Lucy Maud and Bayard: My two mentors at opposite ends of the pole

1941

July 8, 1941

"Oh God, such an end to life.  Such suffering and wretchedness".

The Selected Journals of LM Montgomery, Vol. V., Rubio & Waterston

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Bayard Wootten:  1875- 1959

"I have always been chasing something, but one of the surprises that life as held for me is that I am happier as an old woman than I ever was as a young one.  Perhaps the reason for this is that I realize now it does not matter whether we arrive. The joy is in the going."  

"Light and Air: The Photography of Bayard Wootten" , Jerry W. Cotten, p. 92

Louisiana House, New Bern, North Carolina

Bayard Wootten Photograph

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Maud writes for "The Daily Echo"

  

For a period of time during Maud's stay in Halifax she was employed as a newspaper woman by the Halifax Daily Echo.  The assignment was to write a sassy column for the Echo which was titled  "Around the Table" by Cynthia.   

In Cynthia's column Maud has fabricated (?) some characters who maintain daily interactions and conversations about some pretty mundane subjects.  One of the mundane subjects that tickled my funny bone was the day that Polly "straightened out her top bureau drawer." 

I think it would be a splendid idea to have top bureau drawers fitted out out with handy sets of pigeon-holes which would keep the little trifles in place and prevent laces from getting mixed up with ribbons ad belts and ties from becoming interfaced.  Things keep fresh and smart so much longer when they are kept neatly folded among their own kind.  The Halifax Daily Echo - date unknown

Maud uses her column to give advice to amateur photographers on how to acheive an image using trick photography:  

If you want to make a "winter moonlight scene" here is how you go about it.  Take an ordinary negative of some landscape.  Don't have leafiness in it.  Evergreen trees and an old farm house or so make the best picture for this. The Halifax Daily Echo, May 12, 1902 

I wonder if the people of Nova Scotia looked forward to reading the next installment of "Around the Table"?

Synchronicity

Last week (around the time that I received the Halifax packet)  a full Harvest moon appeared in the night sky over North Carolina. Thereby,  my camera and I headed down to the river in an attempt to capture the beauty of the moment.  However, I know nothing about night photography and the flash of the camera got in the way.  The result was not good.  The flash just overtakes the image when it bounces off of the leafiness of the trees  The moon recedes in importance.  I wonder what Maud is saying about leafiness.  She isn't very clear with her point.


Harvest Moon over the Neuse River in New Bern, NC

Below are photographs of some LMM spots of interest that were pointed out to me by my trusty tour guide (and Kindred Spirit) in Halifax.  These locations are the places where Maud would have boarded during her time in Nova Scotia.   2 of the boarding homes-- sadly enough- have been torn down and replaced by uglier edifices.





Maud doesn't like the deepness..

Morning in New Bern, NC

(I find the following interesting given the fact that Maud was constantly trying to analyze Ewan by reading Psychology books.  I wonder if she ever asked him what was bothering him so badly???  Is the following our evidence of Maud's view of life through rose colored glasses?  I wonder...very interesting comment from Maud.)  

Friday, July 10, 1931

Norval, Ont

...I have been re-reading Macaulay's Life by Trevelyan.  I read it first that winter in Prince Albert. Found it delightful then and found it just as delightful still.  But most of its charm is due to Macaulay's letters.  One criticism the writer of the introduction makes is that Macaulay's letters show nothing profound in his nature.  Very likely.  Very likely--nay, almost certainly--had they been profound they would not have been delightful.  The ocean depths are profound--but I prefer a sunlit meadow for my strolling.  Anyhow, I should like to have got letter from Macaulay.  

The Selected Journals of LM Montgomery, Rubio & Waterston, Vol IV, p 139 

Photo Collage of July trip to Maritimes




Nova Scotia, Charlottetown, Bedeque, Park Corner, Clifton 

 

Maud's Memories of Home

Macneill Homestead Cavendish, PEI

Saturday, July 11, 1931

"...The mention of cheese wakens another memory.  It is evening.  Grandmother and Grandfather are adjusting the cheese hoop under the press.  I am standing by watching them and drinking in the loveliness around me.  June was walking over the fields.  The sun had just set and I saw that loveliest of all created things--a young moon in an amber evening sky.

And the lambs were playing in the pasture field by the house.

Do lambs play like that now?  I suppose they do, only I never have a chance to see them.  But what gorgeous times those lambs did have at their evening games while their placid old mothers nibbled on around them.  In a drove thy tore from one end of the field and back again, the noise of their small hoofs like mild thunder.  They would run those races until dark fell--seemingly just for the joy of running.  I never saw such happy creatures."    

The Selected Journals of LM Montgomery, Rubio & Waterston, Vol. IV p 141 

Wanting to go back...

A photo of Maud's mother at Park Corner

Although I was so very glad to get "home" from my trip to Canada I am now experiencing the most intense desire to go back!!  I especially would like to see again the sleepy little town of Bedeque.  There is a sweet looking Bed & Breakfast there that seems to be calling my name.

It's strange that I did not feel bonded with Cavendish, and though I tried very hard, I did not even get a whiff of Maud there (except on the Cavendish Shore--but only slightly then.)

Food is a problem because I am vegetarian.  One really has to dine in Charlottetown when one is a vegetarian and visiting the Island.

