Last week, we went to PEI — over by the ferry and return via the bridge.
It is the first time since 2014 to PEI. We attended the Georgetown conference on economic development. At that time, we initiated a project called ‘The Road to Georgetown’. This time, we were travelling with our grandchildren.
The highlights of the trip included Green Gables, the Confederation Centre Art Gallery and the island landscape.
It is remarkable to see this small province with its capital city of Charlottetown, to appreciate the nature of the economy with tourism, agriculture and fishing, and to draw comparisons with Nova Scotia.
At Green Gables, I picked up three books. First, Anne of Green Gables, but also LM Montgomery’s, The Alpine Path and Catherine Reid’s, The Landscapes of Anne of Green Gables.
It is tempting to contrast these books with the work of Ernest Buckler in the Annapolis Valley.
At the Confederation Centre Art Gallery, I found a book on the work of Kathleen Munn and Lowrie Warrener, from an exhibition in 2010, The Logic of Nature, the Romance of Space. I thought this might be of interest to Edward Wedler.
On Queen Street, we found a wonderful bookstore, The Bookman.
I did not realize that second-hand bookstores could be so well organized.
The other phenomenon in the PEI economy is the COWS brand.
With young grandchildren, this created considerable interest. There is an excellent article in Saltscapes magazine.
Acknowledgements
Heather and I enjoyed the company of Laurel, Nick and the grandchildren, Marcus and Owen. Edward contributed the graphics.
References
LM Montgomery, 1908, Anne of Green Gables, Nimbus (1998).
LM Montgomery, 2005, The Alpine Path: The Story of my Career, Nimbus.
Catherine Reid, 2018, The Landscape of Anne of Green Gables, Timber Press.
The Logic of Nature, the Romance of Space: Elements of Canadian Modernist Painting, 2010, Art Gallery of Windsor, The Robert McLaughlin Gallery.
The Culture of Cows, Saltscapes Magazine
Postscript
To date, I am halfway through Catherine Reid’s book. It includes both stunning photography and insight into both the PEI landscape and its literary history.
Ernest Blair Experiment 