Fox Hunt in Pleasant Valley, PEI

On Saturday, October 22nd the PEI Fox Hunt Club held their fall hunt on our farm in Pleasant Valley.  They assembled below our house in the front field.  My niece Tammy and I served Port, Sherry and pound cake before the hunt.   

Tammy is wearing a green plaid dress /w hoop we created this dress a few years ago - it's one of our favourites.

Below:  our house was built about a mile away on the main highway in 1864.  In 1999 I saved the house from destruction, moved it to our family farm and restored it, adding the sunroom, porch and garage.  This house was built by my great-great-grandparents Robert & Jane (Jeffery) Sharpe and called it Pleasant Hill Farm.

No fox (or any other animal) was harmed in this hunt - a drag with scent was used to mark the hunt trail.

By mid afternoon the hunt was finished and a potluck followed in our family room.



My portrayal of a Father of Confederation

In the summer of 1989, the 125th Anniversary of the meeting of the Fathers of Confederation, I portrayed the youngest Father, Andrew Archibald MacDonald.

Above/Below:  Here I am photographed at Province House in the chamber where the Father's of Confederation met in September 1864.  That beard is real!

This costume was specially made for me.

Below:  My sister Nancy and I at the Ardgowan Garden Party.  I made this gold dress as well as the outfit I was wearing. 

Below:  Here's a photo of Ardgowan from this website. See http://www.pc.gc.ca/apprendre-learn/prof/itm2-crp-trc/htm/nardgowan_e.asp



Below:  Here I am with Orlo Jones at the same Garden Party.  Orlo was the genealogist at the PEI Museum & Heritage Foundation where I often volunteered.

1st Anne of Green Gables Parade, Cavendish

     We didn't have an Anne of Green Gables Parade this year, however, I'm posting some photos from the first parade we held on a sunny summer's day.
     I was asked to bring together 12 period costumes for The Ladies of Avonlea portrayed by ladies from the Red Hat Society, Kensington Branch.  Also we made costumes for pirates worn by a half dozen young men and women.  As if we didn't already have enough to do we topped it off by designing and building a float depicting L.M. Montgomery in her Cavendish Home looking out over the countryside of Cavendish.
     Here's a variety of photos from the parade.

Above:  here Lucille and I put the finishing touches to the LMM float - three other friends, David, Anne and Carter are working hard on the other side.

Above:  the float is ready to go - we were up half the night painting the lettering on the cloths.

Above:  we made costumes for the young people depicting pirates.  Yes, pirates visited Cavendish in the 1800's.

Above: the horse and carriage with local residents in costume is ready to go.

The parade starts with a banner and children of Cavendish in costume tossing candy into the crowd.

The children's costumes were by others.

Below: school themed float - costumes by others.

 Below: ladies on horseback wearing our costumes.

 Our pirates are of the friendly nature :-)

 Below:  here I am on the left with the banner in advance of our float.

"Were it not for those Cavendish years I do not think Anne of Green Gables would ever have been written." - L.M.M.

Below:  we also made this sign from a couple sheets of plywood - Carter plotted the design and we glued it on.

"What a small big world it is" Over 50 million copies of Anne of Green Gables around the world.

Below: the Ladies of Avonlea (aka Red Hat Society ladies) wearing our period costumes suited to the times of Anne of Green Gables.

Not all the ladies wore period shoes - their parade walk was near 2 miles.

  The End!

An Anniversary for Romantics

Many thanks to The Montgomery Theatre for including an article on the Trousseau Project in this Summer's Playbill.  Below is a scan of the article and some information about the theatre.

For more information on the threatre go to:  http://www.themontgomerytheatre.com/

Anne of Green Gables Puffed Sleeve Dress

In the spring of 2008 we decided to re-create Anne of Green Gables puffed sleeve dress to reflect the image found in Lucy Maud Montgomery's scrapbook.  The dress was displayed with a collection of memorabilia at the Confederation Center of the Arts to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the publication of Anne of Green Gables.

Below:  Here I am setting up the dress at the Confederation Center of the Arts in advance to the rest of the display.

Below is a picture taken from L.M.Montgomery's scrapbook.  On occasion she would use her scrapbook for inspiration and likely used this to image Anne's puffed sleeve dress.  We based our sleeve dress on this design.



Below:  After I brought the dress home from the Confederation Centre we photographed the puffed sleeve dress in detail in my Living Room - a setting more in keeping with the period of the dress.

"...Anne took the dress and looked at it in reverent silence.  Oh, how pretty it was--a lovely soft brown gloria with all the gloss of silk; a skirt with dainty frills and shirrings; a waist elaborately pintucked in the most fashionable way, with a little ruffle of filmy lace at the neck.  But the sleeves--they were the crowning glory!..."

cf.  Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery, 1908
http://www.online-literature.com/view.php/anne_green_gables/25?term=puffed