Green Gables

This is a summer of celebration in Canada – we're 150 years old – so it seemed like a great time to hit the road with my friend Kate and discover new-to-us places in this great country. Our ultimate destination: Iles de la Madeleine, a remote and breathtakingly beautiful archipelago in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, five hours by boat from Prince Edward Island. But with so much to see along the way, expect a post or two before we get there.

Our travels took us through Montreal, Quebec City, and Rivière-du-Loup in Quebec; Miramichi and Shediac in New Brunswick; and then across the spectacular Confederation Bridge to lovely Prince Edward Island – famous for its rich red soil, excellent potatoes and, of course, that little red-haired girl known around the world: Anne of Green Gables.

Confederation Bridge, at 12.9 km (8 miles) it's the
longest bridge in the world that crosses ice-covered water. 

Beautiful Prince Edward Island 

We spent three days on Prince Edward Island, enjoying the scenery, red sand beaches, and some of the best fish and chips I have ever eaten. From the window of our ocean-view room in Summerside, we were delighted by the sight of tall ships entering the harbour, part of a Canada 150 celebration tour.

Tall ship approaching Summerside PEI

This trip was a second visit to PEI for me and also for Kate. Our first times were many years ago and we both traveled with husbands who had no interest whatsoever in anything Anne-related. This time, we vowed to see it all, beginning with a drive-by photo op of the little house in New London where author Lucy Maud Montgomery was born. 

Birthplace of Lucy Maud Montgomery in New London, PEI

From there, we headed to Silver Bush – the lovely farm where Lucy Maud spent summers with her cousins, the Campbells. Members of the Campbell family have owned the farm since 1867 and now operate it as a museum. Montgomery called Silver Bush "the shining castle of my childhood" and it's easy to see why... such an incredibly pretty place.

Silver Bush, The Campbell family home since 1867.

The farm at Silver Bush, Anne's "Lake of Shining Waters" in the distance.

The parlor at Silver Bush

A bedroom at Silver Bush

Could this be Anne's Matthew Cuthbert?
No, just one of the guides, waiting to take us on a horse and buggy ride.

Molly the horse took us past the Lake of Shining Waters on our ride around the farm.

After a lovely boxed lunch on the front porch (including glasses of "awfully nice raspberry cordial") we left Silver Bush to travel the short distance to Cavendish and Green Gables – another spot much loved by author L. M. Montgomery whose cousins, the MacNeill family, were the original owners of the farm. Green Gables is now a National Historic Site and part of Prince Edward Island National Park. Kate and I spent a memorable few hours soaking up the Anne atmosphere while exploring the house and grounds (and the gift shop, of course). I brought home a copy of Anne, la maison aux pignons verts (Anne of Green Gables) which I hope to re-read and enjoy while at the same time improving my French. Time will tell.

The green gables that gave the farm its name.

Green shutters and flowering vines.

Green Gables

Windblown peonies in the Green Gables garden.

The gardens at Green Gables.

Dining room at Green Gables. The house is authentically Victorian throughout.

A little bedroom at Green Gables.

Matthew Cuthbert's hat and cane?

Best summer job ever! Interpretive staff playing Anne and her "kindred spirit" Diana.

Alas, we couldn't stay. But if I close my eyes, I'm back on Anne's island... red sand, salty breezes, and favourite stories of my childhood brought to life. Hope you enjoyed sharing the visit! Next up... lobster fishing in Shediac Bay.

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stillpoint... blog of Canadian author Cheryl Cooke Harrington

Guest Post: a day in Venice...

One of the Big Things on my ever-growing retirement wish list is travel. Faraway places beckon: Cornwall, Paris, Maui... So many choices! No doubt I'll eventually drag myself out of the wishful/dreaming stage and take off. Meanwhile, I'm enjoying my 'staycation' while feeding my wanderlust with the photos and journals of traveling friends. Here's Ian McCallum's tale of a day spent walking through Venice. Enjoy!

* * *

It is morning, a bright, sunny, cloudless morning. I take the bus from my hotel in Mestre to the bus terminal in Venice. Venice, ancient city of wood, brick and stone, Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, and Byzantine styles, and there before me, a bridge, a bridge to the train station, a bridge by... Calatrava. Santiago Calatrava. A modern master! A clean curving arch of bronze, marble, glass and steel, its structure like a spine, metal intertwined, almost organic.

I cross.

I walk along the Grand Canal, its ancient stone borders wearing away from the waves produced by the constant traffic. 

The Grand Canal, loud, crowded, a mass of Gondolas, water taxis, boats of all descriptions, horns, bells, birds, a cacophony of sound reflecting off the centuries old structures. The path ends. I walk through the side streets. Stone paving, sometimes modern interlock, sometimes granite, worn, no longer even. The Doges walked these streets for over a thousand years. I have yet to see a street that runs straight for more than a few hundred feet. They twist, they turn, there is a maze of side passages, thoroughfares that may be twenty feet wide and lined with shops, to passages that are barely wide enough for two to pass. Sometimes they end, at a wall, at a canal, I must retrace my steps. 

