Green Gables

“When you’ve learned to laugh at the things that should be laughed at, and not to laugh at those that shouldn’t, you’ve got wisdom and understanding.” Anne of the Island

~~~

Hi Blog!
If you've never heard of Anne Shirley or Green Gables, then this blog won't mean much to you. But, if you are one of the 50 million people who have read Anne of Green Gables or watched the four feature films, six stage productions, seven TV series or thirteen TV movies, then you will understand. Visiting Green Gables is for Anne-fans like visiting Hobbiton is for Lord of the Rings fans.
For those unfamiliar with the story, Anne of Green Gables is a 1908 novel by Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery (published as L. M. Montgomery). Written for all ages, it has been considered a classic children's novel since the mid-twentieth century. Set in the late 19th century, the novel recounts the adventures of Anne Shirley, an 11-year-old orphan girl who is mistakenly sent to Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert, a middle-aged brother and sister who had intended to adopt a boy to help them on their farm in the fictional town of Avonlea on Prince Edward Island. The novel recounts how Anne makes her way with the Cuthberts, in school, and within the town.
While the characters are fictional, L.M. Montgomery drew on her experience growing up in the small farming community of Cavendish. The house that inspired Green Gables belonged to cousins of her grandfather. Montgomery visited the farm as a young girl and based on it the location of her best-selling Anne series of books on the Green Gables farm. She drew romantic inspiration from the house, as well as the surrounding area, including the "Haunted Woods", "Lovers' Lane", and "Balsam Hollow."

The international acclaim of Montgomery's novels made Cavendish into a popular tourist destination in the province beginning in the early 20th century. This led to the establishment of Prince Edward Island National Park in the 1930s. The park's boundaries encompassed the Green Gables homestead, and the building became the property of the Government of Canada. The farmland surrounding Green Gables house was developed into a golf course, designed by world-renowned architect Stanley Thompson. In addition to being located within park boundaries, the Green Gables farmhouse is designated a National Historic Site for its importance in literary history, and is one of the most-visited historic sites in the country.
Kathy is eager to begin the self-guided tour.

As we step into the parlour, we see Matthews chair next to the fireplace. The interior decor and artifacts depict the late Victorian Period in rural Prince Edward Island. The various rooms in the house have been named according to the Anne of Green Gables story.

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"Anne, you certainly have a genius for getting into trouble. You went and gave Diana currant wine instead of raspberry cordial. Didn't you know the difference yourself?"

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The pantry, home of the famous raspberry cordial. Note the butter churn in the corner.

Everything you need to make a cake. Just remember to put the flour in.

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"But it was morning and, yes, it was a cherry-tree in full bloom outside of her window. With a bound she was out of bed and across the floor. She pushed up the sash--it went up stiffly and creakily, as if it hadn't been opened for a long time, which was the case; and it stuck so tight that nothing was needed to hold it up.
"Anne dropped on her knees and gazed out into the June morning, her eyes glistening with delight. Oh, wasn't it beautiful? Wasn't it a lovely place? Suppose she wasn't really going to stay here! She would imagine she was. There was scope for imagination here."

~~~

As you look into Anne's bedroom, you can just imagine her pushing up the sash!

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"Spring had come once more to Green Gables--the beautiful capricious, reluctant Canadian spring, lingering along through April and May in a succession of sweet, fresh, chilly days, with pink sunsets and miracles of resurrection and growth. The maples in Lover's Lane were red budded and little curly ferns pushed up around the Dryad's Bubble. Away up in the barrens, behind Mr. Silas Sloane's place, the Mayflowers blossomed out, pink and white stars of sweetness under their brown leaves. All the school girls and boys had one golden afternoon gathering them, coming home in the clear, echoing twilight with arms and baskets full of flowery spoil."

~~~

While not quite the Spring day we were hoping for, the rain did let up for a while giving us a chance to walk through the Haunted Woods. Kathy seems unaware of the terrors that awaits her!

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“A haunted wood is so very romantic, Marilla. We chose the spruce grove because it’s so gloomy. Oh, we have imagined the most harrowing things. There’s a white lady walks along the brook just about this time of the night and wrings her hands and utters wailing cries. She appears when there is to be a death in the family. And the ghost of a little murdered child haunts the corner up by Idlewild; it creeps up behind you and lays its cold fingers on your hand—so. Oh, Marilla, it gives me a shudder to think of it.

