An Afternoon with Anne

I spent the summer of 2016 in a place not many Australians would think to live when they decide to move to Canada. Many choose mountain towns like Whistler or Banff, bustling with tourists and nightlife and people from their neck of the woods. I'd done a winter in the Rockies twice already, so for my summer in Canada, I wanted to go somewhere entirely different. So I chose the maritimes.

One of my favorite childhood stories still to this day is Anne of Green Gables by L.M Montgomery. I can't explain why it moves my soul to the people who have never read the books or watched the 80s three-part series, so I speak directly to those who have grown up with the headstrong orphan Anne with an 'E', her beloved Green Gables and of course the dashing love interest Gilbert Blythe. It is because of its innocence, its simplicity and its heart that we adore Anne's story, and it is the reason I chose to move to Nova Scotia for a summer - the most enchanting summer of my life.

I managed to secure a job at a luxury golf resort on the north shore of the province, facing Prince Edward Island. Though the movies were shot in Toronto, the author gleaned her inspiration for Anne's world from the red-sand shores of Prince Edward Island, and I could see it from the window of the dining room inside which I worked. The resort was called Fox Harb'r, and it was as naturally stunning as it was homely, a place where Canadians would fly in on their private jets to play golf for the weekend, where everything was sustainable and the very trout served at dinner was farmed upon the grounds of the resort. I had many adventures in and around Nova Scotia, where I tasted crisp white wine at Jost Vineyards, explored the scottish highlands of Cape Breton, took coastal drives through lobster towns and watched the tide roll in through the Bay of Fundy. And one day, my friend and I drove across Confederation Bridge to explore PEI, and if you are a fan of Anne's story, I reccomend you visit. It was a step into her world, from the Lake of Shining Waters to Lover's Lane. I fulfilled my childhood dream that day, but it was Nova Scotia that took me by surprise.

Now, as a travel agent, when someone asks what they should do and see in Canada, I don't just talk about the Rockies (though they are breathtaking and unforgetable) or the wilderness of the Yukon (another story for another time), I sweep my finger across the map and say "the Maratimes is the real Canadian treasure."

L.M Montgomery's house, the inspiration for Green Gables.

Lover's Lane, Prince Edward Island.

Fox Harb'r Golf Resort, Wallace, Nova Scotia.

The Cape Breton National Park, Nova Scotia

Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia

Cape North, Nova Scotia

Ivy

Life in our twenties can be frightening, unexpectedly so. We’re supposed to be living our best life, and instead we have consistent moments of heart-wrenching dread, where we’re wrought with the sensation of falling off the edge of the cliff. Sometimes we even drive ourselves off it. It’s moments where we look at the balance of our bank account. When we pass another year closer to thirty and we don’t have a husband or kids or a house or any part of our life together. Where we make that decision to end a relationship based on the horrible gut feeling that it isn’t quite right. That it isn’t forever. That no matter how hard we tried, we couldn’t make ‘us’ fit.

Some of us stay with the wrong people because we're terrified of never finding anyone again. That is the worst mistake. Because we can't see whether the grass is greener on the other side. The fence is too high. There are too many questions, too many doubts, too many fears. So we stay with that someone, the one who wraps us up in ivy vines and keeps us rooted to their house of stone and their poison, and we think it's okay there. We know we're trapped, but we pretend it's meant to be. That things will get better. That we'll be able to change them.

Don't let it cover you. Light it up, burn it down, turn your back and walk away. The smoke will clear, eventually. And new flowers will bloom, in time.

Please.

Love me completely, but feed me in doses so I never run dry.

Place tender kisses on my lips, and then devour me with passion.

Please, remind me why you chose me, but in the most inconceivable of gestures.

I want to see time paint the course of our lives together, remembering all our firsts and never having lasts.

Tear holes in my heart and then fill them with you.

I want my skin to tingle each time I read, hear and speak your name.

Please, adore me. I want to obsess over you, to find myself ruined, to become irreparably broken and have you piece me back together.

And when you finally realize that I am your everything and you are my world, I want them all to know; our love was written in the stars.

Please.