Our first day of "family time" in PEI was a visit to the Anne of Green Gables homestead and display at Cavendish. I had not visited it since 1970 so things had really changed. It was good to have "free" entry with the Canada Strong Pass. I noticed that my grandchildren paid absolutely no attention to any of the displays about L.M. Montgomery and her story in PEI. The played with the lego sets and visited with each other. They did walk through the house (Callie had read the entire first "Anne" book and Abby had read a graphic novel of "Anne") and were able to figure out which room must have belonged to Anne. To my mind, this room of hers was not in the right location but it did have the necessary props!
New to me was an opportunity to walk through Lover's Lane and through the Haunted Wood to the homestead where L.M. Montgomery was actually raised. She walked through that Haunted Wood to visit her cousins who lived at Green Gables. The grandparent's home is simply a foundation now but it was interesting to visit the post office in Cavendish where the story of the publication of the book was on display. Montgomery never would have sent it off again if anyone in town had known that her book was rejected a number of times. However, since she had taken over her grandparents' role as post mistress, she was the only one to know about it and it did take 6 inquiries before finally obtaining a publisher. To me, this is hard to believe, but it was a different time. While we adults toured the old sites around Cavendish, the grandchildren enjoyed chatting at a shady spot in Cavendish. I loved getting reacquainted with the author's story and visiting some of the "haunts" that she so loved. She describes the landscape well. However, I'm sure she'd be upset to see the number of dead trees all over the Island now. This has occurred because of hurricanes (particularly Fiona), bark beetle insects and climate change.
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