This time of year when the trees are blossoming always reminds me of Anne of Green Gables. Anne declared Prince Edward Island “the bloomiest place ever,”
and there are numerous references to them in the book, from the Snow Queen and the cherry orchard right outside Anne’s bedroom window to the White Way of Delight, where the overarching trees created an avenue of bloom on the buggy ride home from the train station, to a simple arrangement of apple blossoms in a chipped blue jug on the table. Anne Shirley was a fan of nature, and so was her famous creator, Lucy Maud Montgomery.
Last summer I had the delight of re-reading this favorite children’s class, and I enjoyed it just as much as when I first read it as an eleven year old girl, the exact same age as Anne.
This month’s Literary Salon pick – Anne of Green Gables – the Original Manuscript was released by Nimbus Publishing in Halifax in July of 2019.
The Publishers Blurb:
This fascinating book presents the original text of Montgomery’s most famous manuscript, including where the author scribbled notes, made additions and deletions, and other editorial details. For example: Diana was originally called Laura, and then Gertrude, before the author settled on Diana. L.M. Montgomery scholar Carolyn Strom Collins offers a rare look into Montgomery’s creative process, providing a never-before-published version of the worldwide phenomenon.
Differing from previous versions of Anne, this book provides a transcription of the text and notes from Montgomery’s original manuscript, and shows how they were integrated to form the full novel.
Discussion:
As a life long fan of Lucy Maud Montgomery, our most famous of Canadian authors, being given permission to scan all 844 pages of the original handwritten manuscript must have been a labor of love for editor, Carolyn Strom Collins.
The manuscript is kept in the archives at the Confederation Centre for the Arts, in Charlottetown PEI, in a dark room with no photography allowed as befitting an object of such literary reverence. It is 116 years old now, and Maud kept it all her life, (in her journal she proudly proclaimed it “mine,mine,mine” the day the first copy arrived in the mail), although the typed copy she submitted to the Page Publishing company in Boston in 1907 has since been lost.
The manuscript is in two parts, the main body of 709 pages and 135 pages of notes, some of them misnumbered. Maud wrote quickly and sometimes overlooked punctuation, especially in the notes section. The pages measure 8.5 X 6.5 inches, considerably smaller than the average typed page, and are about 3 inches thick in total.
In this newly released edition, there is a scanned copy of the first handwritten page at the beginning of each chapter.
The editor decided to place the changes and additions Maud made in the notes beside the corresponding pages for easy viewing.
I was amazed at how few changes Maud made to the handwritten copy. Likely her stint working as a copy editor and columnist for a Halifax newspaper came in handy. As the typewritten copy she submitted has not survived, it’s unclear whether final changes in the book were made by Maud or the editors, or both. Mostly they had to do with punctuation. Although this was her first book, Maud was an experienced author by then, having published well over 300 short stories and poems in the previous decade, enough to provide a source of income, but I suspect she was also one of the lucky ones whose words just flowed out of her head.
Although she records in her journals “brooding” up her heroine and and blocking out chapters and incidents, if there are any written copies of this prep work they are long gone.
The story behind the book and it’s publication is an interesting one, and lucky for us it didn’t stay in a hatbox.
Anne of Green Gables began as an idea jotted down in a notebook many years earlier, “Elderly couple apply to orphan asylum for a boy. By mistake a girl is sent them.” In the spring of 1905 Maud was searching through the notebook for suitable ideas for a seven-part serial for a Sunday School paper, but as the story progressed Anne took possession of her, and casting morals and lessons aside she decided to write a whole book about her instead. Many of Maud’s own childhood experiences and dreams were worked into it’s chapters. Didn’t we all sigh over Gilbert Blythe who was based on one of her school-chums? Many of the scenes of Avonlea in the book – the Lake of Shining Waters, Lover’s Lane – were based on locales in the small farming community of Cavendish where she lived.
After sketching out the plot outline, she began to write in May 1905, finishing it eight months later, in January 1906. She wrote for a few hours a day, mostly in the evenings after the rest of her work was done, and in longhand with a pen that had to be dipped in ink. “It was a labor of love and nothing I have ever written gave me so much pleasure to write.” She then typed it up on her second-hand typewriter, which didn’t print w at all. (I saw the typewriter, set up on the kitchen table, when I visited the Anne of Green Gables museum many years ago.)
She mailed the typed manuscript out to four American publishers (one new firm, one “betwixt and between” firm, and two old established firms, MacMillan and Henry Holt “some merit but not enough to warrant acceptance”) over the course of 1906, with universal rejection, so she gave up and stored it in a hatbox, where it remained until the winter when she decided to try again, this time with the Boston publisher L.C. Page and Co, a company she admitted she knew nothing about. It was close to rejection again, but a staff member who was from Prince Edward Island, advocated for Anne.
Maud signed a contract for a paltry royalty and five years of any future work, which she agreed to reluctantly, thrilled to have the book accepted, and promptly began work on the sequel – Anne of Avonlea – which was published a year later in 1909. I remember her journals being full of legal disputes with Page & Co. in later years when she had switched to McLelland and Stewart in Toronto.
She was pleased with the final appearance of the book, “lovely cover design, well bound, well printed. Anne will not fail for lack of suitable garbing at all events.”
