Thinking Back on a Visit with Anne

"In the garden below were lilac trees purple with flowers and

their dizzily sweet fragrance drifted up to the window on the morning wind."

I've been thinking back over our trip to P.E.I. recently. It was almost 2 years ago. Perhaps seeing my lilac bushes and the tightly closed buds triggered my thoughts, for Anne loved lilacs. I was happy to visit Green Gables while the lilacs bloomed. 
Here are some photos from our visit, most of which are included in the original post. I'm including some quotations from L.M. Montgomery's books, most of the quoting Anne. 

“I do know my own mind,' protested Anne. 'The trouble is, my mind changes and then I have to get acquainted with it all over again.” 

Anne does make me laugh. In another part of the story, she says that she is many different Annes. I find myself nodding in agreement, do you? There's the quiet me, the boisterous me, the Nana, the Mom, the daughter, the half of a marriage, the teacher, the gardener, the one who laughs herself silly, and the one who cries at parades. 

“Look at that sea, girls--all silver and shadow and vision of things not seen. We couldn't enjoy its loveliness any more if we had millions of dollars and ropes of diamonds.” 

Friends took us out for a lobster supper one night and then to Cavendish Beach with its red rock cliffs that are slowly eroding away. 

Driving around the Island was such a delight. The fields were just beginning to green up, some had not yet been planted, and I could envision Matthew working away and Anne going out to call him to supper.

“After all," Anne had said to Marilla once, "I believe the nicest and sweetest days are not those on which anything very splendid or wonderful or exciting happens but just those that bring simple little pleasures, following one another softly, like pearls slipping off a string.”

Dishes are very utilitarian, but both useful and beautiful, as the dishes in the dresser in the kitchen show. Finding delight in the ordinary is something I've tried to cultivate in my life.  

“Dear old world', she murmured, 'you are very lovely, and I am glad to be alive in you.” 

It is a beautiful world we live in, in spite of the horrors that go on every day. The terrible things affect us all, in big and little ways, but I believe that beauty, especially that of the created world is restorative. St. Paul encourages us to think about things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, and excellent. Good advice, don't you think?

And one more quote to close this rather meandering post that is a collection of my disjointed thoughts.

“Isn't it splendid to think of all the things there are to find out about? It just makes me feel glad to be alive--it's such an interesting world. It wouldn't be half so interesting if we know all about everything, would it? 

Linking to Mosaic Monday, hosted by Maggie of Normandy Life.