| Author |
Reading Room:  Anne of Green Gables Round Robin Story  |
|
CabinCreek-Kentucky
True Blue Farmgirl
8529 Posts
Frannie
Green County
Kentucky
USA
8529 Posts |
 Posted - Jun 10 2006 : 4:50:20 PM
|
As Anne and Diane walked hand in hand along the pebbly path that led towards a thicket of wild strawberries.. anne was unusually quiet and diane turned to observe the dreamy smile and far-away look on Anne's face. It was not often that Anne walked silently but Diane had come to know that she was in a land not forgotten and fairly travelled by few, so Diane just walked ahead not disturbing her voyage.
Anne seemed to strain so as to hear voices from a-far singing slowly and ryhthmically .. a tune unlike any heard by mere mortals. She closed her eyes, feeling safe in the hand of her dearest and most trusted friend Diana .. and with each step .. she could hear her own heartbeat keeping time with the netherworld song ... and slowly the words became clearer and stronger in her head ....
Stardust of silver
Moonbeams of gold ..
spun by the fairie-folk
from stories often told.
They live in the hollow
of an olde crooked tree ..
for the 'stardust' of silver
is 'magic' .. you see.
As the tune trailed off toward the end .. Anne thought of the Guardian Angel tombstone and the feeling of connection to the tiny grave .. and just knew in her heart of hearts that the fairies sang of this special place. ...
True Friends, Frannie
My KENTUCKY RAMBLINGS 'blog':
http://cabincreekfarm-kentucky.blogspot.com/ |
 |
|
|
CabinCreek-Kentucky
True Blue Farmgirl
8529 Posts
Frannie
Green County
Kentucky
USA
8529 Posts |
Posted - Jun 10 2006 : 5:09:28 PM
|
Check out the first twinklings of my public thoughts here:
http://auntgeorgeshouse.blogspot.com/
very much enjoyed your blog .. and what leaves you breathless .. well .. for me .. right now .. that would be PNEUMONIA! despite pneumonia .. all this past week .. i was kept breathless trying to keep up with our grandson and disneyworld .. and from watching the glee and delight on his sweet little face.
LOVE all the aprons! how sweet they are!
xoxo
True Friends, Frannie
My KENTUCKY RAMBLINGS 'blog':
http://cabincreekfarm-kentucky.blogspot.com/ |
Edited by - CabinCreek-Kentucky on Jun 10 2006 5:10:39 PM |
|
|
|
EnchantedWoodsGirl
True Blue Farmgirl
959 Posts
Kathy
New Jersey
USA
959 Posts |
Posted - Jun 10 2006 : 5:31:06 PM
|
Welcome Home Frannie! We missed you - I wanted to wait to continue the story till you were home and added to it :) Now I have to put my thinking cap on lol
Did you take a lot of pictures? Missed you girl 
Kathy of the Enchanted Wood
http://enchantedwoodmusings.blogspot.com/
|
|
|
|
CabinCreek-Kentucky
True Blue Farmgirl
8529 Posts
Frannie
Green County
Kentucky
USA
8529 Posts |
Posted - Jun 10 2006 : 6:05:09 PM
|
kathy .. took tons of pictes and despite getting sick .. i had a most marvelous time .. i genuinely enjoyed reading the original anne of green gables. i was sure i had read it before .. but if i did .. i surely forgot mos of it. i think in one of my stories, i wrote that anne's grandmother was named sarah cathereine ... and now i see she is an orphan with no real background. would be fun to 'discover' her family roots in our version!
loved your latest chapter!
i related so much to anne .. i do believe i was her in another life (or maybe even THIS one!) xoxo
True Friends, Frannie
My KENTUCKY RAMBLINGS 'blog':
http://cabincreekfarm-kentucky.blogspot.com/ |
|
|
|
CabinCreek-Kentucky
True Blue Farmgirl
8529 Posts
Frannie
Green County
Kentucky
USA
8529 Posts |
Posted - Jun 12 2006 : 03:02:58 AM
|
o.k. ... on the ride home from ohio .. when not sleeping from the codeine in the cough medicine i'm taking .. i wrote two more little 'chapter-ettes':
here's the first one:
COMMUNION
Anne in her prim grey linsey dress, (without puffy sleeves), was seated by Matthew, whose back was straight as the fir-tree boards he cut and planed for the fence down in the lower pasture to keep the cattle from roaming .. but always with his head bent and eyes to the ground as if in prayer. Anne wiggled a little closer to his side as just the touch of him made her feel safe.
