Anne of Green Gables Conference

I am writing this four days into the conference and I have to say it has been absolutely fascinating to hear about the research on LM Montgomery and the miriad ways in which Anne of Green Gables has permeated so many different cultures across the world. There have been papers on a variety of aspects: religion, fashion, feminist discourse, the absence of the indigenous in AGG, the reclaiming of Matthew and more more more. There are at least nine Australians at the conference (I am going to get a photo of us toonight with a bit of luck) and only one British Isles person that I have met together with Canadians, Americans, Swedish, Italian, Japanese, South African and an Iranian. It is quite a multicultural group as you can see.

The hectic social life has been busy with things on every evening. I have been to the Musical (terrific) and a British-American pop invasion review (great). It is going to be a little sad when it all finishes tomorrow.

Charlottetown

Charlottetown is a lovely town and I am guessing the largest place on PEI with about 34,000 inhabitants. It is a place which is very aware of its important place in Canadian history being the place where Confederation was born. The story is told at Province House where the Charlottetown Conference took place in 1864 and in Founders Hall where the events of Canada's formation are exhibited. Province House hosted the 1864 conference which led to Canada coming into being on July 1 1867. They are gearing up for a big celebration here over the next few days. Originally the conference was to discuss the Maritime Provinces joining but the East and West Canada leaders invited themselves along and it became something much larger. Charlottetown has a lovely harbour area and some magnificant historical homes and is so easy to get around - you simply walk.

Anne of Green Gables

I spent two days in Cavendish or Avonlea as I keep calling it to myself and was thoroughly involved in Anne-worshipping. All paths to Anne surely start at Green Gables. There were several new 100 aniversary exhibits to LM Montgomery on show which were very informative about how LMM came up with her heroine. I found the house itself disappointingly barren - it isa self-guided tour and there were no interpretive panels. Later that afternoon, I visited Silver Bush at Park Corner, home of her cousins and where she often visited, which was totally different as it housed many LMM artifacts, writings, books, etc and was of course where she married from ni 1911. It was just so much more personal. I would kill for all those first editions of the books too. I also visited the site of her MacNeil grandparents home. This is where LMM was brought up and you could see the landscape that inspired her writing. I paid my respects at her graveside too. Canada Post has just released commemmorative stamps for the 100 years of Anne and also had a postal display of how LMM's manuscript would have made it to Boston in February 1907. LMM and her grandmother ran the Cavendish PO from their house. The postal service used what they called ice boats to get the post across the Northumerland Straits in winter - passengers paid accroding to wether they were prepared to get out and help pull the boat over the ice! Amazing to see the photos. I met a lady who is also going to the conference - after I had been to Silver Bush I realised who she actually was ( a family member who has donated a substantial number of books and other items to the university of PEI). I brought three dolls - yes I know... but just wait till you see them - Diana is just gorgeous, Gilbert so cute and I chose not to buy a 100th anniversary Anne doll as they just weren't Anne, I brought another Anne (there are about 12 different ones!) who just looked right and I loved her dress.

Salem - Not Just Witches

I found Salem far more interesting than I thought it would be and it is much much more than a witch town. I visited the House of the seven gables built in 1692 ( and yes there really are 7 of them - I climbed the house and ventured into them all) famous as the setting for Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel. On the same property, is the home of his birth moved there some years ago to save it from destruction and other buildings associated with Hawthorne's work in US Customs at Salem. I then visited the Visitor Centre there to see a film on the area - best Visitor Centre I have been to - it is housed in the old Salem Armory - magnificant building with a superb park alongside it. I did a walking tour of the town which was extraodinarily wealthy during the age of sail. The shipping merchants built themselves beautiful huge houses in Chesnut Street - one of these has been opened to the public as the Phillips House and Museum - the lavish lifestyle, furniture and antiquities from all those overseas voyages were on display - just superb. I did visit one witch trial site - the home of one of the men involved in prosecuting the so-called witches. I walked back via the cemetery and a magnificant memorial constructed in memory of the ninteeen victims. Arthur Miller (who set The Crucible based on the trials) and Ellie Wiesel opened the memorial. The town developed a Human Rights Award in 2001 to warn against intolerance. I could have spent far more than 6 hours in Salem.

