one way to do pei ‘up west’

~ carin ~ 63 Comments

 
*Fly.

When you land in Charlottetown, notice the children playing with a puppy on the grass right outside the airport doors. Unless said children are paid to do this… realize you have come to an enchanted isle.
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Drive directly to the Oyster Barn in Malpeque [with a stop for chips en route to take the edge off near starvation from not being offered so much as a pretzel on the flight.]IMG_2400
At Malpeque, get a table by the window, order at least a dozen briny beauties to eat there [and a dozen to take with you]. Watch the fishermen coming in from a day’s work, unloading their haul, swabbing decks. If you have the chance, tell them thank you.

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Arrive at your ‘up west’ lodgings. Run fast, the mosquitoes are hungry. Hug friends who greet you with a key and a jar of homemade, wild strawberry jam. Later, after a thunderstorm, walk to the beach where a rainbow will be waiting.IMG_2409
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Wake to a sun-flooded yellow room. Eat bread and jam and drink peach infused tea with pink rosebuds. Drive to North Cape to see where the Northumberland Straight and the Gulf of St. Lawrence meet and where sometimes there are seals or farmers gathering Irish moss. Take pictures of Queen Anne’s Lace and things that are purple and then stop at Charley’s Cookhouse — sit outside and breathe salt air. Order fried clams.
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Go to any beach, any beach at all, with a picnic of chicken legs, potato salad, watermelon and a sketch pad. Do not go for the crowds.
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Wonder about the number of orphan gloves you will find.
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Take those oysters you bought in Malpeque and shuck them on the rocks at Kildaire Cape at sunset and discover a replacement for North Cape’s now-extinct Elephant Rock.
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See a starfish.
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Be a starfish.
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Visit McAusland’s Mill where wool has been spun by rows of whizzing machines for close to a hundred and fifty years and penny ante games of cards are played at break time. There are no tours and no one tells you to keep your hands away from the whizzing machinery. Beautiful things are made here. Kick yourself for not bringing an extra suitcase. Afterwards, stop at a little craft place in an old schoolhouse and discover that the woman working there has a son in Ottawa who is doing an animated film with Donald Sutherland. Stop also at the long abandoned Lewis Motel and discover that the pay phone still works.
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Buy potatoes by tossing coins into a wooden box at the end of a farmer’s driveway then watch the water turn rust when you wash them.

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They say the mud is strong enough to permanently dye clothing. Try it.

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At least once, get up early enough to see the sun rise.

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Find a fiddle festival to attend and become certain that in some small way all’s right with the world.

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Uncover island mysteries such as what makes the biggest tree on PEI grow so tall…

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Find once-mythical lanes at the end of which friends will appear and take you to what is quite possibly the best restaurant on the whole of the island.

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Find almost-buried treasure.

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And in a churchyard, find the grave of Sharon Jean who died at 6 months in 1954. Someone has left fresh flowers there.

On Thursday, buy halibut from the back of the fish guy’s truck. Have it for dinner on Friday with a salad made of garlic and chives and local green beans.

Take pictures of lighthouses, impossible views and of yourself in your clam-digging best.

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Take time to sit at the town pond—after lunch at The Pier where the herons are great little posers and the clouds are shaped like teddy bears; after being lucky enough to get the last baguette at the French place; after a browse through the second-hand clothing store where you will find a pair of black pin-striped pants for $1.00; after visiting the gallery of local art (which includes an inspiring button ‘collage’) and the museum, which used to be a jail and where you can look up your family’s history in the area to see if any of them were ever a guest of Her Majesty— Just sit there a while and consider that life really could not be sweeter and if you’re still in doubt, ask a group of people in the gazebo right there on the edge of the pond… ask them where is the local book shop and marvel as they each offer their own animated version of how to get to it… around the corner.

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* If driving, take pretzels.

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—More travel notes…

Stratford
Montreal
Miami
Niagara Region
Peterborough
Chile
Vancouver

a frivolous five minutes over frites with ‘v’ — age 79

~ carin ~ 2 Comments

I’ve lived in the same neighbourhood as ‘V’ since nineteen ninety something. We watch each other’s pets during holidays and visit each other’s backyards or living rooms once or twice a year. Neither of us are the sort that like to spend time chatting across fences, yet I can drop in on her and ask if her dog would like to join me on a walk and she can call and tell me to meet her in the driveway because she’s got something she wants me to see. At xmas she builds a magnificent winter wonderland (complete with moving parts and lights) in her sunroom with figurines she’s been collecting for decades. At Easter and Halloween our mailbox always contains something sweet.  She’s the kind of person who celebrates her dog’s birthday, has parties where people are sent on treasure hunts, has a ten foot wooden sunflower in her garden, and the only person I know who offers jelly beans with her hors d’oeuvre.

She does not like drippy teapots, has a perpetual smile and should probably be in the Guinness Book of Records for most hugs given in one lifetime.