I turn a corner, a piazza, at the end, a church, crumbling, the limestone and marble details blurred, sometimes indiscernible, I enter, there are carved marble columns in every style imaginable, in every colour, in every variety. The walls, the ceilings covered in frescoes, icons, statuary, relics everywhere. I go on. 

I walk along a narrow passage, at the end stairs, rising to the left, at an angle, straight ahead, a wall. I climb the stairs, over a canal, and down the other side to another alley, they do not line up, the stairs connect the ancient passageways. 

Another corner, the Rialto Bridge. The oldest bridge over the canal. First built of wood in 1181 it was reconstructed over the years. The present bridge, stone, built in 1591 has a central pediment at the peak of the arch, two lines of shops with a central passageway, and passageways on either side. I pause for the obligatory pictures.

Continuing on, more twists, more turns. Churches, monuments, homes, shops, never knowing what is around the next corner, the next bend. Sometimes a vista across the Grand Canal bathed in sunlight, the temperature in the 30s (90s), sometimes in a narrow passageway, cool, damp, encased by decaying brick, the only light from the clear blue sky glimpsed above the walls 3, 4, 5 stories tall.

Church bells.

Close by.

In the distance.

It is Sunday.

Everywhere, church bells.

Another turn, a tree filled park, birds chirping, once again alongside the Grand Canal. It is bordered by a large building and beyond, rising over the rooftops, the Campanile, icon of Piazza San Marco. At the entrance to the Square, two columns, in honour of St Mark and St Theodoro, patrons of the city. To the right The Doges Palace, beyond, St Mark's Basilica, straight ahead The Clock Tower. the square is a seething mass of humanity... and pigeons! I walk beyond the clock tower. A somewhat narrow street, lined with shops, rays of sunlight descend from above. In the distance, singing, chanting. A religious group walking through the streets. I move on.

I walk. I walk through more narrow corridors. Past more churches. Through many squares. I walk along a sun drenched street. It is interrupted by a canal. A narrow canal. Sunlit. Gondolas. Gondoliers singing, accompanied by accordions.

I am walking alongside a canal. Three, four story buildings line the street. In one, a passageway. Outstretched arms can almost touch the walls. Raised hand can almost touch the ceiling. The walls dark, damp brick. Embedded in one wall two columns, a beam. Wood. Rough. Lightly dusted with the white hairs of fungi. On the wall a sign… The Gheto.

The Ghetto?

I discover that 'gheto' is a Venetian word adopted into English.

I walk in.

Narrow passageway.

Long, narrow passageway.

It opens to a small square.

On one side, a Synagogue. On the opposite side another. The other sides are residential buildings. Tall buildings. Many floors. The ceiling heights are lower than most. A lot of humanity in little space. There is a memorial on one Synagogue wall. I continue on. A larger square. Sunlit. Open. A tree in the centre. On the far side wall I see bronze plaques. The wall is brick, old brick, there are doors, they are steel, old steel, heavy steel. On top of the wall, wire, rows of wire, barbed wire. 

The plaques? A memorial. To the holocaust, to the memory of those who were sent out from The Ghetto. In the square, near the memorial, a large booth, a manned booth, by the police, 24/7, because... in this day and age... they are needed... to protect those who live, those who live in The Ghetto.

I leave.

I walk to the Calatrava bridge.

The sun sets.

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Ian A McCallum is a Canadian horticulturalist, educator, and enthusiastic world traveler. Find him on Facebook. 

All photos ©Ian A McCallum, used with permission.








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stillpoint is the blog of Canadian author Cheryl Cooke Harrington

The Write Spot: Doreen Pendgracs

Welcome to the seventeenth edition of The Write Spot, a bi-weekly author series spotlighting the many and varied places where writers write. My guest this week is Canadian author Doreen Pendgracs, aka 'Doreen the Chocolate Queen' – and, fellow chocolate lovers, if that didn't grab your attention, I don't know what will!

Doreen Pendgracs has been a freelance writer and author since 1993. She has written dozens of articles for numerous periodicals and websites on topics ranging from travel and lifestyle to entrepreneurship, and more. She has co-authored two books: the 1st edition of Frommer's Newfoundland and Labrador, and The Manitoba Book of Everything, a 2008 Canadian bestseller. In 2010, Doreen released her first solo effort: Before You Say Yes … a Guide to the Pleasures and Pitfalls of Volunteer Boards, published by Dundurn Press.

Following the release of her latest title, Chocolatour: A Quest for the World's Best Chocolate – an award-winning chocolate travel book that guides readers to the finest chocolate and chocolate experiences of the world – she became known as 'Doreen the Chocolate Queen'. A tasty title, and one Doreen she says she loves having.