Concord - Revolutionary War and Iconic Literary Town

I have been staying in Lexington for the last five days which is situated very close to Concord. The Minuteman Statue and Visitor Centre at Concord tells the story of the "shot heard around the world" as I think Ralph Waldo Emerson called the first shot of the Revolutionary War. The artist who created this statue also created the Lincoln Monument in Washington - magnificant artist. I did a wonderful Walking Tour of Concord which was a local history cum Revolutionary War cum Literary tour of the town. I have visited the Old Manse where Emerson's grandfather lived (and Emerson himself) and where Henry David Thoreau lived for nearly three years. The windows are inscribed by members of the family with dates and everything, quite extraordinary. I paid my respects to the greats of Concord at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery - Thoreau, Emerson and Louisa May Alcott all have their final resting place on the appropriately named Author's Ridge. My final visit was to Orchard House home of the Alcotts - where Louisa wrote her seminal Little Women and her father Bronson foudned the Concord School of Philosophy. They were great friends with Thoreau and Emerson. Louisa's sister May who was Amy in Little Women was an artist and her paintings adorn the walls, fireplaces and canvas. Once agin, I barely scratched the surface at Concord. Still so much to see on another visit!

Boston - a most beautiful city

I love Boston - a lovely city with lots of history, beautiful buildings and too much to do. Have walked part of the Freedom Trail visiting Bunker Hill, the old North Church where the revolution was plotted and planned, Copp's Hill Buying Ground. I visited the USS Constitution built in the 1700s called affectionately Old Ironsides - terrific museum exhibition here. I saw Boston Public Library from the outside and Trinity Church which has stunning stained glass windows. And paid tribute to Paul Revere - there is a wonderful statue of him sitting on his horse calling out the alarm in the Paul Revere Mall which is a beautiful garden mall with plaques to many of the pioneers of Boston. Today I visited the Museum of Fine Arts which is absolutely massive - impossible to get though the museum in one day. There was a special El Greco to Velazquez exhibition on at the moment which was superb. I also went to the JFK Library and Museum where there were exhibits of JFK's life, fascinating photos and artifacts from his presidency and life at the White House and a special exhibition on Robert Kennedy's time as Attorney-General. This is all housed in a stunning IM Pei building situated on the waterfront - it was worth going just for the view. I could have spent another 4-5 days in Boston but I am due at Charlottetown on Sunday so have to move along unfortunately.

Lancaster County

I went to Lancaster County on Monday in very steamy 101 degree heat. I visited the People's Place Quilt Museum (and associated shop) where there was a wonderful display of quilts although perhaps not as many Amish ones as I would have liked to see. It was rather odd to see Amish farmers in the fields ploughing without mechanization and to have horse and buggys on the road along with all the cars and trucks. It seems to be a rather uneasy coexistence to me. The area is very much a farming area but it is being overtaken with quilt shops, pottery shops, etc and was very commercial in my opinion.

Gettysburg

It has taken me several days to write about Gettysburg. Wholesale slaughter across 3 days with 41,000 casualties is not an easy thing to come to grips with. A new visitor centre opened earlier this year and it is worldclass in terms of facilities and presentation. The museum is extensive and deals not just with the battle of Gettysburg, but puts the battle into the context of the Civil War. It also deals with the aftermath of the battle rather well. When the battle was over and the Confederate army began retreating back to Virginia, the Union army followed leaving a small town to cope with thousands of dead unburied and thousands of injured soldiers. Every house was literally turned into a hospital rendering the houses unfit to live later on. Lincoln's Gettysburg address and his assassination and the rest of the Civil War were also effectively told. I took a National Parks bus tour of the battlefield which was excellent. The overwhelming thought through all this is of course that it is such a waste of human life.

Frederick, Maryland is hot hot hot

I am staying in Frederick Maryland for 7 days and the weather is extreme to say the least. It has eben in the high 80s and 90s and is predicited to be over 100 tomorrow but the killer is the humidity. You literally walk outside and are covered in sweat. I have been visiting indoor places to try and stay cool. This is of course my excuse for going to the Quilters Unlimited Quilt Show down at Dulles yesterday. This show was bigger than the Melbourne ones and actually concentrated on patchwork and quilting. Had lunch with two lovely friendly ladies from Maryland who seemed amazed at my trip. I of course encouraged them to visit Oz. I bought another lot of Civil War fabric and some patterns and had a great day.

Virginia Quilt Museum, Harrisonburg

I visited the Virginia Quilt Museum on Thursday and had a lovely time looking at an exhibition of Quaker quilts and others from the 1800s. There is a Civil War Room displaying stories of women who had lived through the Civil War when it came to their doorsteps (literally) and their quilts. Very friendly volunteers completed a great visit.

