The First Time Ever I saw The House

Picture it
Prince Edward Island
Summer 1968

I was one year old. Mom, Dad, Granny and I went to the house, my first visit ever. We crossed the Strait on either the MV Charlottetown or the MV Prince Edward Island, I'm not sure. I can't remember quite that far back.  

Mom, Dad and I, and we are leaning on Dad's 1964 Ford Galaxie.

Mom and Dad and me

 Dad and me

As always, the first job was to cut the grass. They stuck me in a pile of fresh hay from the front yard.

 Nice shot of the old cellar hatch in the background.

The grass looks like its cut and cleaned up now so these must have been taken later, still in the front yard, under the Mock Orange, which is still there.

 I have posted this photo before. Its from the same trip.

 

We visited Woodleigh Replicas

...Green Gables...

(That's Granny with Dad and me)

...and Rainbow Valley. That is Cliff, Gertie and Shannon Bell with us. Cliff worked at MCA/ EPA/ Canadian Air with Dad for decades and we often took summer trips together when I was growing up.

We also went to the beach

This is my 200th blogpost!
More old photos to come

The Last of the Trip Photographs

Near the end of the trip I visited Carter at his home in Hunter River. Great to see him, as its been over 2 years! On my way back to town I stopped in to have a look at St. John's Church in Milton. It was designed by my favourite architect, William Critchlow Harris (1854-1913) in 1902. He is well known for his churches throughout the Island and Nova Scotia. I got interested in his work over 30 years ago and made Mom and Dad drive me all over the Maritimes searching for and photographing his buildings. I have them all, around 150. This is the only church with its original colour scheme, and was recently restored, so I wanted to update my photos of it.

 

Then I drove around Victoria Park. It was bitter cold but the view was spectacular. The house in the center of the photo below is Windermere, the very first house that Harris designed, 1877. Beaconsfield, home of the Heritage Foundation was his second house, also from 1877. A photo of it is on my March 22nd post.

 

 

The William Morris tablecloth from England that I sent to Mom in the fall. The pattern is called Pomegranate, designed in 1864. He is the same designer of all of the wallpaper I'll be using. If I ever paper the kitchen, it will be in Pomegranate.   

That is it for photographs from this trip. I will have some vintage photos on the blog soon that I borrowed from Mom's albums.

Jimmy Smith's House

Every time I'm home I make a trek up to Hopefield and check in on Jimmy Smith's place. I have about 30 years of photographs of the house as it has gotten closer and closer to falling in. I could see a big difference in it from last July. The east wall is splitting and it is leaning further to the east. Plus a lot of the kitchen wall on the front is gone now. I really don't think it will be up much longer.

It is 35 years this year since Jimmy passed away and the house has been empty. It is still a magnificent house.