There was one series that took up huge real estate in my childhood bookworm heart – L.M. Montgomery’s iconic stories of a red-headed spitfire, Anne Shirley. My sisters and I grew up steeped in the story, devouring the books and enraptured with the CBC versions of Anne of Green Gables and Road to Avonlea (only partially because of the 1990s dreamboat, Gilbert Blithe). *swoon*
Anne was smart and curious and troublesome, and completely lovable.
“There’s such a lot of different Annes in me. I sometimes think that is why I’m such a troublesome person. If I was just the one Anne it would be ever so much more comfortable, but then it wouldn’t be half so interesting.”
With our straw hats firmly on our braided heads, we headed to Green Gables, a National historic site to visit the home of our literary dreams.
The visitors centre is filled with all the info you could want about LM Montgomery’s life and her literary worlds.
Lucy Maud Montgomery was born in Nov 30, 1874 on PEI. Montgomery lost her mother before she was 2, and grew up in the care of her grandparents, the Macneills. She grew up in a homestead located here.
Even though she spent many years in Toronto (1911 to her death in 1942), her heart remained on the island, and Montgomery was buried there in a cemetary across from her childhood home.
The homes of her family, including the MacNeill’s farm house (aka Green Gables) and the Campbell farm (aka the Silver Bush) and pond (aka Lake of Shining Waters) are now immortalised in Avonlea due to the plucky, ferocious, and brave Anne.
Arrival at Avonlea
We first meet an anxious Anne waiting for Matthew to pick her up at the train station, taking her first carriage ride to Green Gables.
Green Gables House
The piece de resistance is the Green Gables house, the place where Anne grows into her brilliant and beloved self. This farmhouse that belonged to L.M. Montgomery’s cousins (the MacNeills), and she spend many happy days here in her childhood, which became the inspiration for Marilla and Matthew’s home.
It’s delightful when your imaginations come true, isn’t it?
For Montgomery, her imaginations came true when she published her book in 1908, sharing the indominal Anne with the world.
From Green Gables, you can wander down two other iconic spots:
Lover’s Lane & the Haunted Woods
Lake of Shining Waters
Lake of Shining Waters and the Silver Bush is located a short drive away at the Campbell’s farm. Annie Macneill Campbell was Montgomery’s aunt, and this farmhouse was the setting for Pat of the Silver Bush and the location of the iconic Lake of Shining Waters.
We did not find the “White way of delight” but there were plenty of blossoms to fuel the imagination.
“Kindred spirits are not so scarce as I used to think. It’s splendid to find out there are so many of them in the world.”
“‘Dear old world’, she murmured, ‘you are very lovely, and I am glad to be alive in you.‘”
Lovely Outliers 