The book sold well right from the beginning, went through seven printings and 20,000 copies by the end of the first year 1908, and has never been out of print since, with 50 million copies worldwide and over forty translations.
She recorded in her journal, “I can’t believe that such a simple little tale, written in and of a simple P.E.I. farming settlement, with a juvenile audience in view, can really have scored out in the busy world.”
She produced seven more Anne books, ten other novels, two collections of short stories, a book of poetry and many stories, essays and articles before her death in 1942, but it is her first novel that remains the most famous. “It was born of true love and often such books are most successful.”
I enjoyed reading the story again and taking a peak into the author’s creative process. It was interesting to see how a book goes from an idea jotted down to a few chapters to a completed manuscript to a printed copy….with all it’s many sequels. She never seemed to run out of ideas. I can’t imagine having to dip your pen in ink every few lines – we have it so much easier today. But I also wonder when things are so quickly deleted if we will lose this recording of how a book comes about….for it did not spring fully formed, even though her words may have flowed easily.
What lessons can aspiring novelists learn from this?
The best writing is a labor of love.
If you should be so lucky as to be published, don’t be too eager to sign everything away. Research a bit first.
Just to begin, for that is often the hardest part, even for Maud.
“Of late years I have been thinking of it seriously but somehow it seemed such a big task I hadn’t the courage to begin it. I have always hated beginning a story. When I get the first paragraph written I feel as though it were half done. To begin a book therefore seemed a quite enormous undertaking. Besides, I did not see just how I could get time for it. I could not afford to take time from my regular work to write it.”
And most importantly perseverance – many books have been written in just a few hours a day. I hope you have found this tale of how Anne came to be inspiring.
PS. The manuscript will be online in 2022, as part of a digital exhibition entitled Exploring a National Treasure: LMM’s Anne of Green Gables Manuscript, curated by the Confederation Centre Art Gallery and the L.M. Montgomery Institute at the University of PEI. It’s nice they gave the editor of this book, Carolyn Strom Collins, a few years to profit from her efforts.
PS. Next week in Part Two I will blog about The Journals of L.M. Montgomery, published fifty years after her death, which provide a fascinating insight into her successful but often tormented life. Plus a bit about my trip to Cavendish, Prince Edward Island – holy ground for Anne fans – if I can find the photos.
thehomeplaceweb 
I loved the Anne books when I was a kid. I read and re-read every one in the collection. I was heartbroken when I tried to introduce them to my daughter and she showed little interest. Thanks for this. It warmed my heart and reassured me as a writer, both.
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That’s interesting Arlene and unfortunate. I bought AofGG for a friends daughter one Christmas a few years ago but never heard if she liked it. I felt she was just the right age for it, but I’m not sure what kids are into these days? Perhaps they consider it too out of date, like Little House on the Prairie? LMM’s journals are a fascinating read too, if you enjoyed her books, esp. the first two, the later two are just depressing….she had so many troubles in her life I’m sure her writing was a refuge. I’m glad to hear you found it encouraging as a writer.
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I work in a library, and the Anne books and Little House on the Prairie books are still popular and always in circulation – just not by my daughter! Alas.
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Well that’s reassuring!
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I had no idea how far-reaching Anne of Green Gables was. Over forty translations? That’s amazing! I always thought the book was only famous here in the east coast (I’m in Nova Scotia). Shows what I knew haha
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I think it is particularly popular in Japan for some reason, as lots of Japanese tourists visit the Anne shines on PEI!
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That’s pretty cool 🙂
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Joni, how fortunate you are to have your childhood copy in your keeping, to enjoy rereading on winter nights. This newest edition of the original manuscript makes a fascinating study, I’m sure, with all the marginal notes as well as copies of her handwritten pages, too. I don’t I ever read it as a child; my mother always regretted not being able to find it, or “Emily of New Moon,” both of which she had in her own childhood. My daughter, on the other hand, did have (and perhaps still has) a copy, but only after Hallmark produced the long-running film series on PBS. That’s when I first “read” the story, and that’s when the books started coming out again.
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I remember watching the tv series too, which introduced Anne to a whole new generation of readers. My dad went to a one room schoolhouse in the 1930’s and remember the teacher reading to them out loud in school. I’m not sure if it is as popular with young girls today but Arlene one of my readers commented it is still being checked out of the library! I loved all the sequels too and read them all when I was a young teenager, including the Emily series.
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Actually, not Hallmark but Canadian Broadcasting, later picked up by PBS for American viewers. I looked up this information online . . . “Anne of Green Gables is a 1985 Canadian made-for-television drama film based on the 1908 novel of the same name by Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery, and is the first in a series of four films. The film stars Megan Follows in the title role of Anne Shirley and was produced and directed by Kevin Sullivan for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.”
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Yes, that was the classic and best one with Megan Fellows. I think the actor who played Gilbert died a few years ago. They remade it a few years ago but it wasn’t as good and never got as much publicity, but I think everyone was comparing it to the 1985 one.
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This was a wonderful write up. I did not know the story was 116 years old. I’ve learned a lot. I have not read the books, but I have watched the series on TV, which was wonderful. She really had nice handwriting, easy to read. Thanks for sharing this. I love the series.