"And there’s a headless man stalks up and down the path and skeletons glower at you between the boughs. Oh, Marilla, I wouldn’t go through the Haunted Wood after dark now for anything. I’d be sure that white things would reach out from behind the trees and grab me.” listened in dumb amazement. “Anne Shirley, do you mean to tell me you believe all that wicked nonsense of your own imagination?” “Not believe EXACTLY,” faltered Anne. “At least, I don’t believe it in daylight. But after dark, Marilla, it’s different. That is when ghosts walk.”

~~~

Try as we might, we could not find the white lady or headless man. In addition, we are sorry to report that no ghosts or skeletons tried to grab us. Despite the three tour bus loads of tourists, we had the woods walk to ourselves. The bus folks had a schedule to keep. Lucky for us.

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"Lover's Lane opened out below the orchard at Green Gables and stretched far up into the woods to the end of the Cuthbert farm. It was the way by which the cows were taken to the back pasture and the wood hauled home in winter. Anne had named it Lover's Lane before she had been a month at Green Gables.

"Not that lovers ever really walk there," she explained to Marilla, "but Diana and I are reading a perfectly magnificent book and there's a Lover's Lane in it. So we want to have one, too. And it's a very pretty name, don't you think? So romantic! We can't imagine the lovers into it, you know. I like that lane because you can think out loud there without people calling you crazy."

~~~

Well, at least for today there were two lovers on Lover's Lane, as we strolled hand in hand sharing our thoughts out loud.

A visit to a Parks Canada National Park would not be complete without a picture of us sitting in its Red Chairs. However, we decided to make an exception in this case. It had been pouring rain all morning. The chairs were dripping wet. Here we are standing with the Red Chairs at the Green Gables Heritage Place in Prince Edward Island National Park!

Not far from the National Park is Lucy Maud Montgomery's birthplace. L. M. Montgomery was born in 1874 on Prince Edward Island, where she spent her childhood living with her grandparents in an old farmhouse. A prolific writer, she published many short stories, poems and novels, many of which were inspired by the years she spent on the beautiful Prince Edward Island. Montgomery died in Toronto in 1942 and was buried on her beloved island. The museum houses scrapbooks depicting L.M. Montgomery's personal life as a student at Prince of Wales College and her years as a writer and teacher.

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“Oh, it's delightful to have ambitions. I'm so glad I have such a lot. And there never seems to be any end to them-- that's the best of it. Just as soon as you attain to one ambition you see another one glittering higher up still. It does make life so interesting.” 

― L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

Biking the Confederation Trail on PEI

Wow!  Our first day on Prince Edward Island!  The weather reached a balmy 69F this afternoon - a record for our trip so far.  Because it was due to be windy, we decided to start with a bike ride.

Our campground manager strongly recommended that we bicycle a section of the Confederation Trail, which is a rails-to-trails path that crosses PEI from northwest tip to northeast tip.  Not coincidentally, the Confederation Trail also is the PEI section of the International Appalachian Trail, so we would be getting a twofer:  a chance to BICYCLE the International Appalachian Trail.  On top of that, our campground host said that this is by far the most scenic section of the trail on PEI.  Done deal.

Off we drove from our campground in Cornwall toward the little town of Morell on the north shore of PEI.  It was about noon, so we decided to start with lunch at a nearby lighthouse, the St. Peter's Harbour Lighthouse.  The lighthouse is said to be the oldest lighthouse on Prince Edward Island.  The station was established in 1865 and the lighthouse itself was built in 1881. It has been inactive since spring 2008.  We weren't sure what we would find, but we were up for an adventure.

And an adventure it was.  Our last couple miles involved a sandy road drive out to a point near Morell:

As we approached the shoreline, we spotted the lighthouse, across an estuary:

We parked in a postage-stamp-sized, sandy parking lot and and started climbing some large dunes toward the light:

Beyond the light, the Gulf of St. Lawrence spread out like a bright blue blanket beyond soft, orange sand:

We found a suitable spot on the sand and ate our sandwiches, talking about all the unexpected features of PEI:  the colorfulness of the island (red soil, yellow dandelions everywhere, neon green grass, brilliant blue sky, benign white clouds), the large expanses of soft sandy beaches, the Scotland-like moors, the beautiful farms everywhere.