As part of the Chocolatour project, Doreen is forging the new niche of "chocolate travel" or as she like to call it, Chocolatourism. She has travelled around the world in search of remarkable chocolate and chocolate experiences. She loves sharing her research (chocolate samples) with friends and family as focus groups.

Have you ever been slathered in molten chocolate? Doreen has. And she says it’s an incredibly sensual experience that every chocolate lover should take time to enjoy.

When she's not off questing for chocolate, Doreen makes her home in Manitoba with her husband and her writing assistant, Jimmy the cat, who takes far too many sleep breaks.

Welcome, Doreen. Please tell us about your Write Spot.

Because I am a travel writer, I think my writing process is quite different than someone who writes fiction or other types of writing.

My writing usually begins on the road in the form of brief notes I take in mini notebooks that I always have along with me. I take lots of pictures to augment the notes I've taken.

Those notes will eventually turn into blog posts, and then when I'm writing the next volume of my book, the blog posts will be imported and expanded to become chapters or profiles. So, when it comes to writing, it can start halfway around the world, and evolve through different stages until I sit down at my desktop iMac and polish it into pages for the book. (This is a photo of my loft office/writing space in its perfect tidiness, which is not the usual. PC now replaced with a Mac.)

Other than your computer or laptop, what's the one thing you couldn't be without in your Write Spot?

Chocolate, of course!

Of course! (You may be the luckiest writer ever!) 

What are you working on now?

Right now, I am continuing to research volume II of Chocolatour. The working title for that is Chocolatour: A Quest for the World's Best Chocolate Adventures. I learned after blogging and writing the first volume of Chocolatour: A Quest for the World's Best Chocolate, that my readers are most interested in my exotic adventures and not so much in the chocolate. There are several other chocolate bloggers who focus strictly on the chocolate. My focus is on experiential chocolate travel, and my goal is to encourage readers to travel the world for chocolate ecstasy, whether that be in the form of chocolate events, chocolate spas, to indulge in cocoa cuisine, or to eat some of the freshest and most exotic chocolate that you can't get at home because fresh chocolate doesn't travel well.

I hope to have volume II of Chocolatour published by the end of this year, but it may not be until early 2017 as I still have a fair amount of travel ahead to complete the task of showcasing the best of the Americas and the Caribbean.

Where can readers find out more about you and your books?

My website can be found at chocolatour.net. I'm pretty proud of it, as I just had it professionally designed and relaunched last fall. We combined blog posts from three different sites I'd had over the previous six years: my writer's blog, my travel blog, and my newish Chocolatour site which I'd been using for chocolate events and updates about my book. It had become unmanageable to have 3 different sites and keep them all fresh. I used to have an old static website as well, but have since abandoned that as upkeep was expensive due to the old HTML coding. Now, I work exclusively with WordPress and it's easy to change and update myself—with the help of a terrific web manager whom I've been working with over the past few years.

Because I am continually trying to expand my reach, I am active on many platforms. You'll find me at:

Facebook Author Page: Doreen Pendgracs, Author 

Facebook Page for Volunteerism: Before You Say Yes 

Twitter: @wizardofwords

Instagram: chocolatour

Pinterest: chocolatour

Google+: Doreen Pendgracs

LinkedIn: Doreen Pendgracs

Tumblr: dpendgracs

Goodreads: Doreen Pendgracs 

Thanks for visiting, Doreen. I'm craving a chocolate break – right now! You've got me dreaming of a bit of Chocolatouring, too. That chocolate wrap sounds so very, very decadent! 

For all you chocolate connoisseurs, here are the delectable details:

Chocolatour takes you around the world, in search of the most beautiful, innovative, and delectable chocolate and noteworthy chocolate events.

In this first volume of Chocolatour, author Doreen Pendgracs introduces you to chocolate masters in Belgium, France, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, and Holland, as well as the UK. She also takes you to cacao growing regions in Peru, Ecuador, and St. Lucia and includes a fascinating chapter on the health benefits of chocolate. Plus a global A-Z Chocolate Lovers' Guide for the chocolate journey of your life.

Buy the book: Chocolatour | Amazon.com 

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About The Write Spot:
I've always been fascinated by what goes on behind the scenes. Whether it's backstage photos from my favourite play, a peek into the kitchen where a chef is working her culinary magic, or simply a glimpse through an uncurtained window into a stranger's private world, there's an undeniable thrill of discovery, a sense of secrets shared. It's no surprise, then, that I'm immensely curious about where other writers do their work. I've blogged about it before in this post about my own 'write spot' and so enjoyed the comments, I was inspired to launch a regular feature here at stillpoint. Watch for The Write Spot every other Wednesday and join me as I discover the many and varied places where writers write.

stillpoint is the blog of Canadian author Cheryl Cooke Harrington