or in this case

gets to join in the Anne of Green Gables celebrations on PEI! 

 Island Morning, the radio show that wakens me every morning, is featuring a special radio broadcast from the Green Gables homestead tomorrow.  

”One Hundred Years to the Day,”  celebrates the day LM Montgomery received her first copy of her book through the mail at her home in Cavendish.

Lucy Maud Montgomery

You can tune into this special broadcast by clicking here

yes…

It is early - we are on Atlantic time and the program runs from 6-8:30 AM.

But there will be interviews of Anne fans, scholars, authors, book club members and even Lucy Maud’s grand-daughter, Kate MacDonald Butler, will be there to honour the occasion. I’ve also heard that there will be prizes and give-aways - available to listeners as well as those Islanders and visitors who drop by the Green Gables farm during the show.

If you should happen to miss the live show, you can still listen to the program in the archives.

In the meantime….

Don’t forget to enter our own little give-away right here at A Sparrow’s Home!

If you’ve just joined in, check the two previous posts for the guidelines.

I’m waiting to hear about your favourite books.

Two more prizes to be drawn tomorrow night. I’ll announce the winners on Monday, June 23.  
 

  NAME(S):*La Rue, Mabel Guinnip, 1880-1971 Mrs.

         TITLE(S): Hoot-Owl / by Mabel Guinnip La Rue; illustrated by Kate 
                    Seredy
        PUBLISHER: New York : The Macmillan company, 1935.
      DESCRIPTION: ix, [1], 207 p. incl. col. front., col. illus. 19 cm.

            NOTES: Illustrated lining-papers.
          NUMBERS: LCCN:  36007640

Holy Smoke Jill!! You found it!!

You are my

I’ve been looking for ages - way to go!!!

No wonder your blog is named Jill’s World of Research, Reaction and Millerery.

Jill discovered that the book was illustrated by Kate Seredy - one of my favourite children’s author and illustrator. Seredy also wrote and illustrated, among many other stories, Newbery award winner The Good Master.

This is the copy I remember taking out from the library.

But this book cover will give you a better idea of this delightful, autobiographical story of love and belonging.

No child should miss out on the adventures of headstrong Kate, a girl from Budapest who spends summers with her cousin Jancsi on his father’s ranch in Hungary. Horseback races across the plains, country fairs and festivals, a dangerous run-in with gypsies, and the chores and the joys — and the colorful cultural trappings — of daily life in pre-war Europe create a vivid, unforgettable world.1

The illustrations are beautiful. No wonder that Kate Seredy is quoted as saying: “My stories were an excuse for making pictures.”

It’s not surprising that I was going to mention in my description of Hoot Owl that I could remember an illustration of the little boy up in a tree with his hands cupped around his mouth, hooting like an owl. Kate Seredy’s illustrations are memorable.

You’ll be glad to know that I found it on Amicus - which is the Canadian inter-library loan program.

…..

Now a word to everyone else - the contest is still open until Friday! I’m heading to a favourite store this afternoon and I’m looking for treats!

Keep the comments about favourite books coming in.

Jill is the grand winner, of course, but I’m going to send out two more prize packages! I’ll draw the names out of a hat.

We are marking a 100th anniversary



and that’s a reason to celebrate!!

Besides…

any excuse to keep talking books!

I discovered these yesterday. It’s the first time I’ve ever found them growing in our  woods. They’re a rare find.

click to enlargeLady’s Slipper

(Cypripedium acaule)

Prince Edward Island adopted the lady’s slipper as its floral emblem in 1947. The flower gets its name from its petals, which are shaped like a woman’s shoe. It grows in the cool shade of the forest and it blooms in the springtime.

What is the floral emblem of your province or state? 

I’m off to town today. The library is calling my name!

Have a wonderful day my friends.   

 
Come along and let’s see what’s blooming in PEI’s woods.

Chokecherry bushes flourish in sunlit clearings.

The tiny Starflower growing in the damp moss on the woodland floor.

Fireweed blooming along the sunny edges of the woods.

There’s nothing quite like pushing through a thick growth of spruce and pine and stumbling upon a little clearing scattered with wild apple trees in bloom. The trees covered in delicate pink and white clusters; the fragrant perfume and the buzzing of the bees adding to the wonder.

I wonder which bird made their home in this nest? A robin? 

You could just imagine Cicely Mary Barker’s Apple Blossom fairy peeking from behind the blossoms. I love her flower fairies with their sweet faces.

This tiny pool of rain, nestled in the center of a lupine, would be just perfect for a fairy’s morning bath.


Oh yes…the lupines are just beginning.

Soon our roadsides and fields will be awash in glorious purple, blue, mauve, pink, and burgundy.

Let’s plan a roadside ramble when they are fully in bloom. We’ll pack a picnic basket and the camera of course. I can’t wait!

All the interesting and fun comments on my last post got me thinking not only about  words, but also about local sayings.

The Island is known for its expressive, and often colourful, phrases. For example:

• “Don’t get yourself in a tizzy”  - if someone is fussing
• “Hold your horses”  - if someone is rushing about
• “Wait up for me”  - if you are trying to catch up to a group
• Dressed to the nines - really dressed up and looking fine.
  
• “Slow as cold molasses”  - did you ever try to pour cold molasses?
• “Storm-stayed”  - this phrase is used when someone is unable to get home because of a snowstorm. Therefore, they are stayed by the storm.
• If the roads are slick with rain, sleet or ice, they are “slippy” not slippery -   although, my mother, who was a stickler for grammar, never accepted that phrase as colloquial - much less the infamous “warsh” (wash).
  
• In answer to the greeting  “How are you?”, you could get “Grand!” and if one is really feeling great, “Grand altogether!”
  