But it was time to move on, so we drove into Morell to start our 24 km bike ride:

A beautiful green country lane spread out before us as we started our ride:

But there were many surprises.  Look at the textures and colors of this cove of St. Peters Bay:

The path crosses four rivers between Morell and our destination, St. Peters.  The first river, the Morell River, boasted these oyster fishermen, plucking their shellfish up with long poles and offering commentary to Kathy on their activity:

The bridge itself is built on the pilings of the original railroad bridge, which had been a turnstile bridge, and the original pilings and some of the mechanism are still visible under the west end of the bridge, which Kathy is examining in this photo:

Onward our path led, along the shore of the bay:

The second river we crossed was the Midgell River, which offered wild, scenic beauty:

After each river, we pedalled out of the cove created by the river, to a point, and then back into the next cove and crossed the next river.  In general, the railroad whose bed was the site of the trail had laid its tracks across PEI to avoid the expense of crossing rivers, but for some unrecorded reason, the founders chose to lay their tracks in this section across three rivers.   This photo looks out to the point from the Marie River, the third of our rivers:

Eventually, the pretty little church on the hill over St. Peters introduced itself to us:

Our fourth river!  St. Peters River empties into St. Peters Bay at St. Peters (is that redundant?).  This view up the river shows a pedestrian boardwalk and bridge that gave us a beautiful view of the river and the village:

As in Morell, St. Peters has converted the original railroad station into a tourist information agency as well as the point of access for the Confederation Trail in this community.  This was the far point of our ride.  Below, Kathy has dismounted and is preparing to enter the old station to get more information on the area in anticipation of the next several days of touring Prince Edward Island.

That's about it for this section of the Confederation Trail, which is said to be the most beautiful section.  After a stretch of the legs and a rest, we hopped back on our bikes and peddled that 12 km back to our Jeep in Morell.  By the time we got home, we were tired, hungry and thirsty!

Eddie and George Wake Up with Homard the Lobster on Prince Edward Island

Lobster Blog

Hi Blog!

Today is Sunday, May 27, 2018. We moved from Caraquet to Prince Edward Island. On move days, we rarely make stops other than to get gas or switch drivers. However, when we discovered we were passing right by Shediac, we knew we had to stop. You see, Shediac is known as the "Lobster Capital of the World." More importantly, it is home to a 90-ton sculpture called "The World's Largest Lobster." How could we resist!

RVers search the world over for these unique opportunities. Kathy doesn't hesitate to climb abord and pay her respects.

As we continue our journey across the Maritimes, we hope to continue our voyage of discovery.

P.S. Green Gables, here we come!

The One-and-Only Bartibog Blog!

We were driving our motorhome today across the Bartiblog River, moving from Caraquet, New Brunswick to Cornwall, Prince Edward Isand, when, what to our wondering eyes should appear, but a fire-engine-red upright piano, perched on a pier of the former bridge over the Bartibog River!  Here's what it looked like from our vantage as we sped across the river:

This was not our photo.  We were moving too fast to capture the moment.  This photo comes from the Saint John, New Brunswick Telegraph Journal, which wrote one of many local articles about this magical red piano.

You can read another article by CBC News Canada which gives you the entire history of the piano.  The short story is that this is not the first piano that local resident George MacDonald of Bartibog Bridge, about 15 kilometres north of Miramichi, has put up on the old pier.  "It's just a thing, I don't know why," said the 77-year-old. "I like doing stuff like that."

And, if it's any comfort, we have absolutely no idea what "Bartibog," or its French correlate, "Bartibogue," might possibly mean.  That will have to remain a mystery for now.

La Péninsule Acadienne - Deuxième Partie

Yesterday we drove northeast to the point of Miscou Island.  Today we drove the other direction, to sample the pleasures of Acadia to the west of us.

Our first stop was the Distillerie Fils du Roy, which we learned about yesterday when we traipsed out across the peaty moors and wetlands of Miscou Island and, seeing all that unused peat, wondered, "Why don't these people make a single malt scotch whiskey?"  When we got home, we researched single malt scotch whiskeys in New Brunswick and - voilà! - we found this distillery.  But, more amazing, it was only 3 miles from our campground!  Well, we had to plan a visit.  We decided to make that the start of our venture west in Acadia.

