PEI

No, I haven’t misspelled pie. We’re on Prince Edward Island, the  smallest of Canada’s provinces. The island is roughly 100 miles wide and about 50 miles high. I’m estimating because I’m not very good converting kilometers to miles.

PEI is known for mussels and Anne of Green Gables. We’re currently on the north shore of the western side of the island and it has been cold, rainy and windy every day. We’re heading to the eastern side of the island tomorrow, and the weather is supposed to improve.

The winds are from the northeast, making for a very angry ocean. The island is really beautiful It’s mostly rural with lots of farms (mostly potatoes) and dairy operations. Also, fishing is a big industry here.

Penny has never liked mussels since the one and only time she tried them, they weren’t very good. But since we’re in the mussel capital of the world, she decided to take another shot. She’s now a convert.

Our campground is in Cavendish, which is the primary resort area of the island and the home of Anne of Green Gables author L.M. Montgomery. Canada National Parks operates the house that inspired the novel as a national heritage site.

The farm house, which actually has green gables, was owned by a distant relative of the author who lived near by. The sylvan setting of the farm, the people of Cavendish, and the beauty of the island were the inspiration for the 1908 novel and several that followed. Many of Montgomery’s books and short stories were written while she lived in Cavendish.

The green gables house is original, but has been restored and furnished with furniture from the late 1800s, the period in which the novel takes place. During the summer, Parks Canada stages demonstrations of farm life of the period.

Another feature of the heritage park is the site of the home in which Montgomery lived. It’s a short walk from the green gables house, but that house has been torn down. The cellar was recently excavated, and the overgrown property around the house has been restored and is now open to the public.

Anyone who’s read Montgomery’s work will recognize many of the features of the area surrounding the house in which she lived as well as the green gables house.