Into the wood

Down the steps and across a bridge from Green Gables is the Haunted Wood, made famous by the author, Lucy Maud Montgomery.

She knew the area as a child and included the wood in her novels about Anne Shirley. Anne, like Lucy Maud, imagined these woods to be haunted.

Walking through the wood, one can picture the young Lucy Maud on her way to and from Green Gables from her home nearby.

Today, the mixed forest consists of huge trees at least twenty-five meters high. 

The wind in the trees makes them creak and sway. What would that sound be like at night? The effect when the moon is full must be eerier with the shadows cast as the trees sway.

Branches reach like octopus arms grasping for anyone who comes within reach. 

But the faces…

they look at any passer-by who is within the limits of their frozen expression. Sometimes, the faces are stacked as a natural totem. 

The skeletons of trees which died along the path, are in stark contrast to the green of summer.

All add to the haunted feel, even during the day.

In the past, people have carved their initials into a few of the trees. Were such marks on similar trees over one hundred and thirty years ago when the child, Lucy Maud, walked this wood? Such initials could represent the names of people who disappeared there!

These days, a golf course crosses the Haunted Wood. The golfers are a curious distraction to the imagination and the ambience of the trail. We stopped to watch and wonder what Lucy Maud would think of their presence in one of her favourite haunts.

One room school

This little school house stands against the elements in Lower Bedeque, Prince Edward Island. On this cold winter day, with the wind attempting to freeze our brains, it is hard to imagine the time when this school opened in 1886. 

 

We think about the children walking to school from the area farms, or horse and cart pulling up to drop off neighbourhood children. The little one room school opened its doors to all ages as was common at the time. 

Lucy Maud Montgomery, an island author, taught in this school in 1897 for six months. She left to care for her grandmother after her grandfather died. Lucy Maud never taught again.

However, it was an interesting time in her life. Lucy Maud was engaged when she moved to Lower Bedeque. During her time there, she met a man described as "the love of her life." Herman Leard was one of two sons of the family where she boarded, near the school. Nothing came of the relationship; Lucy Maud left and Herman died the next year.

As my husband and I observed the little school this day, we talked of the school where he taught in 1975-76. His post was in Grand Bruit, Newfoundland, an isolated community on the island's south coast, only accessible by coastal boat. 

 

 Grand Bruit, Newfoundland.              School, center back.                           Photo by Don Bradshaw

He taught everything from Kindergarten to Grade 8 to nine children in the community. The children left home to do high school further along the coast, in a community connected by road to the rest of the island. Today Grand Bruit is abandoned and the people resettled elsewhere in Newfoundland.

We were engaged during that year as he worked in his sole charge school. The next year he was offered a job in the school where I worked and we were married. The rest is our family history.

On this cold winter day, a little school in Prince Edward Island stirred up warm memories of young love which has matured and grown with time. 

Happy Valentine's Day to you and your special one!