Posted in This 'n' That

Here's a little secret - well, probably not much of a secret actually, but I love Anne of Green Gables and Lucy Maud Montgomery's writing. And my dream holiday destination is Prince Edward Island, Canada. I prefer the books to the movies, and I have all the unabridged books on audio. I love to escape into that olde-world when the new one gets too wicked. I love LM Montgomery's characterization and I love the innocence of Anne of Green Gables.  I'm 36 years old and unsophisticated enough to still love a children's story and naive enough to believe that such a world did once exist, and idealistic enough to believe it still could.

So how absolutely green with envy was I when my husband's younger brother told us he was going on a business trip to Prince Edward Island. And he was arriving on the very day that the centenary celebrations of Anne of Green Gables was beginning (although I had to tell him that). My brother in law Nic, has one daughter who has read the books, but in spite of that I don't think Anne of Green Gables  and her island and her house and her shop was high on his priority list of places to visit. I tried not to bombard him with requests. He told me he'd go and take a photo outside the Anne of Green Gables house for me (I actually really wanted him to go into the shop). I sent him an email with all these lovely Anne of Green Gables things he could do - like the barn dance they were holding with dressed-up characters there such as Marilla, Matthew, Mrs. Lynde, Anne and Diana and Gilbert. Or there was the LM Montgomery lecture and display of previously undisclosed journals and scrapbooks (I drooled over this), or the garden party with sack races and home-made candy and buggy rides and of course, the musical Anne of Green Gables at the theatre. But strangely, Nic seemed impervious to all these temptations. Nic is a potato-growing expert and he was going to PEI to talk to the farmers about potatoes. Potatoes!  Pffftttt!!!!

This weekend he and his family came over to visit and it's the first time we've seen them since Nic got back from my dream holiday destination, and actually being a nice, kind brother-in-law really, he did more than just take a photo of the Anne of Green Gables house. He got me something that I can enjoy all year round. A 2009 PEI calendar.

Drool, drool, drool, drool!

And some postcards (I collect postcards) of the Anne of Green Gables house.

And a thick book of special things to do, see, maps, places to stay, walks to take, restaurants to visit, shows to see of Anne of Green Gables and Prince Edward Island. I was in bliss-land last night reading through it.

He may be going again and next time I'll ask him to get me the Anne of Green Gables recipe book.