A Little Canadian Adventure! - PART 3

Fiddle heads.  Mmm?  What?  Every so often, in a North American novel, I see mention of fiddle heads.  People eat them.  So over the years with a little research I have found that that they are the uncurled heads (a plant in bud so to speak) of the Ostrich fern.  Imagine my surprise and delight when on the way to Yarmouth we stopped at a farm store - a huge shopping area full of fresh foods, and

there, in a basket, were fiddle heads, fresh and ready to cook.  Well, you have to, don't you?  A few of those with our supper later, I think.  Especially as my friend Colette, a Canadian citizen and dweller in the Maritimes for umpteen years, had never tried them and neither had I! Hard to describe the taste, but not like asparagus even though I have seen them described that way. High in several vitamins, but low in everything else, and I guess, when I think about it, they appear in spring when, before the days of freezers and food flown round the world, they were the early fresh greens that everyone craved.  They arrived just in time, like a dose of sunshine!  Glad I found them and glad I liked them.

We had a few lovely days of nothing much catching up on news from home, books we were reading, vegetable patches we have dug, cars we have driven, news of friends;  in fact the same old same old that friends catch up on everywhere.  The view above is from the back  deck overlooking the said veg. patch and on down to the river.  Canada geese and their new babies nesting down there too!

And then, after the Royal wedding (see Part 2 of our Little Canadian Adventure) we set off for a marathon drive to Prince Edward Island.  You really cannot do this drive in a oner, whoever you are, so we stopped at a Comfort Inn in Truro for the night, and then set off for The Bridge.  Forget Scandi thrillers.  This is a long, long bridge 8 miles (12.9 kilometres) and Mr Mac has driven this before.... so why not do it again?  Yay!  Once on PEI we get a Tim Horton's coffee and doughnut (now officially addicted to this little ceremony :o), and set off for our overnight home at the top of the island.  Bless AirBnB.  The gems we have found!!

views from the back of the house, the first two in the early evening....

and this one a little later - what a glorious spot!

There is a whole area called Cavendish  (Avonlea)..... a large area dedicated to holidays/vacations, so cabins everywhere.  When we were there the season had not yet started, but it must be buzzing when school is out for the summer!   But of course, we were not there for that.  We were there for one reason, and one reason only - Green Gables!!!!

How lovely to be able to walk through the house that inspired L M Montgomery to write "Anne of Green Gables".  The house itself was actually owned by cousins of her grandfather, and as a child she spent time there.  Of course, holiday makers, money, and tourism in general will change things, but despite what I consider to be some truly silly remarks on Trip Advisor (and the low scores that some folk gave),  I found the house quite magical.  Remind yourself that the book is fiction, and you should still be enchanted - even though the 21st century encroaches.  Here's a New York Times journalist who found Anne's world without too much trouble at all. 

Green Gables front door

.... and the back.

Spare room for guests should they come....

...complete with lidded pot under the bed.

Marilla's bedroom.....

.... and Matthew's,

and of course, Anne's.

Coming back to the house from "Lover's Lane"

One of  many silver birches around "Green Gables.

Montgomery's typewriter

Such a treat to have visited.  So glad it was not "in the season" either, or we'd have been surrounded by other visitors.  Not that I'm selfish, but it was nice to have space and time.  A youngish visitor, a male, asked one of the staff what the bowl and jugs in the bedrooms were for.  She explained that they were for your daily wash;  to which he replied "no showers?"(!).  No, and no indoor plumbing either lad!  Ah, those were the days!!

Finally, here are two tourists, wondering where the "Lake of Shining Waters" could be.  To bring you back down to earth, it's just at the beginning of the golf course!!