Rainbow Valley & Rosemary West



"Rosemary West stepped aside from the by-path and stood in that spell-weaving place."


My dear old friend works as a a clerk in a used book shop down in Florida.   He sends me things.  Recently, he found the frontispiece from an early edition of  "Rainbow Valley" stuffed in the bottom of a box.  He almost threw it away.  Instead, he thought of me and mailed the page along with some other interesting Victorian pieces.

So very Maudish!

   

OCTOBER - "The moon of falling leaves"



Pumpkin Patch - Christ Episcopal Church, New Bern, NC 



Saturday, Oct. 12, 1895

How fast "the moon of falling leaves" is slipping away.

The Selected Journals of LM Montgomery, Vol I, p. 146,  Rubio & Waterston 

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Friday, October 11, 1889

...The maple leaves are just splendid now. I picked my basket full and then just roamed around, having a fine time in spite of  an impertinent little shower that came pattering down, making the maples overhead rustle like silvery music.  I just love the woods....

The Selected Journals of LM Montgomery, Vol. I p. 2, Rubio & Waterston

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Saturday, October. 8, 1898

The "moon of falling leaves" again!  How swiftly it comes around from year to year, each year seeming swifter than the last. 

The Selected Journals of LM Montgomery, Vol I, p. 225, Rubio & Waterston

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OCTOBER was a beautiful month at Green Gables, when the birches in the hollow turned as golden as sunshine and the maples behind the orchard were royal crimson and the wild cherry trees along the lane put on the loveliest shades of dark red and bronzy green, while the fields sunned themselves in aftermaths.

Anne reveled in the world of color about her.

"Oh, Marilla," she exclaimed one Saturday morning, coming dancing in with her arms full of gorgeous boughs" 'I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers. It would be terrible if we just skipped from September to November, wouldn't it? Look at these maple branches. Don't they give you a thrill--several thrills? I'm going to decorate my room with them."

Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery, Chapter XVI

Heathcliff, Briarcliffe, An Evening with Wuthering Heights

"Wuthering Heights" 1939 with Lawrence Olivier & Merle Oberon


Last night was Wuthering Heights night on TCM.  Of course I watched it and loved it.  I thought of Maud and Nora who went to see the film in Toronto when it was released in 1939.  Maud must have been distracted during this film or perhaps she just expected too much.  The film is a lovely classic now.  Merle's clothes and Lawrence Olivier's perfect carriage and delivery are something to watch over and over again.  Yes, Maud was distracted on the evening that she watched this film.  There was more to it than what she had to say about it:

Tuesday, May 16,1939
....Today was a lovely day and I went down town in the morning with S.  Met Nora.  We had lunch together and went to see Wuthering Heights.  A fine picture--very sad--but lacking the lightning-lit power of the book.
THE SELECTED JOURNALS OF LM MONTGOMERY, VOL V. P. 334, RUBIO & WATERSTON 
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I am still feeling a strong desire to return to the "Island" but not to Cavendish!!  There is a little stately Bed and Breakfast in Bedeque that seems to be calling my name.  What is drawing me there??