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Thanks….I found it an interesting look at the creative process! I can’t imagine handwriting a novel though. I tried to read Barrack Obama’s autobiography recently but it was 700 pages and not as interesting as Michelle’s so I gave up after a hundred pages. He said in the foreword that he wrote it out long-hand! The book was so heavy to hold in your hand, that the manuscript must have weighed a ton!
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Joni, once again I pledge to rectify my childhood oversight of Anne. This edition expounding in the author’s process sounds educational. I was too busy reading ghost stories and fantasy in my younger years. In fact, I’m still trying to rediscover those books about ghost children. Have no idea of titles, characters or author!
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It was interesting from a writing point of view, but then Anne is a national treasure. I don’t believe I read anything about ghost children? But I remember reading the Borrowers, Trixie Belden (girl detective series) and lately I’ve been wanting to re-read The Secret Garden….maybe in June.
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You have highlighted the origin of my name! My mother was so entranced with Anne of Green Gables that she determined that should she have a daughter she would be so named – and here I am 🙂 My granddaughter is loving the stories – as she lives in Norway, I am not sure what influenced her to read them, but she has enjoyed them all.
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That’s wonderful to hear Anne! And that your granddaughter is enjoying them too. I wasn’t sure how popular they still were. They were always a favorite of mine, and I read all the sequels too.
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Fascinating! Perseverance, indeed! Thanks, Joni.
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Thanks Annie!
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That was so interesting Joni. I read the Anne of Green Gables series as a child and likely was the same age as you when reading them and I remember either a TV series or mini-series (?) as well. It’s been many years. How unique they have a book about the original manuscript, right down to the changes Maud made during the course of writing and they have scanned it in for you to see. It was news to me that she wrote 300 short stories and poems before Anne of Green Gables began. I don’t have my original copy of the book. I wish I’d saved it. I also read and loved The Bobbsey Twins.
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There was a mini-series and sequel to it in 1985, which is regarded as the classic. Recently they remade it, and there are four seasons – I watched the first one, but it was not good and I felt Anne was miscast. They tried to modernize it – in one episode Anne gets her period – for god’s sake what does that have to do with the book! I’ve worked on Part Two – LMMontgomery’s journals this week and spent way to much time on it, and 3000 words later regret it, but she had such a fascinating life that once I got into the research I don’t know when to quit. I read all the Anne sequels, and Emily of New Moon and Pat of Silver Bush……but was never into the Bobbsey Twins, or Nancy Drew either, although I read the Trixie Belden girl detective books and still have them in the basement.
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That must have been what I saw then. Was it on CBC maybe? I know my mom and I both watched it, so she must have read the Anne of Green Gables series as well. I know my posts are long, but I don’t want to leave out anything. I will continue to use this laptop for as long as I can, then will have to figure out where to put it to use it – very few plugs and now that the A/C is on, have to find a place where the cold air does not blow on me. I have some pictures and other notes I’ve jotted down for upcoming blog posts here in this computer and all my “favorites” as well, so I would be writing shorter posts the other way. I am rather set in my ways, so not looking forward to this big change in my way of doing things. I don’t think I read the sequels at all. I never read Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys or Trixie Belden, just the Bobbsey Twins.
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I never read the Anne books as a child, but loved the PBS [I think] TV series. I didn’t know that LLM wrote 300 short stories and poems before writing about Anne with an E. Somehow I find this bit of information inspiring. Can’t quite explain why
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I guess if one puts in the time, one gets better, but the character of Anne was pure inspiration I think. That was the 1985 classic version with Meaghan Fellows and I can’t remember who played Gilbert but he died a few years ago. Recently they made a miniseries Anne With An E, which I watched the first season (out of 4) but did not care for as she did not suit the role and they tried to modernize it too much – Anne got her period? But that Gilbert was exactly what I pictured him to be when he was my first book crush. I’ve been working on Part Two this week, (we’re still in lockdown and it’s too hot and humid here to garden) – what a unhappy life she led…..I found it so fascinating researching it that my post is close to 3000 words…..
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Yes, the TV show was with Meaghan Fellows and I loved her in the role. I didn’t know about the more recent iteration of the story. I won’t bother with it. Looking forward to learning more about LMM.
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Joni
What a great post and I did not know they released the original manuscript with all those author extras
Truly a great idea
It is also fun to see some of your 1965 copy from school –
And love the line “bloomiest place ever” – my kind of place to voting whether through reading or in person
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Thanks Yvette! I really enjoyed researching it and her life which will be Part Two on Thurs. – for all her fame and success she had a very unhappy life…
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Thanks for the tease for the upcoming second part!
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A very interesting read Joni. I’m a bit embarrassed to say I never read the books. Reading about her using both sides of the paper because paper was in short supply reminded me of my grandma. She never wasted any type of paper – if it had a blank side it was still good.
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They were more popular in Canada when I was growing up, so I read all the sequels too. Ah, saving paper and everything else…..comes from living through the Depression and hard times!