As Anne looked around the small one-room clap-board church painted glistening white on the outside, with sturdy shutters to protect the one large glass window that was traded by a travelling mercantile peddler in exchange for bed and board and donations from every member of the church .. sometimes a little money that had been 'set by' after selling harvests and sometimes a shiny 'bauble' that had been passed from generations before ... but conscious dictating in the hearts of the owners that their gift would help make the small dark interior of the church a brighter place in which to worship.
The wooden walls inside the church were left unpainted with only the mellowing of time to turn the wood into a soft shade of tan, not unlike the summer-parched earth that surrounded the church in patches where grass and weed did not grow.
A small podium stood two steps up on the platform where the preacher stood to deliver messages straight from he words of God. A large leather-bound book with gold-guilded letters read: H O L Y B I B L E on it's worn cover.
Anne once, out of curiosity, and when church service was over and everyone was outside shaking hands and exchanging Sunday pleasantries, sneaked up onto the platform and turned the cover to the first few pages where many names and dates were recorded in several different penmanships. Births, marriages, deaths .. family names .. first and last .. repeating as grandchild turned to grandparent. And Anne thought of her own lost bloodline and suddenly felt both a lonliness and a close connection to the one name she had, in an asylum long ago, heard as one of her very own: Sarah Cathereine. Anne sadly wondered if she would ever know more.
On her other side sat Marilla dressed in a similar plain dress of deep burgundy .. the same shade Anne observed as the deep concord grape juice that was offered up the last Sunday of each month as the Lord Jesus' very own blood.
Only Marilla's dress did not sparkle as did the 'wine-blood" when the rays of sun danced through the 'peddlar window' and shimmied on the velvety plum liquid.
Anne loved this Communion part of the Sunday Service. It made her feel a part of the community as each parishoner (Anne added that word .. parishoner to her list of 'favorite words' .. and would accentuate the "shhhhh" part in the middle of the word ... as each parishhhhhoner reached for the tiny vial from the metal racks that were passed from aisle to aisel by serious-faced deacons of the church all dressed in suit jackets .. most out of date and worn .. sometimes with starched white shirts and sometimes in their best Sunday blue workshirts, but always with a tie around the collar.
Next, crumbles of broken crackers were passed on shiny silver trays .. these crumbs of 'bread" were offered as the BODY of Jesus.
Anne watched and listened intently as Matthew and Marilla dutifully took their share, bowed their heads, closed their eyes and waited for the visiting preacher ...
"this is my body ... eat ..."
"this is my blood ... drink .."
Anne did not yet take Communion because she did not fully understand or even know if she believed in this symbol .. but nevertheless it did make her feel part of the community family to just observe this ritual .. and always .. she closed her own eyes as the little glass tumblers were returned, row by row, to their metal containers. She likened the tinking sounds of glass on metal to white-robed angels wearing shiny silver bells in their golden hair as the fluttering of their wings caused a slight breeze tinking the bells in a spiritual AMEN.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
***note from Frannie: this chapter was inspired from the memories of monthly communions in the Methodist Church of my Youth. And my own questions of the lost-blood line on my mother's side of my family.
Sarah Catherine was my grandmother's name .. my father's mother.
I do not remember her as she died when I was but a small child .. but I will forever proudly carry her middle name .. CATHERINE .. as will my very own grand-daughter).
True Friends, Frannie
My KENTUCKY RAMBLINGS 'blog':
http://cabincreekfarm-kentucky.blogspot.com/ |
Edited by - CabinCreek-Kentucky on Jun 12 2006 03:41:55 AM |
|
|
|
CabinCreek-Kentucky
True Blue Farmgirl
8529 Posts
Frannie
Green County
Kentucky
USA
8529 Posts |
Posted - Jun 12 2006 : 03:31:15 AM
|
here's the other chapter i wrote on our ride home:
SOIREE
Mrs. Allan's parties were Anne's most favorite times. Anne had fallen deeply and passionately in love with this gentle and kind woman and more than once Anne had drifted off to sleep at night imagining being tucked into bed, as Mrs. Allan's very own daughter with lovely memories of a childhood filled with hugs and stories read at bedtime, of sweet summer baths with Mrs. Allan combing her hair each night and kneeling and saying prayers together. Oh how Anne would love to pray if only Mrs. Allan were her very own.
So when the invitation to a boy and girl "Soiree" at the Allan home arrived, Anne could barely contain herself as she danced from room to room awaiting Marilla's return from town to get her permission to attend.