Chattanooga Choo Chooing

Helo from Chattanooga where it has been extremely hot and humid ie in the 80s (89 yesterday) and in the 70s for humidity although today with fierce thunderstorms and heaps of rain the humidity has been at 100%. With the storms, lightning, rain and flooding in some areas, I had a quiet day going to Barnes and Noble to stock up on reading matter (quilting magazines). I have been to the Hunter Art Gallery and Museum, the Lookout Mountain and Chickamunga Civil War Battlefield sites, on a trip on the East Tennessee Railway and to see Ruby Falls. There has been a lot of work done downtown to reinvigorate the town and it certainly seems to have worked. And I can't say enough about Southern hospitality - they are really friendly down here compared to up north (with the exception of Keepsake Quilting). Heading off on Tuesday for the Blue Ridge Parway/Skyline Drive and Washington.

Great Smoky Mountains and Roads

The Great Smoky Mountains are living up to there name today - it rained heavily overnight and the mist is down very low. I was going to take the scenic drive to Chatanooga via the Great Smokys but it's not worth it today. It has been very warm the last few days - 84 yesterday with 60% humidity. There are flood warnings out for several places down south in Alabama including Birmingham. I may have to change a few of my plans like visiting Montgomery as a result.

The roads have been surprisingly busy down south, more so than up north. And if you think we have roadworks at home, you have not seen them American style - they go on for 20-40 kms in some cases. Not that the roadworks aren't needed. In my opinion, the roads here on the highways are worse than the poorest country roads I've driven on. As for the local roads, I tend to hope the car (a blue Ford Focus) will come out on the other side of the potholes.

Rock and Roll Hall of fame

I did tear myself away to journey down to Cleveland and the rock Hall of Fame. This is housed in an extraordinary building by the architect Pei who I think designed the Guggenheim at Bilbao in Spain. There was a huge amount of 50s and 60s memorabilia, a special Doors exhibition and a celebration of the Beatles Help! movie. For me, i really enjoyed the U2 exhibits - Larry's first U2 t-shirt that he screeen printed in art class at school in 1978 was teeny. The Bowie area included his costume from the Ashes to Ashes video which is an extraordinary costume. And of course there was a Queen section with Freddie's waistcoats, jumpsuits and one of Brian May's outfits. A very enjoyable three and a half hours. Now on my way down to Kentucky and Tennessee.

Niagara Falls

Checked into the Sheraon at Niagara falls and my room faced both the American Falls and the Canadian Falls. They have the best restaurant view in the world fromthe Fallsview Restaurant where I mostly ate apart from Saturday night at the Hard Rock Cafe (couldn't resist). The Falls are stunning, inspiring and magnificent. I went on the Maid of the Mist, the Journey behind the Falls, the Spanish Aerocar and visisted the beautiful Butterfly Conservatory attached to the Botanical Gardens. I had brilliant weather of around 73F each day. It was so hard to tear myself away from the lovely Sheraton and the wonderful falls yesterday.

Keepsake Quilting

I went to Lake Winnesaukapee to visit Keepsake Quilting, the largest quilting shop in the US. I was totally overwhelmed on my first visit (the day I arrived at Lake Winne, of course) - there was just so many bolts of fabric, so many patterns and every time I turned around, there was more. I went back on each of the next two days too and found things I hadn't seen on my first visit. They have a large range of Civil War fabrics and wonderful patterns. I ended up spending a lot of money but as the ladies in the shop said - you're only here once. The shop is staffed by bery friendly ladies and is filled with women (and their husbands who are extremely patient I have to say) who like me were gobsmacked. I spoke with people from all over the place including one lady who was 81 and her daughter who had travelled 6 hours to visit. And the shop is only a two hour drive from Boston....yes I am planning a possible diversion when I get to Boston. I am hooked.

Lake Louise

Been off the airwaves for a while so a bit to catch up on. Lake Louise was almost totally frozen and we had the warm temp of 7 degrees. The Lake is so beautiful - we did a lovely walk to the end of the Lake and had a special dinner with another Aussie we met on the Rocky Mountaineer, Genevieve from Brisbane. Unfortunately our room appeared to have a fautly thermostat and was about 80 degrees the whole time we were there. They even put a humidifier in the room to try and cool us off but really they should have moved us. The Chateau is very elegant and one afternoon I wrote postcards while listening to a women dressed in a beautiful Georgian outfit playing the harp. It was an experience.

Gene Simmons Family Jewels

Hi everyone
I just had to do a post about this show. I came upon it on our second night in Vancouver and have been attempting to watch it ever since. Gene Simmons is of course the tongue from Kiss. His show is spellbinding as I have never seen anyone with such a narcisitic ego as this man. He has a bunny with whom he has been living with for 22 years and two children. His 17 year old son is just gorgeous in the Jim Morrison mould (the show is worth watching just for him). He has severe issues with his 13 year old daughter having a boyfriend (aren't men all the same). I am hoping this show is available on pay tv back home as I am officially hooked (and my cousin does not get it at all!). His office is decorated with Kiss memorabilia. He is a workaholic with a Kiss credit card (yes I'm serious) and I find it absolutely hysterical. More about his show later.