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Hi Joni – not going to answer on my blog as I can’t get back there until late tonight and I don’t want people to see I wrote to one person and not the other. Also, I am five days behind in Reader and I started a post and have pictures ready for a Memorial Day post which I’ll need to do tonight. If I didn’t have the photos and a few paragraphs already done, I’d just skip it this week and post WW and maybe Thursday. I took yesterday for myself … went to four parks, did my 5K and got lots of duckling shots. It was coolish, but nice for walking and I was gone for almost 8 hours altogether … three parks for pictures then dropped the camera off and went to Council Point Park and walked two more miles and fed the critters … I have two days of yardwork as I’ve not pruned, cleaned out beds, weeded … nothing, so it will keep me busy. I fell asleep doing comments last night but got thru them. I will be going outside in the next 1/2 hour. When I got here about 6:00-ish or so, I decided to watch the season finale of season 5 of Mad Men. I wanted to see it and didn’t want to wait … I was going to do it over the weekend. I was happy to escape the computer issues and just get away. I hope to catch up a little more tonight after I write my post. I won’t be looking at yesterday’s pics for at least a week unless it rains one morning and I don’t walk. I hope they came out okay … I took about 75 pics of the ducklings to ensure some good shots. It was so windy I had to stand back as I stood on a slope and didn’t want to have a wind gust catch me and throw me into the lake. Have a good day.
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Thanks for answering Linda. I was a bit worried re not hearing from you for four days and wondered if you were still mired in the computer mess. Enjoy this lovely day!
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Hmm – I answered this before I started the blog post – it doesn’t show like that. Thank you for your concern. I appreciate it. I hope I can catch up here after tomorrow when I get done outside. I had about 20 little sleeps while I was writing, proofing, etc. tomorrow’s post. I’m going to bed right after I finish comments.
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Hope you got some sleep! Maybe just do comments and forget trying to catch up on Reader – just dive in with new posts. That’s what I did when I took the month off – I had intended to try and read back but it was just too hard…
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I have only gotten comments done for the last five days. And like you said, being so behind is just impossible to catch up now. I still have not cleared out the 1.1K SPAMS … it is over 50 pages of SPAM that I have to bulk delete, page by page, (you can check all, but must delete each page) maybe tomorrow. Just did my Wordless Wednesday post, as I’ve done it consistently and didn’t want to not do it. I feel like my time is pulled in all directions and I resent very much all the time I had to spend dealing with this computer mess and now acclimating to new software. I’m not going to the Windows 10 computer for a while … if I had to deal with that too, I’d lose my mind. Robb cannot send an attachment, usually he just starts a document and e-mails it to me … doesn’t save it etc. Now he can’t do that in Outlook 365, so he just types and prints it out and scans it in and I have to retype it. We could have had this equipment installed in March 2019 when it was ordered/paid for and we had lots of time with nothing to do during the early months of the pandemic. But Ron likes to wait until something breaks, then deal with it. Sigh. I am glad it is a short week.
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I thought you had said that one of the H.E.’s was going to check out why you have so much spam? Can he delete it from the WP end? I still have the same 397 I had the other day….which is a lot for me.
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One of the H.E. told me how to block the website. I thanked him and said I would do it on the weekend when I was less frazzled from our e-mail issues at work and having to deal with work computer problems. after hours on my personal time. So another H.E. came along and just did the “block” but I have to manually bulk delete each pages – over 50 pages. I really have not had time to do that. I wasn’t going to write either post this week and decided to. The last time I was on Reader and commented was May 24th. So, I am writing the paragraph below in my comment to those who usually comment on my posts. (However, in being so behind, surprisingly, even though I’ve always been a faithful commenter, many regular bloggers, apparently thought I had stopped commenting and stopped commenting on my blog. I’ve decided if that persists, I will do likewise. Also besides being busy with work that encroached into my personal time, I had the outside stuff to do and was exhausted from that and have been taking my Friday night for TV and I took last Saturday for myself. The issues at work have really stressed me out and I can stay pretty level-headed but the whole thing could have been avoided. Anyway, this is what I wrote and tomorrow morning, if it rains, but doesn’t storm, I’ll try to catch up some more. Also trying to be asleep by 10:00 p.m. has put me behind as well. We have the usual firecrackers beginning at Memorial Day weekend until midnight … I have no words sometimes. This is what I put … always a Canadian and saying “sorry”:
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[I apologize for my tardiness in commenting. I am many days behind in Reader thanks to a major computer malfunction at work. On May 20th, our Outlook crashed and we lost our ability to e-mail for about five days, plus lost all our data; we went from Outlook and Word 2010 to Office 365. I’ve spent a great deal of my own time troubleshooting with the I.T. guy and spent most of the long holiday weekend doing yardwork. So now I will try my best to get through a massive amount of blog posts.]
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I don’t think you should stress about it Linda. People will understand. Why don’t you just post that or something similar at the bottom of your next blog and just jump in with the current days Reader and forget about reading back. I know I had intended to read back that month I took off two years ago, but found it impossible to do so. As for people not commenting if you stopped, I think many people are outside doing yard work or taking advantage of the nice weather, as I find not as many people on here period lately.
