haunted wood and lovers lane have been preserved as woodland so I spent a good hour and a half just wandering thru the woods imagining myself as a world famous authoress and having millions of girls world wide read my books.. I’ve written the tag line for my new best selling series; Sara and Jane, two very ordinary girls who’s very ordinary Saturday in October suddenly becomes completely extraordinary… Based on the tag line I’m thinking I shouldn’t give up my day job huh?

I really enjoyed my hike thru the two woods, all the time working on my latest bestseller and eventually said goodbye to GG just before lunch time. I spent the rest of the day driving to the other major LMM haunt that made it into the book, the Lake of Shining Waters! Yep, it actually does exist but it certainly isn’t as I pictured.. Sadly, I pictured the town of Cavendish and its surrounds as they are portrayed in the 1985 mini series (which was shot in Ontario not even on the island) so of course none of the actual surrounds lived up to my expectations. The ‘Lake’ is probably described well in the Anne series by Matthew “well now, that’s the Barry’s pond”… I reckon he summed it up pretty well because I’m struggling to see anything gorgeous about the pond.. its just that, a pond! Regardless, I can now say that I’ve seen the area that inspired this incredible series of novels. And although the layout of Cavendish doesn’t really lend itself to Avonlea (especially the current town), I can picture what the town must have been like based on surrounding towns.

During my last couple of hours of daylight I actually took a drive down to Summerside (one of the larger towns on the island) to do some shopping and to see what the rest of central PEI looks like. I think LMM sums up this part of PEI quite well, when she describes it as “ruby red soil, sapphire blue ocean and emerald green land”.. Central PEI and the area that inspired Anne of Green Gables is truly a beautiful part of the world.

5 thoughts on “9: Straw hats and red plats

  1. I haven’t read Anne of Green Gables but the place does sound like a great spot.

    Your novel may need some work, I think Sara and Jane should get in a car chase and perhaps if they were chased by ninjas I would probably read it.

    • Can i say that only you would come up with a story line that had ninjas chasing little girls 🙂 I can’t wait to see you guys!!!

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