What is calling me back there????

Costume Era Correction - Faux Pas!!



New Bern, North Carolina - USA @ 1864



Charlottetown, PEI , Canada @ 1864

  One of my very trustworthy Island Canadian friends has corrected me in my assertion for the blog post on September 6th.  It seems that I am about a 100 years off in my costume comparison.  She states it as thus:

"your reenactors pix - the New Bern ones are in garb that was  fashionable in the 1700s, the Fathers and Mothers of Confederation are in the top 1864 style!"

I stand corrected. 

Here are some photos from my archives of the 1860's period in the Southern United States (specifically North Carolina). This period was the time of the Civil War aka: The War Between the States aka: The War of Northern Aggression 

Notice the similarities in the white Peter Pan collars, the pins at the neck, the ric rac trimmed skirts, the gloves, the waists, the sleeves, etc, etc.  The difference (again) being in the headware.   I suppose because of the heat of the sun, we had to wear the brimmed hats (not that they didn't in Canada, we'll have to wait and see what my trustworthy Canadian friend has to say about it!)

"In An Old Town Garden" a poem by Lucy Maud Montgomery

"In An Old Town Garden"

Shut from the clamor of the street
By an old wall with lichen grown,
It holds apart from jar and fret
A peace and beauty all its own.


The freshness of the springtime rains
And dews of morning linger here;
It holds the glow of summer noons
And ripest twilights of the year.


Above its bloom the evening stars
Look down at closing of the day,
And in its sweet and shady walks
Winds spent with roaming love to stray,


Upgathering to themselves the breath
Of wide-blown roses white and red,
The spice of musk and lavender
Along its winding alleys shed.


Outside are shadeless, troubled streets
And souls that quest for gold and gain,
Lips that have long forgot to smile
And hearts that burn and ache with pain.


But here is all the sweet of dreams,
The grace of prayer, the boon of rest,
The spirit of old songs and loves
Dwells in this garden blossom-blest.


Here would I linger for a space,
And walk herein with memory;
The world will pass me as it may
And hope will minister to me.


Lucy Maud Montgomery

"September" - a poem by Lucy Maud Montgomery

September

Lo! a ripe sheaf of many golden days
Gleaned by the year in autumn's harvest ways,
With here and there, blood-tinted as an ember,
Some crimson poppy of a late delight
Atoning in its splendor for the flight
Of summer blooms and joys
This is September.

          Lucy Maud Montgomery

Photos of Tryon Palace by Rosemary Osterhus

"Mornng along Shore" by Lucy Maud Montgomery

Morning Along Shore

Hark, oh hark the elfin laughter
All the little waves along,
As if echoes speeding after
Mocked a merry merman's song!

All the gulls are out, delighting
In a wild, uncharted quest­
See the first red sunshine smiting
Silver sheen of wing and breast!

Ho, the sunrise rainbow-hearted
Steals athwart the misty brine,
And the sky where clouds have parted
Is a bowl of amber wine!

Sweet, its cradle-lilt partaking,
Dreams that hover o'er the sea,
But the lyric of its waking
Is a sweeter thing to me!

Who would drowze in dull devotion
To his ease when dark is done,
And upon its breast the ocean
Like a jewel wears the sun?

"Up, forsake a lazy pillow!"
Calls the sea from cleft and cave,
Ho, for antic wind and billow
When the morn is on the wave!

Lucy Maud Montgomery

Photos by Rosemary Osterhus - New Bern, NC

"The Gulls" a poem by Lucy Maud Montgomery

"The Gulls"

I
Soft is the sky in the mist-kirtled east,
Light is abroad on the sea,
All of the heaven with silver is fleeced,
Holding the sunrise in fee.
Lo! with a flash and uplifting of wings
Down where the long ripples break,
Cometh a bevy of glad-hearted things,
'Tis morn, for the gulls are awake.

II
Slumberous calm on the ocean and shore
Comes with the turn of the tide;
Never a strong-sweeping pinion may soar,
Where the tame fishing-boats ride!
Far and beyond in blue deserts of sea
Where the wild winds are at play,
There may the spirits of sea-birds be free­
'Tis noon, for the gulls are away.


III

Over the rim of the sunset is blown
Sea-dusk of purple and gold,
Speed now the wanderers back to their own,
Wings the most tireless must fold.
Homeward together at twilight they flock,
Sated with joys of the deep
Drowsily huddled on headland and rock­
'Tis night, for the gulls are asleep.

Lucy Maud Montgomery

Photos by R Osterhus, New Bern, NC 

Comparing the fashions of similar period: Charlottetown, PEI and New Bern, NC

New Bern today

Charlottetown, PEI in July 

We were driving down the block today when my sister called out, "There are some reenactors."   So, of course I put on the brakes and grabbed my camera to jump out of the car.  The hard thing about reenactors is that you have to catch them when and where you can. They aren't too fond of posing, because they are suppose to be "in the mode".  That is why I usually can only get the shots as they are walking away from me. Here, the lady in red kept my eyes riveted to her.  It is amazing the effect that color has on me.  It is my sense that Maud was affected by colors in the same way.

As to the purpose of the post--comparing the fashions between Charlottetown and New Bern (and I'm taking a wild guess that the comparions of the photos would be about the same time period)--I do note some subtle differences, especially in the ladie's head wear.