Prince Edward Island

Since reading The Blue Castle and The Story Girl for the L.M. Montgomery Challenge, I've gone back and looked at all my PEI photos ...
Journal excerpts:
Dreaming of Prince Edward Island, age 14:

When I grow up, one of my Blue Castles is to live in a little cottage in England or Prince Edward Island and write, all by myself. A little stone cottage, with lovely flowers and stepping stones up to the door and a little round window above the door.

Visiting Prince Edward Island, age 18:

I cannot believe I am sitting on steps that overlook the sea and pines and copper-red dunes. I cannot believe I'm on Prince Edward Island. The wind is chilly and trailing light fingers over the water, but I just saw a rainbow stretched overhead, so I'm reconciled to a little shivering. No wonder Montgomery wrote so much nature into her books … looking around, nature's all I want to describe. The spiky sea grass is emerald against the blue, blue water and red sand, even redder in its wetness, I think. Clouds out over the pines, far down the bay, are piling themselves into white mountains. Two crows are getting saucy in the pines above me … my toes are itching to explore the bend in the shore.

When I stood at Maud's grave, it gave me a queer jolt to realize she was real, and was below my feet. And to think of the legacy she left … a legacy to writers, teaching them to see lives as valuable … single existences as having worth and meaning, small things as mattering greatly. She teaches through her heroines to watch for little events and discover their great beauty.

The sun is peeking through the pines above me, landing a bright topaz pattern on a bit of sand. Each time the waves lap, they seem to be saying "last … day … last … day…" But I'm not as sad as I thought I would be. I'm not desolate. For, deep down inside, I know I'll be back. Someday I'll stand here again, listening to crows bickering and water swaying and watching scallops glide past ruby cliffs. The trees will still be here, whispering. And the water will never have stopped breaking shore. My island will wait for me. Goodbye until then.

10 comments:

Sherry said...

Hangs head in shame - I've never read L.M.Montgomery. E wanted to read AofGG to me last year and that didn't happen (every time I tried to pick it up, "Wait until I can read it to you.") Maybe that will happen soon.

Thanks for the heads up about your Bleak House review. I'm almost ready to spend my Christmas B&N gift card, including a Dickens book- N.N. or B.H? My Dickens love extends to David C., Oliver T., Great Ex, Christmas Carol, and Tale of TC. Should I just toss a coin?

Noël De Vries said...

Oh Sherry, you SHOULD read Montgomery. Try The Story Girl, or The Blue Castle. That way you don't have to wait on Erin and you can still enjoy a good tale. She's my BAF (best author forever).

Hmm, Nick or Bleak House ... I suggest Bleak House. I'm almost done with NN, and it's good, but not brilliantly brilliant. David was my first Dickens, and still remains my favorite... sigh. What characters.

Sherry said...

Thanks Noel. Bleak House it is. Great Expectations pushed its way to the top of my list, after I read it.

Good Montgomery advice. Thanks.

Ms. Yingling said...

I had always planned to go to PEI with my two daughters, once they read and loved Anne, but neither of them care for the books at all. It is a great sadness. Now I will have to take my little old lady self there some day. Thanks for sharing your memories.

Holly said...

I am wicked jealous of you.

Noël De Vries said...

Oh, Ms. Y, that IS sad ... but you should still go. It's gorgeous country, as Anne herself says.

Well, c, your Iceland photos put me in raptures. So we're even, I guess. :)

Nicole said...

wonderful pictures! Are plans for the 'next trip' underway yet???

Noël De Vries said...

I would love a next trip tomorrow.

But time will tell.

Carrie said...

Is this a good time to admit that I actually cried (real and very happy tears) when I set foot on the Island? (ah hem)

Unfortunately, I went before the digital age and so all of my pictures are inacessible at the moment. In other words, I'd have to work too hard to share my trip there. But I felt the same as you and took pictures in many of the same spots!

It's an amazing place to visit.

Holly said...

Heh heh.

[That's my "we're even" chackle, if you couldn't tell.]