Moominmama on Prince Edward Island

In which Moominmama forgoes hiking for country walks and learns about the author of Anne of Green Gables...

Here on Prince Edward Island, there are no dramatic tides, towering cliffs or epic mountains. Instead there are gentle country byways, sandy beaches and refreshing breezes. This has been a relaxing week. Rather than load up my backpack with first aid and emergency gear, I carry only my water bottle, wandering in my sandals or sneakers along easy paths that skirt the dark green potato fields or golden wheat. Views of sand dunes and ocean are never far away. 

Wildflowers and raspberries grow alongside the exposed edge of these grassy paths, and I frequently startle plump brown rabbits who venture out for the clover. These turn out to be snowshoe hares and will turn white come winter!

Love for the natural world is a big part of the writing of L.M. Montgomery who grew up and wrote many of her novels and stories on the island. The town of Cavendish, where I am staying on the north side, is the model for Avonlea, the fictional town in "Anne of Green Gables."

While Montgomery altered some aspects of local geography, there is a house with green gables that belonged to her cousin, a local pond that was the model for "Lake of Shining Waters" and also a Lovers Lane. 

The Haunted Woods of the story is now bisected by a golf course and the spruce trees that gave it its foreboding darkness are mostly gone. But there's enough remaining of old Cavendish that it's easy to understand why Montgomery loved the island as much as she did, and passed that love on to her young characters.

I read Anne of Green Gables at some point in my childhood but didn't take to it. I still can't call myself a great fan, except that I admire Montgomery for how she communicates her connection and love for the land and how hard she worked as a writer to break ground in an age when women were rarely published. 

The home where she was raised by her grandparents and where she wrote Anne of Green Gables and other works is only a foundation now but walking distance from the Green Gables house that's now a museum.  You can see the fields outside the window where Montgomery wrote and the apple trees surrounding the property that factor into some of her stories.

At a gift shop run by Montgomery's descendants, I bought a short autobiography: The Alpine Path. If the hills on Prince Edward Island were easy, the route to becoming a writer was much steeper! I was interested to learn Montgomery once worked at a newspaper in Halifax as a proofreader, though she was asked to write some puff pieces and at one point asked to invent an ending for a serial after the editors lost what the author had originally sent! 

But what I've come to appreciate this week is how Montgomery shared with her characters a deep solace and joy in the natural world along with a way of naming its features so that a walk outdoors involved greeting old friends. 

This is something I often do myself, especially once I've learned the names of a plant, animal or bird. I will even try to imitate an animal I find like a crow or squirrel and am fascinated when that catches their attention. I'm trying to communicate, but I'm sure my accent in crow and squirrel is terrible! If anyone worries that I get lonely out on my own, fear not. 

I've been enjoying a long walk each morning after my coffee and before my breakfast. It's cooler then and fewer people are about. One morning, I set out for a visit to the Greenwich Dunes, a part of the National Park where I'm staying but further east.

Walking around the dunes is not permitted because they are fragile ecosystems and important to protecting the shoreline. But the hike there and back takes you across a floating boardwalk with spectacular views. Here's a shot as I started on my return trip.

Moominmama has spent most late afternoons at the beach near my campground, swimming and watching all the young families enjoy their holiday.

I also made a trip to Victoria-by-the-Sea to visit their lighthouse. It's quite small so I was interested to learn that its purpose was a bit different from other lighthouses that serve as warnings.

In this case, an arrangement of lighthouses guided boats through the shallow channel of the harbor in the dark, because safe entry required a zigzag to stay in the deeper water. 

Once a captain identified the correct light, he could follow it toward the harbor, but when it met with a second light coming from a different direction, he would know to turn. To differentiate, these lights were different colors and each had a unique pattern for turning on and off. A book mariners carried with them would help them identify each light and thus figure out how to enter safely. This particular lighthouse operated two so-called "range lights" which made it particularly important for navigation.

The range lights are no longer needed today. Victoria-by-the-Sea is not a major harbor anymore and just serves local fishing boats. Those operate in daylight and furthermore, they're typically equipped with GPS! Still, it's a sweet museum, and when I was there, a local high school senior answered my questions and explained all of the above, even showing me a map he'd drawn of how the lights worked to direct boats through the correct channel.

Moominmama also paid a visit to Prince Edward Island's capital city, Charlottetown. It played a key role in 1864 when the eastern provinces of Canada took their first steps to form a confederation, what would eventually create the system of government for all of Canada. Charlottetown hosted the initial discussion, a decision urged by other provinces because PEI wasn't really interested, and their representatives were unlikely to attend if they had to travel to participate.

The conference was considered a great success. But ironically, PEI didn't sign on to the initial confederation until 1873, becoming the seventh (and smallest) province. In addition to the history lesson, my visit to Charlottetown gave me a chance to sample some of PEI's renowned mussels, and of course, I can't leave the island without a bag of new potatoes.

Still, I think it's the long country walks that will stick with me the most. This has been a gentle respite before I head for the more dramatic landscapes of Cape Breton Island and Newfoundland!