During a family reunion in 2011, the family that runs the distillery launched the idea of starting a distillery, and it was in 2012 that the Distillerie Fils du Roy was born. It is a micro-distillery, the main objective of which is to offer high quality spirits at an affordable price to New Brunswickers and, soon, to the outside world.  In 2013, their products were competing at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition. The Single Malt Whiskey, which was due to be available in 2018, was the big reason we wanted to visit them.

Alas, our hopes were dashed.  The single malt scotch whisky has already sold out this year, and they will not have any more for sale until they distill another batch (maybe in 2020 or later), or what was held back in this batch matures 10 years in the barrel and is made available in 2028.  We were allowed to taste it, but that and this photo of their bottle and canister packaging --

 -- is all we have to show of the single malt scotch whisky.  It wasn't a total loss, because, truthfully, while the single malt as we tasted it has great potential, it is still far too young and needs to age before we would call it a favorite.

It turns out the distillery makes a wide variety of spirits and -- to our surprise -- several very tasty, high quality beers!  The distillery itself won Distillery of the Year in 2013 at the New York International Spirits Competition.  We learned all this while at the tasting bar with our new New Brunswick friends and our friendly and knowledgeable server:

Our server offered us a surprise tour of the distillery, which we couldn't pass up!  As we walked back into the heart of the operation, we passed all the large barrels holding the aging spirits.  We wanted to grab one of those single malt barrels right then and there, and roll it out and away -- but, in fact, it was a little too heavy.

The largest part of the distillery is devoted to brewing beer, and we imagine that they use their beer sales to fund the spirits operation, because there is a long lag time for many of the spirits to age.  Here is one of their classic copper stills that is actually used in their distilling:

We found several beers we really liked, including one we're drinking right now as we write this blog:  their "Le Grande Vicaire Paquet," a 5.5% blonde ale (BeerAdvocate.com calls it a cream ale) made with maple syrup that we find very tasty!  Unfortunately, the distillery does not tell us who Grand Vicar Paquet refers to, but this we think we know:  The distillery is located in Paquetville, which was founded by one Monseigneur Paquet in 1873, who brought several parishioners with him from nearby Shippagan.  It was named for, in turn, the Reverend Joseph-Marie Paquet.  While we think it likely that ONE of these Paquets is the namesake of the beer, we're at a complete loss to tell you which.

However, probably the biggest prize we picked up is the distillery's Gin Thuya (translated:  Cedar Gin).  Juniper berries from the back yard of the distillery is the dominant ingredient, but the second most important ingredient is cilantro.  Gin Thuya earned a double gold medal at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition in March 2013, which is the highest distinction available in the industry. It also recently earned a gold medal at the International Spirits Challenge in London.  This doesn't communicate to you how rich and aromatic the taste of this gin is.  We loved it and picked up a bottle for ourselves, and another bottle for our friends Leslie Manion and Dave Lopushinsky, who did so much to help us plan our trips to the Okanagan Valley and the Canadian Maritimes.  Leslie loves gin, so, Leslie, you can expect to receive your gift when we see you two in Quartzsite in January 2019!

Believe it or not after all that rhapsodical description, the distillery wasn't our primary destination  today.  Our main goal was to visit Maisonnette, a fishing village with a population of about 600, located directly across from where we are staying in Caraquet, on the small bay made at the outlet of the Riviere du Nord.  The village was first settled in 1832 as a temporary fishing port for people from Caraquet and nearby Bertrand. The small cabins people built here (maisonnettes in French) were the inspiration for the name of the village.  We took the opportunity to walk out a long natural jetty at Parc Maisonnette.  The first part of our stroll was along a boardwalk which appeared to have been significantly damaged in a recent storm:

It wasn't long before we were out on the spit, over a half mile from the village:

The beach boasted mainly smooth, rounded river stones, mollusk shells --

 

-- and some flotsam and jetsam such as this shipwrecked lobster or crab trap:

The tall spire of St. Peter's Catholic Church could be seen about 2.5 miles across the water in Caraquet:

We reached the end of the spit and David contemplated the meeting of the waters of the Baie des Chaleurs and the Riviere du Nord:

After what turned out to be almost a 2 hour walk, we continued our drive around Point Maisonnette, along a dirt road, Chemin des Chalets (translated:  Chalets Road), which boasted every manner and size of maisonnete (cottage, cabin or shack) that could be imagined.  Some were little more than RV's with expanded sunrooms.  Some were more elaborate A-frame cabins.  But each was distinctive and we decided we'd like one here.