Putting a bag of groceries on the kitchen table, Marilla admonished Anne to stop flitting like a fly on a hot skillet. Though dubious of mixed parties at so tender an age, Marilla gave in to Anne's pleading ... rationalizing to herself that both Rev. and Mrs. Allan would be in attendance.
The morning of the party arrived, and Anne had dressed and undressed over and over in her two best dresses t'il the buttons had practically worn off! And she brushed her wiry red hair a hundred strokes .. and again another hundred .. and just to make sure .. yet a hundred times more! As the hour for the Soiree to start arrived, Anne ran to Violet Vale not noticing the beauty of her surroundings which was her custom to do. Meeting a waiting breathless Diana, hand in hand, they ran together until just in sight of the Allan's home .. where they stopped for a moment to gather their composure and run their hands over their dresses to smooth rumpled petticoats and to capture Anne's fiery mane that alwyas, even when walking .. went it's own way!
Several of the school children had already arrived and were nibbling what Mrs. Allan so devinely pronounced to be h'orsdeurves. (Instantly , this new word was added to her list of favorite words and she half-whispered it for the rest of the afternoon. She tried various versions .. keeping the h and s silent .. or'derve .. and accentuating various parts of this new word (which Mrs. Allan informed the girls was "French" .. Horse Du-erves ...
She had already, upon receipt of the invitation already relegated SOIREE to the top of her favoirtes list!
Anne, Dianna and several other of the girls nibbled on various 'hor'derves' ... sliced cucumber sandwiches on buttered toast triangles and topped with a slice of red radish as they talked behind gloved hands about each boy upon his arrival, usually followed by an explosion of girlish giggles.
All laughing ceased as a tall, handsome young man approached .. and lemon cake actually flew from Diana's mouth and even Anne choked on her tuna salad canape mid-swallow.
Could that be? ... Is it? ... Was that ... ? YES! ... it was! ... GILBERT BLYTHE
Gilbert had travelled that summer to work on a tobacco farm as he needed to make enough money to attend school the following autumn.
In just a few months .. he looked ... well ... different ... grown up .. and in each girl's own mind .. (even Anne's) so very handsome!
............ (to be continued) ....
o.k. .. one of you farmgilrs who have not yet added to our story ... tell us all that happened at the party after Gilbert's arrivial!!! xo, frannie
True Friends, Frannie
My KENTUCKY RAMBLINGS 'blog':
http://cabincreekfarm-kentucky.blogspot.com/ |
Edited by - CabinCreek-Kentucky on Jun 12 2006 03:52:07 AM |
|
|
|
CabinCreek-Kentucky
True Blue Farmgirl
8529 Posts
Frannie
Green County
Kentucky
USA
8529 Posts |
Posted - Jun 13 2006 : 1:35:26 PM
|
i'm anxiously awaiting to see what happens at the SOIREE now that Gilbert has arrived ... need one of you 'writers' out there to finish the tale! xo, frannie
True Friends, Frannie
My KENTUCKY RAMBLINGS 'blog':
http://cabincreekfarm-kentucky.blogspot.com/ |
|
|
|
JeanP
True Blue Farmgirl
1284 Posts
Jean
Deary
ID
USA
1284 Posts |
Posted - Jan 26 2021 : 1:08:18 PM
|
I was "researching" to see if Tussie Mussies would turn up in any previous swaps -- they didn't. But in the meantime, I did stumble across this most delightful thread. If you have time, I encourage you to read the story . . . but, the page ended so abruptly. Whatever happened to Frannie and Kathy and Aunt George and their wonderful story? Does anyone know?
jean
"However difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at."
. . . .Stephen Hawking |
|
|
|
MaryJane
Queen Bee
16272 Posts
MaryJane
Moscow
Idaho
USA
16272 Posts |
Posted - Jan 26 2021 : 3:20:35 PM
|
Frannie was total fun. She is the Sister responsible for our ongoing, long-standing Farmgirl of the Month celebration. I traveled to Kentucky with my family to meet and stay with Frannie, also Miss Wilma. We laughed and ate good food until our sides hurt. Miss Wilma has been occupied with ailing parents as of late and Frannie went through a divorce so I've lost touch with her. But good memories I'll always have.
MaryJane, Farmgirl #1 Plowin' Thru ~ giving aprons a good wrap for 45 years and counting ~
 |
|
|
|
Reading Room: Anne of Green Gables Round Robin Story |
|
Anne of Green Gables Round Robin Story