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I thought about that, but because I mentioned to the computer guy about how my being available for him to troubleshoot, etc. was taking away from my blogging time and explained the situation that it was more than just writing posts, he asked for the site and then commented on it. I was sure he’s not going to go on it again, but I didn’t want to open up the discussion on my own blog. I did think of doing that. Three or four hours last night and I’m still behind a solid week – I’ll try to catch up a little more tonight. I hope this doesn’t happen again. As for the people not commenting – what happened is that there’s a few people that I comment on regularly, but who don’t comment on my posts. I’ve continued to do that because I have a few people who nominated me for an award through the years. I thanked them, but did not do a post about the award. So I have felt an obligation to read/comment on their posts. So when I didn’t, after all this time, I got comments from them, (which I took as a nudge to ask what happened to the comments). One blogger whom we comment on each other’s posts when I commented, she came out and said “well, I wonder what happened to you?” (Not sure it was concern like your comment.)
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You’re welcome Joni. I wanted you to know and yes the computer issues at work messed me up but good. I was on the phone with Ron and Robb last weekend for several hours and I was on the phone during the day and into the evening with Ron on two or three occasions. We were troubleshooting. He said “I hope this is okay to do this on your free time” and I decided to be candid and said I was not paid for any of the time and the evening was when I got caught up in the blogging world. I had mentioned my blog before when talking to Ron when we discussed coding and other computer things and I said I had a blog – this time he asked me to send the name of it so he could take a look (which he did as he mentioned it the next day) … so I was behind enough as to not straying to WordPress during the workday and not going there at night as troubleshooting with Ron, but I had to go in and edit out your/my comments about “another computer mess” … anyway, I’m horribly behind and were it not for the fact that I had the pictures already, I would have waited until later in the week to post. I worked eight hours outside – the weather was beautiful and I have another eight hours tomorrow of outside work, then done except for occasional trims. But it is hard work, as you know, and I already feel it in my shoulders and back and legs. I hope I can catch up more tomorrow and may just go to Reader tonight and tomorrow and deal with comments Tuesday. I don’t want to be rude. I hope the computer issue is resolved and I’m not using the Windows 10 computer yet until I get more acclimated to Office 365 … it took me forever to personalize Outlook so it resembled what I had … 8 point font was impossible to read and the interface was cluttered. Now to write my post … I started it and got heavy eyes.
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That’s fine re editing out my comment…..glad you got outside to enjoy the sunshine. I worked outside 4 hours on Sat and cleaned/swept out the garage so I know the feeling….today will be easier as it’s just planting what I bought yesterday.
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I truly didn’t think he’d read the comments, but most likely just gave it a cursory look, but thought I’d better take it out. I was worn out last night as I never stopped all day from 7:30 to 4:15, then neighbor nabbed me, so didn’t get in for another hour. I had not set foot in the house and was ready to sit down. I didn’t last long and today felt like a Mack truck ran over me. It was perfect weather to do outside work … not like last weekend or this upcoming weekend. Things are progressing slowly at work … one issue after the next re: this computer system. I am happy it is is a short week. The weatherman said most of our Summer will be like this … a few nice days, a few rainy and overcast days, hot and cold mix … not happy about that at all.
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It doesn’t sound good….especially this weekend. We shouldn’t be having over 90 this early in June….what will the rest of the summer be like? I took advantage of the cooler day today and washed the deck and furniture off – so I’m tired too! But it’s a good feeling when it’s done.
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I don’t like this weather at all Joni. They said we get very warm on Friday, then an entire week of heat and high humidity. I always worry it brings volatile Summer storms because of the heat spike. I won’t be shopping for more than two weeks’ worth of perishable groceries, instead of a month … less to lose if we have a power outage. It does feel good to be done with a big job … I agree with you there. I hated spending two days outside working on yard work, but it had to be done and now it is just maintenance to do. I decided to keep the grass guy all the way to November. Last year when they called for a very hot Summer, I told him I’d do my own for July and August and then call him back and the guy next door ended up cutting my front (never the back) … I figured with all the stuff swirling around at work, I would just keep him. I’m not that frivolous, but will do my own lawn when I’m retired and have more time. Now, I feel like we are always dodging extreme heat or rain.
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It will surprise nobody that I have not read the book, but I can admire a story that can capture the imagination of generation after generation of young girls as they navigate their way towards adulthood. I sometimes wonder how classics such as this will survive our current era.
This reminds me of another book of the same period that was local to my own geography – Girl Of The Limberlost by Gene Stratton-Porter. I don’t think it has matched Anne’s staying power, which is uncommonly strong.
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It’s more of a Canadian classic JP, although surprisingly popular in Japan. I was surprised that my father had read it, as I always considered it a girls book, but then he said the teacher read it to them in class in their one room schoolhouse in the 1930’s when it would have been more popular. One of my readers who is a librarian says it still gets checked out of the library often, like Little House on the Prairie. I googled your Indiana book and it sounds interesting and vaguely familiar, but I see there was a movie. I found LLM’s real life fascinating enough to write 3000 words about it in part two. I’m always interested to know where writers get their ideas.
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Anne is quite well known here in the States too, I recall one niece in particular who lived in Texas in her early teen years and was a huge fan.