A very unique Island speech trait (perhaps Maritime - I’m not sure) is to talk while breathing in - usually saying yes or no on the intake of a breath.

It’s a peculiarly pitched sound. The louder and the more times it’s said, the more definite the answer.

“Yeh, yeh, yeh” said in one long intake of breath means the person is in perfect agreement or commiseration.

The advantage to this little idiosyncracy?

You don’t have to stop talking to breathe. You can keep going indefinitely! 

*grin*

The most common phrase, used solely by Islanders, describes people who are not born here. They are called “from away”.

Sometimes they are called a “CFA”, which is an acronym for “Come From Away”, but I think that’s a more recent term. I never heard it while I was growing up.

People could be from New Brunswick, which is the province across the Strait, or as far away as Timbuktu. They are  “from away”.

Even if they have lived on PEI for most of their life, it doesn’t matter. 

If you are not born here, you are “from away”.

But, being “from away” doesn’t mean that you won’t be welcomed, loved  or even belong on our Island if you decide to become an “IBC” - an Islander By Choice.

Our most famous citizen is “proof of the pudding”!

We’ve had a new visitor to the bird feeders that hang in the flowering crab tree right outside our kitchen window.

An American Goldfinch - they are so pretty with their bright yellow body and black cap and wings. I love to listen to their song while I’m sipping coffee in the early morning: Play sound from this species

The net feeders work but R decided to pick a new finch feeder. It’s perfect - complete with tiny pegs so that the birds can perch and eat to their hearts’ content.

There is only one tiny problem with the feeder.

I think I would have chosen one like Donna’s. Can you imagine that gorgeous colour combination?

I’m off to town today.

I think I’ll keep my eye open for sky blue feeders - or maybe kelly green - or scarlet  - anything but yellow.

Is this photography/blogging thing going to my head? 

click to enlarge
This commemorative stamp, celebrating 100 years of Anne, will be released by Canada Post on June 20th -  on the same date, Japan will also release an Anne stamp - an historical joint issue between our two nations.

Did you know that Anne of Green Gables is a cultural icon in Japan?

… Anne has been charming Japanese readers for nearly fifty years. And Anne has a place in Japanese as well as Canadian history. The very first Japanese reader to fall in love with Anne is Hanako Muraoka (1893-1968). She was educated at Toyo Eiwa Jyogakuin, a Canadian mission school in Tokyo, and later became a well known radio personality, translator, Children’s writer, and a commentator on issues relating to women and children. In 1939, Muraoka was given a much-loved 1908 copy of Anne of Green Gables by her friend, Canadian missionary Miss Loretta L. Shaw. Muraoka was charmed by Anne, and also she felt a sense of closeness to the story which was full of Canadian cultural atmosphere. She decided to translate the book into Japanese and introduce it to new readers as an oath of friendship to her Canadian friends who were expelled from Japan at the outbreak of World War Il.  more

A life-long dream for many young Japanese women is to get married here on PEI.

A short drive from the Green Gables farm is the Anne of Green Gables Museum, a pleasant house owned by Montgomery’s cousins. Montgomery called it her ”wonder castle,” and liked to write there and paddle a boat on a nearby lake. In 1911, the author was married in the parlor, as are dozens of Japanese couples every year. They stroll down the aisle to the same hymn composed by Henry John Gauntlett, played on the same pump organ used at Montgomery’s wedding. Even the extra rich wedding pound cake is made using the same recipe as the cake for Montgomery’s special day.  more

If you would like to learn more, and see some wonderful scenic footage of the Island, watch this intriguing video, Anne of Japan (22 min), a  documentary on the long-standing Japanese fascination with Anne of Green Gables and all things PEI.

So … if you ever make your Anne pilgrimage, do not be surprised at the number of Japanese tourists taking pictures around our fair isle. In fact, if you’re inclined, you can come here to take  Asian studies and learn Japanese  at our university. We’re both Island people and  L. M. Montgomery devotees - powerful ties.

I am joining my good friend Ann V. at Holy Experience

She writes:

I am seeing things I have never seen before, atuned and aware of this constant, endless stream of gifts from His hand. I am one waking from slumber….from the stupor of indifference and ignorance. I have sight, fresh and keen—-the world is new and full of His gifts.

Too often I miss Him, oblivious, blind. I don’t see all the good things that He is giving me, gracing me with, brushing my life with. True, He is everywhere, always. But maybe, before The Gift List, I thought of Him as further off, not so close. When I started to see all the things that I love bestowed upon me, I started to see Him as near, present, everywhere, showering me with good things. Seeing the things I love all around me gives me eyes to see that I am loved, that He loves me…

1. eyes to see

2. mind to be aware

3. heart to be atuned

4. a life to live awake

5. a Father who is near

6. who showers endless gifts

7. who loves

A good beginning …

Consider joining. You will be blessed!

~happy sigh~

_{Photo #1 - Rinda Dean
Photos # 2, 3, 4 - kmacphee} 

Photo credit Rinda Dean

I love this picture.

the reflection of the light on the rocks and water

the shiny wet surface of the rocks, worn smooth by the continual wave action

the foamy white surf

I’ve lived on an Island all my life and I am still spellbound by waves - gentle waves lapping against the smooth sand on a summer day, wild crashing waves breaking against the rocks in a storm, rhythmic swelling waves rocking my kayak up and down, milky white waves curling in long, foaming breakers on the shore - one after another, never-ending.

Then the sound! I can close my eyes and hear it in my dreams. I guess that’s why they make ocean recordings. But I prefer the real thing. You need the wind and the tang of salt in the air.

My favourite childhood memory is sleeping in our tent by the shore, lulled by the song of the sea.

The Mi’kmaq, Prince Edward Island’s original people, knew what they were doing when they named the island Abegweit - “cradle on the waves.”

 
Photo credit - Aaron Hardcourt