Jasper wildlife

Hello everyone from Jasper in Alberta
We are staying at a quaint lodge with a very nice room - 2 king size double beds. We are a little walk from the main shopping area which is not very large.
We arrived on the train last night having passed by a frozen Moose Lake which looked amazing. We also saw a lot of Mount Robson (only the top of the mountain was obscured by clouds). Has been raining this morning with a few bursts of sunshine. We had wildlife spotting on the train yesterday - I saw four bears (black), 3 moose and 1 deer. There are a number of elk in the main drag of Jasper. We saw eagles and ospreys from the train on Thursday.
We have discovered that most of the activities and tours aren't running in Jasper yet. Tomorrow we are doing one tour which is running.
We keep meeting up with another Aussie who we had dinner with on Thursday night in Kamloops. We are meeting her again for dinner at the Lake Louise Chateau next week. We have been told Lake Louise is still frozen and are hoping to walk around the lake. And we hear that it was raining 30 days straight in Banff - we are hoping the weather clears a little for a trip up the Gondola.
Bought my first patchwork today - 1 local design incorporating log cabins and pine trees (seen lots of these!) and another kit which was designed by the quilt shop owners friend which features three bears in a tree with a snowed capped mountain behind them - very cute. I also purchased yarn and knitting needles to knit myself a scarf which I am needing. We are having a top of 11 degrees today in Jasper - it was three overnight.

Vancouver

Hello everyone from Vancouver
We went up to Whistler on the train yesterday - a very enjoyable trip along the Howe Sound and then a canyon with deep gorges and huge amounts of water flowing downstream. Didn't see any salmon! Whistler is very commercialised and I much prefer Chalet land in Pertisau, Austria. It does have a stunning location ans is the home of the 2010 Winter Olympics. There's a lot of building going on.
Last day in Vancouver today - going to Robson Street and the magnificant Stanley Park.
We have had terrific weather given it's spring. It has only rained twice really and both times, we were fine - either having dinner or on a bus. There are floods on the other side of the country, so we are lucky.
We are off on the Rocky Mountaineer tomorrow.

Nanaimo

Hi everyone from Nanaimo
First things first - the flight was okay but unfortunately our plane from SF to Vancouver was delayed and we finally left 5 hours late arriving at Vancouver at 11.30 - got a taxi to the hotel and fell into bed after 12.30am. Vancouver has gone a bit downhill since 1999 - enjoyed Grouse Mountain where we got snowed on! Enjoyed Victoria thoroughly - we stayed an extra night forgetting about Tofino which would have taken a day to get there on the bus. The Buchart Gardens were stunning - I think there were more tulips than in Holland. I almost think it was better in spring than fall. Victoria by night was very pretty. The Executive House Hotel in Victoria was lovely but there was building happening next door which was noisy in the morning. I went to a castle and the London wax works yesterday. We arrived in Nanaimo today and are staying near the waterfront. It is a quiet and peaceful place. We are going to have a look at the old city district tomorrow. Then it's back to Vancouver to catch our trains to Whistler and then the Rockies.

Leaving on a jet plane

Yes folks, I am leaving on a jet plane on Sunday 27th to go to Canada and the US for long service leave. I thought I could keep the music thing going for a while at least...
My cousin and I are visiting Vancouver and then Victoria Island before going on the Rocky Mountaineer through the Rockies to Jasper. We are spending some nights at Jasper, Lake Louise (at the famous lake Louise Chateau) and Banff before heading to Calgary. I then fly to Montral to pick up a car and go off on an itinerary which includes things as diverse as the largest patchwork shop in the US, Niagara Falls, Maya Lin's magnificant Civil Rights monument, Margaret Mitchell's house in Atlanta, the Great Smoky Mountains and then a long drive up the Blue Ridge Parkway and the Skyline drive to stay in Manassas outside Washington. I will then go up through Gettysburg and Lancaster County on my way to Concord, home of Louisa May Alcott, author of Little women. I am then going via Bar Harbor and the ferry across to the Lighthouse Coast of Nova Scotia to halifax and then onto Prince Edward Island. I am staying in Charlottetown for 8 nights and going to the LM Montgomery Institute biennial conference, Anne of Green Gables - the classic novel. I am then flying to San Francisco where I will spend Independence Day. Looking forward to the fireworks across the bay.