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I am bopping on here to relay some info I heard on the news this morning. I don’t know if this would interest you enough to drive to the border or not, but here it is …
https://www.audacy.com/wwjnewsradio/news/local/vaccination-site-to-be-set-up-inside-detroit-windsor-tunnel?utm_campaign=www.audacy.com%252Fwwjnewsradio&utm_content=1622735456&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_term=WWJ-AM
I am about to lose my mind with the two of them and this dog and pony show. I will read your other message tonight if we have no storms. I caught up three days last night and I have skipped a few and did a message with everyone whom I am really late reading. My next post to read is your follow-up post to Anne of Green Gables, so now I am only a week behind, not ten days. I may be liking some to move things along. I resent my own time dealing with the computer issue … there are additional problematic items which I asked to have resolved and my messages go unanswered, so I’ve decided to let it go. If he wants this office to look like the gang that couldn’t shoot straight, then so be it.
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Oh dear…..it doesn’t sound good with the computer stuff. As for the tunnel, I doubt it will happen, but kudos to the mayor if it does. The premier of Manitoba tried it and it got shut down I think. The US state below kindly did truckers as they were going back and forth anyway, but when they tried to extend it to other people, it was stopped by the border control people! It’s just ridiculous – you have unused vaccine you are offering to us, and our federal government said no! Now, they are saying they will be moving up our vaccine dates by a few weeks, so they cancelled all the second doses and we have to rebook when our time comes. The group I’m in will be able to rebook mid-July, and I already had an second apptment for Aug 10, so big deal? When I was finally able to book mom’s second apptment last Monday, the earliest date was 3 weeks away, so she is only in 10 days early. I wish they had left the apptments alone, now I have to fight the masses again with the booking website. They should have left moving up as an option – I felt secure in knowing I had a second appointment. Mom has to go back to London mid-June so I don’t think I want to move it up now, in case she or I have side effects, it’s better to wait until after her eye appointment. So frustrating.
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He has messed up e-mail so badly it isn’t funny and he still has not responded to my e-mail where I asked him to fix it. I always had Robb’s e-mail so I could view his inbox/sent/deleted folders at a glance … now I have to scroll down, which doesn’t sound like a big deal, but if I scroll down, my e-mail becomes his. If I write an e-mail, it goes out in his name … I practically live in my work e-mail as I don’t talk to Robb everyday – today it was twice as we had time sensitive stuff going on, but most of the time it is e-mail back and forth all day. If I e-mail him and cc: myself, I get the cc: for me and him up on my screen. Before his e-mail was separate – all his e-mail went to him – now it goes to me. And, I gave him a signature and contact info to send out for Robb like we always had. He put it in my outgoing e-mails. Robb has none. I tried tweaking it – doesn’t work. I could go on and on and the biggest issue is Robb does not know how to attach a document to an e-mail, only to launch it from the e-mail. So I tried to show him with a video and screenshots. He does not get it. So many times at the end of the day I would finish something after he left and print it and e-mail it in case it didn’t print and he would edit it and I’d just proof and format it the next day. He can’t do that as he does not “get” how to do attachments, which makes more work for me. As to the vaccines, I cannot understand why we just don’t send the surplus over the border to be distributed? I think I’d be tempted to keep your mom’s appointment and yours too … what happened here in the beginning, like February or March, or people would try to make an appointment and by the time they clicked and put their name, someone else nabbed it. I would be frustrated too. By the time you get done with the second shot, they’ll be worried about boosters.
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Your computer woes sound like a nightmare…..I hate any kind of computer change so can’t imagine dealing with that. You should put in for your overtime, that might result in some action….or just threaten to retire! Re second shots, Mom didn’t have a second appointment so I was happy I was able to book that one in June. I asked what happens if people don’t realize ALL second shots this summer are cancelled and show up anyway and the health unit person didn’t answer – cause we know that is going to happen….as many people don’t read the paper or listen to the radio news anymore, and older people don’t have computer etc.
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I was angry about what he has messed up and told my boss yesterday that he is going to work with me on this to get it right, but not on my time, but during the business day as he wants to do things when it’s convenient for him, no one else. No answer to that. Plus, what I didn’t say, is that Ron tries to never go into the office when Robb is there as he is intimated by him, so he sneaks in there after hours or a weekend when he is sure he is gone. Well, no more. I have caller I.D. and won’t answer the phone. I am so angry not to mention dealing with new stuff as I don’t like new computer stuff either and I still have the laptop sitting on the stove as he has not added an extra copy of Office 365 (a stand-alone copy for when we have computer issues … I don’t want to have to hop on this Windows 7 laptop and have to go back and forth every time we have a computer issue (of which we have many). I took myself out of here this morning and it was hot – I’m no fan of the heat and if it was like this last week, I would not have worked in the yard. But I was gone out of the house 5-6 hours and came home really tired from walking and being out in the heat. I had hoped to get here sooner and do Monday’s post and catch up in Reader and just now getting here to WP now. I was reading some other things online and kept nodding off. I walked 5 1/2 miles today and was glad to get in the car each of the two parks I went. My all-news radio station has streaming and every time they have an interview and mention that interview in a later newscast, they tell you where to get the app for your smartphone to listen. I think the world has forgotten that they can just turn on an AM radio (or FM station) to get the latest news. I listen to it throughout the day since I don’t have TV. It is a shame for that ratio of people who don’t have access to the news.