We’ve had only a handful of lunches together but each time there’s some small adventure attached. On this occasion it was to look for certain landmarks in a town north of us. We found two out of four.

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How long could you go without talking?  Depends if I’m awake or asleep.

Do you prefer silence or noise?  A little of both.

How many pairs of shoes do you own?  30+ (of which I wear 5)

If you won the lottery?  I’d share it with people who have been special in my life.

One law you’d make?  It would be illegal to be disrespectful of people and property.

Unusual talent?  Innate perception of who people are (rather than who they pretend to be).

What do you like to cook?  I prefer eating.

Have you or would you ever bungee jump?  No.

What’s the most dare-devilish thing you’ve done?  Learning to dive at the Lion’s Club pool.

Do you like surprise parties, practical jokes?  Yes to parties. No to practical jokes.

Favourite time of day?  Afternoon tea, when the day’s work is done.

What tree would you be?  Weeping willow. Not a happy tree, but not sad either. An ‘understanding’ tree.

Best present ever received?  A hug.

What do you like on your toast?  Butter and homemade strawberry jam.

The last thing you drew a picture of?  A happy face.

Last thing written in ink?  A cheque.

Favourite childhood meal?  My mum’s stew. The smell of it when you came home…

What [past] was your favourite?  Eight.

Would you go back to that if you could?  No. Wouldn’t want to be eight in this era.

Best invention?  Automatic washing machine. When I got my first one I didn’t think it could possibly work. Spent a whole cycle watching it, just waiting for it to break down.

Describe your childhood bedroom.  On the top floor of a 1 1/2 story house with a  slanted ceiling. Yellow chintz curtains and bedspread and matching skirt on a glass-topped dressing table and a storage cupboard where I liked to play.

Afraid of spiders?  Not any more.

Phobias?  Isolation.

Most hated teacher and why.  The one that used to get on my case about biting my nails or talking in class; she made me sit in the hall as punishment. When I think back on it now, she was the one that did me the biggest favour.

Favourite children’s story?  Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. I liked all those individual characteristics… happy, dopey, bashful… they represent all kinds of real people.

Ideal picnic ingredients?  My mum’s sandwiches (especially the crustless version she served her bridge group). And lemonade.

Is Barbie a negative role model?  Yes.

Best thing about Canada?  Being a Canadian.

Best thing about people in general?  When they are themselves.

What flavour would you be?  Lemon.

What colour?  Yellow.

What would you come back as?  A well-loved dog.

Favourite saying:  “Don’t forget to look at the other side of the coin.”
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—the frivolous five is a series of non-essential questions and answers

me and the lake and a dog-like cat or two

~ carin ~ 6 Comments

I grew up on the shores of Lake Ontario.
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Not literally,
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but close enough that when my mum and dad came home from work,
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we might pack a few cold cuts,
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some fresh bread, potato salad,
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a thermos of coffee, another of KoolAid,
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and head to the beach for supper and a swim.
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I remember two things: sometimes we took our cat Peter who thought he was a dog,
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and there was a large shrub where I liked to have my meals.
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I wedged myself into its branches and ate my mother’s potato salad from a Tupperware bowl, pretending I was a castaway on a desert island.
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I’m still drawn to lakes, to desert isles, to pretending and to potato salad,
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though I notice there are fewer shrubs that I fit neatly into.
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a few opening lines (aka: correspondence 101)

~ carin ~ 2 Comments

“If you write to me, could you possibly seal your letter? Or if not, don’t mention the book, because I don’t want my servants to get to know all about that.”

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“I enclose with this letter some unpublished pages extracted from my forthcoming book which I should very much like to see appear in your review.”

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“The story is so well-known that the name of the fiancé will be obvious if I tell you that the lady in question is Madam Bischoffsheim…”

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“I should be most grateful if you would read this letter to the end, destroy it or send it back to me, and not breathe a word of it to anyone whatsoever.”

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“It was very nice of you to write to me about your marriage; it would have been nicer still if you had invited me to it.”

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“I send you herewith, in very inelegant form and on the paper which I use to light my anti-asthmatic powders—all that I have to hand—my warmest and most sincere congratulations on your wonderful prize.”

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“Although you abandon me I often look at your little face and think and think.”

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“I telephoned you last night at the Gil Blas.”

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“I’m already behindhand in thanking you for your beautiful letter and now I receive three cards.”

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“I should be infinitely grateful if you could tell me whether, in your opinion, this contract prevents me legally (without risk of a lawsuit, etc.) from publishing my second volume with another publisher.”

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“Thank you very much for your letter—one sentence was ravishing (crepuscular, etc.)…”

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“I’m genuinely sorry to keep bothering you, especially if you are still on holiday and would no doubt prefer to forget for a while that there is such a thing as a stock exchange.”

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“I should have preferred to tell you this in person.”

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“You said you would write to me, you have written to me, and I am amazed.”

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Opening lines to various letters, from Marcel Proust: Selected Letters, Volume Three, 1910 – 1917.
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