All that unexpected beach walking developed a powerful peckishness, so Kathy found a funky little food shack at the quai in Grand Anse (translated:  Grand Cove) called "Cantine Chez Coucouc," which you see in the photo on the quai, protected by the Catholic Church of Saints Simon and Jude sitting above it:

We wanted something hot and energizing, so what else should we order other than that great traditional Canadian dish - poutine!  One serving is all the french fries, french sausage, cheese curds and gravy that you'll need for a full month.  To be fair to David, he didn't eat this whole dish.  We split it.

After that late (2:45 pm) lunch, we still had all our shopping to do.  We drove back to a poissonerie (fish market) in Caraquet, which sits right on the commercial fishing boat marina -- all the better to get great seafood fresh off the boat!

Heading back to our campground, we stopped again at Boulangerie Grains de Folie, the cafe where we had a great breakfast yesterday, to pick up some ridiculously fresh and fragile bread, and made a stop at the fromagerie just down the road from our campground --

-- where we selected maybe five different kinds of special local cheeses that are made right there in the fromagerie.  Now our pantry is completely stocked with produits de l'Acadie!

À la vôtre!

The Acadian Peninsula

Hi Blog!

It's Friday, May 25, 2018. We are still recovering from yesterday's epic 30 mile bike ride. After dragging our sore muscles out of bed, we decided to head into Caraquet and reward ourselves with brunch. We discovered the Boulangerie Grains de Folie. This cute little coffee shop, bakery, restaurant and book store makes delicious omelettes. Their lattes are pretty amazing, as well. The small latte comes decorated with a steamed-milk horse, but the large is decorated with a lobster. Next time, I'm getting a lobster!

Caraquet has a number of historic buildings. Our cafe, with the book store to the right in the photo below, is one of them.

In an effort to rest our tired muscles, we decided today would be a driving tour day. We set our sights on the Miscou Lighthouse, which sits at the most northeastern point of New Brunswick, between the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Baie des Chaleurs. Our drive to the lighthouse would give us a chance to explore more of the Acadian Peninsula, including marinas of fishing boats such as this one in Bas Caraquet:

The Acadian Peninsula is situated in the northeastern corner of New Brunswick, Canada. It derives its name from the large Acadian population located there. Everywhere we looked as we drove we were treated to the waving flags of proud Acadians. Here is Bas Caraquet, we have not one, but two flags!

This patriotic fellow in Pokesudie even painted his camper red, white and blue with a yellow star!

We passed several impressive churches, but the one at Saint Simon just called out for a photo.

We were disappointed that the Ecological Park of the Acadian Peninsula hadn't opened yet for the season. It would have been fun to walk out the boardwalk and get a closer look at the bay.

Two major islands off the northeast tip of the peninsula, Lamèque Island and Miscou Island, are culturally considered part of the Acadian Peninsula. We stopped at Sainte-Cecile Church on Lamèque Island. We loved the view of the old church with the modern windmills in the background.

As we continued on our journey to Miscou Island, we discovered the channel light at Petite Riviere de L'lle.

We stopped to stretch our legs along this stretch of beach along the Miscou Channel.

As we crossed the channel from Lamèque Island to Miscou Island there were fishing boats everywhere!

As we drove across the island, we discovered this boardwalk. The peat moss on the island has not been harvested and is left in its natural state. This boardwalk allowed us to get out and explore the peat moss without getting our shoes wet!

We learned that the original First Nations inhabitants of this area were frightened to go to Miscou Island due to the legendary GouGou monster which was said to inhabit Miscou and which they feared greatly. Try as we might, we never spotted the GouGou.  We did find some misty moors that reminded us of Scotland, or the muskeg of Alaska and the Yukon:

We caught sight of this heron taking flight after we drove by. There were also lots of moose signs, but we saw no moose today.

Miscou Island is also known for the Miscou Island Lighthouse, which was built in 1856 and is located at the northeastern tip of the island. Here is our first look at the lighthouse.

When we arrived at the lighthouse, we were the only ones there. We took the opportunity to wander around the grounds viewing the light from various angles. Here's our favorite view.

Driving through the peat bogs got us thinking about Scotch Whiskey, so we looked up the closest New Brunswick Distillery.  It turns out that Acadia boasts a new micro-distillery not far from us - and it's right on the route we plan for tomorrow!  Can you say road trip?