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Well I’m glad you at least got a break from the computer problems this weekend, and good on you for standing your ground! I watered for two hours today, all those new rose bushes and pots I’d planted, and just finished and our hydro went out for 4 hours. I’ve heard you talk about hydro outages, but it is very unusual for us here….it was just ten or so houses in the subdivision….not nice to have no A/C on a day like this! But at least there was a lovely breeze. I have ideas for posts but nothing planned for next week, but think I’ll just go to bed early. Yardwork makes me tired. You go too….
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Yes, I was glad to get away despite the awful heat. It was horrible yesterday with the heat and right now at 6:30 p.m. it is still 90. I have the A/C at 76 and usually at 90 degrees I lower it to 75, but decided it would run non-stop and we have another week of this so left it at 76 and it is comfortable in here. Years ago when the SEAR rating was different for A/C units, our A/C was set at the same temperature and it was like a meat locker in here. It was on constantly and my mom and I would wear a sweater and occasionally, I’d go outside to warm up. Yet it was 76 and people keep it much colder. I asked the HVAC guy about that and he said it was the SEAR rating and the units pumped out cold air like crazy. I came home today and watered for about an hour and then came into the house and it felt warm and muggy though. I forgot to rinse off the grille – we have Poplar trees though I think they lost their fluff about ten days ago. At Lake Erie Metropark yesterday I took some pics of the fluff from the Poplars – looked like snow in places. I am glad I stood my ground – I’m sick of the two of them and their lackadaisical ways. Ron has two days to fix something else and if he doesn’t I lost my access to the system. He does everything with an eye to “do it this way – fix it later, then forgets”. I just did my posts for this week. Made tomorrow’s shorter … was going to do the Tulip Time 5K but decided to use a lot of pics tomorrow and just 300 words for the post. And what the heck happened to the captions on pictures? I went to identify the pics for tomorrow’s post and wanted to put Puff, Fluff and Parker plus I.D. a few birds – the caption area did not pop up to fill in. I went to Chrome to see if it displayed – it did not. I was frustrated so left them off. I still have not dealt with the 54 pages of SPAM that have to be bulk deleted page by page. I signed off here around 9:15 I think and was in bed a few minutes later. I don’t know how people like being out in that heat. My neighbor has the A/C on but sits in the garage all day – garage is not finished (not a man cave or anything like that) … sits out there with an old computer watching TV or on the internet. Not for me.
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No captions? I haven’t done this weeks post yet, but was jut planning on a WWed. so I hope I can write some captions like I always do? I noticed when I put some new pics in media yesterday that some of the old pics weren’t loading and seemed out of sequence, like maybe it skipped some of them?
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I remembered Hugh 9the blogger from Hugh’s News and Views) did a post about pictures in posts. Went back to it – he mentioned a new feature of text in the image and how to do that, so asked if captions are done? He’s in the UK – hope to hear today. Will pass along the answer to you … maybe it was me? I load pics one at time so did not notice what you mentioned.
I was planning to do a Father’s Day post with funny captions. Sigh. Going grocery shopping this a.m. – not many perishables in case we have stormy weather and lose power … I heard this a.m. this heat wave could last two weeks. Sigh.
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I just did a short WW post and my captions worked Linda – this is of Monday am. In fact they were better than before as they used to jump around. Maybe they are tweeking that feature. Our hydro went out on Sat for 4 hours, so I sympathize…..very unusual for us here, and for that length of time, but the hydro truck was on the street five minutes later so very prompt on replying.
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Hmm – I wonder what the problem was Joni? I just tried it again, by inserting a photo into a blank post and it was still happening. I even tried uploading a picture from my media library – nothing there. It used to kind of float beneath the photo. Annoying. And more annoying having the hydro go out on a sickening hot day like today. Glad it came on again, but still … I went grocery shopping and was happy to see all the customers wearing a mask (we don’t have to if we are fully vaccinated). It was not supposed to rain until overnight – came out of the store and it was raining. Not nice. I see you are getting less restrictions starting this Friday – that’s great news!
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When I add a photo to my blog, it says caption beneath the photo when I click on the photo or sometimes even just after I add it? It’s very strange it isn’t working for you. We didn’t get any rain, so I had to water after supper, but just a bit as it’s supposed to rain overnight or tomorrow…..4 or 5 days more of this. Re less restrictions don’t mean anything to me, as I’m still only doing essentials until after mom’s second shot (later in June) and mine (probably July although I have not received an invitation to book yet, and there’s usually no appointments for 3 weeks after as they are all taken…..
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I remember the caption area just popped up and I’d minimize it. I don’t know what’s wrong this time. I hate to reach out to the HE so soon after the SPAM issue … I still have the 54 pages which I’ve not deleted yet. I cannot seem to catch up on anything. My boss is now gone on a business trip Wednesday through Sunday but left work to be done. I shut down during the thunderstorm, but had to finish something. I finally turned the A/C back on as it was unbearably hot in here, but it was rumbling around out there for hours. I had to go for allergy shots this morning – it was oppressive with high dew points. I went, walked a few loops at the Park, then came home and watered and sprayed down the A/C grille and felt like I’d be out in the heat all day. Today I heard that they expect Legionnaire’s Disease to be an issue because buildings have not had air circulation in pipes for over a year and have had remediation crews flushing out systems to ready the return of workers. That’s some scary stuff right there. I thought it was interesting – here is the story:
https://go.audacy.com/hCpeU6byVgb
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At least they are being proactive. I don’t think anyone has even thought of that here. Too bad boss didn’t give you time off too. I’d contact an H.E. re the caption – maybe it’s just a minor glitch?
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Yes I really need it … maybe it’s just a conglomeration of the last two months and this erratic weather, the ants which lingered longer than usual, but thankfully are now gone. Like you, I have a small outside painting project and should have done it over Memorial weekend, but I was trying to get the yardwork done, but the weather was perfect for it. Hopefully by Fall I can do it, but I’ve said that last year. I would like to contact a H.E. and maybe I will now that you told me about the SPAM just disappearing. I thought maybe the same H.E. came back and did a global delete, but maybe not. I didn’t notice any issues before they added all the photo/image enhancements.
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Yes that is strange…..I find when they “improve” things there tend to be glitches…..I don’t need all those fancy improvements anyway. I bet it’s just a glitch in your blog, maybe something they need to reset.
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I agree with you there Joni. This latest group of features for images are not something I’ll likely use. In fact, I have used the “text over image” in the past, but it was something I did at the free site “Fotor” and it was for something like a holiday. I just tried again – caption feature still does not work. Nothing there.
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I click on the the add sign and then it brings up add image…is that how you are adding pics?
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Yes and that’s how I’ve always done it. I’ve now tried three browsers and then I got the bright idea today to see if I could add a caption in the media area for the particular picture. I used to load my photos to the media area when there weren’t so many photos, but now I just load them right from the computer one by one. So, I started a draft post, then loaded a picture to media, then clicked and opened up that picture and added text to the caption which is displayed on the right-hand side. Clicked “done” and thought to myself “I’ll just do it this way as I don’t do captions all that much. So I did the “add image” and nothing was there caption wise. So it has to be a glitch. I will ask the H.E.s Wednesday morning after my Wordless Wednesday post publishes in case they go in and test a scheduled post (they have done that before). It is frustrating. I really wanted to do a funny Father’s Day post with geese and goslings. I can just type above, but I’d rather use captions.
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I upload most of my pics to media first, usually in the order I’m going to use them, then add the caption after I add it to the post.
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PS. I’m not sure why the HE didn’t volunteer that information about the spam being automatically deleted every once in awhile….did he really expect you to delete 54 pages?
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When I commented to Hugh on his post about the new photo enhancements, I told him I tried it on two browsers and he also said to reach out to the H.E. I said I didn’t want to be a pest after they helped out on the massive SPAM issue of 1.1K SPAMS and 54 pages. Because of the time difference, by the next time I communicated with Hugh, he said he had a similar problem with SPAM and it all disappeared at one time too! Strange they didn’t say anything. I’d have pushed it to the side a little longer – I hope no one legitimate got caught in the SPAM filter though.
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It was my general impression that they eventually deleted all the spam, but I thought your problem maybe was different as you had so much of it. That’s why I didn’t mention it before….sorry Linda….I thought you knew.
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Nope, didn’t know but no problem Joni. But I am glad I let it languish in my SPAM folder rather than delete each of those 54 pages and then magically vanished. I am surprised the H.E. didn’t tell me.
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It was poor of him not to mention it, as that is his job. I thought you had some special kind of spam filter problem not working etc.
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PS. I just checked I have 67 spam….and last week I had 300 some….so they do eventually get rid of it. I used to go through and delete each one and I think they still like you to do that because that’s how they are made aware of it, but it’s totally unrealistic when you had that much!
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I just looked – been looking twice a day like I used to and had just three and one earlier. Aah … much better. That was ridiculous. I get all these weird things … the excessive SPAM, the posts that publish and then disappear from Reader for about eight hours afterward and then there were the posts that have photos go missing a few months after publishing them and all you see is a gray image, no photo. All crazy. Sigh.
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I’m wondering as you’ve had your blog for awhile if it’s the theme you’re using? I use Selma which is 5 years old already. You might ask the HE if that is part of the problem and if it is then is it possible to update to a newer similar theme without losing all your posts….just an idea?
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Great informative post!
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Hi Joni, I’m so glad to know this kind of book exists! Wonderful to read about and see the creative process of the story’s writing.
I recently wrote a post about Anne of Green Gables as my kids and I have been listening to the novel on Audible and I got a cute hardcover copy of it. and blogger Linda from Wit, Whim, and Whimsy told me about your blog posts. Happy to make your acquaintance!
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Hi Singlikewildflowers! I like your blog name. Thank you for the compliments and welcome to my blog. As a Canadian I grew up with Anne of Green Gables, which is the first of a whole series of Anne books. I post a lot about books as reading is my thing. Linda is a great gal, a talented blogger and photographer, and endlessly creative!
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Thank you and you’re welcome!
Yes, I agree, Linda is a fantastic blogger and she always keeps me posted about topics from other bloggers that tie in with my topics too.
Have a great day and take care!
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PS. If you are interested in knowing more about L.M.Montgomerys life I posted the following week about her journals and her mostly unhappy life. She was such a complex woman and those cheerful Anne books were her escape from reality I suspect. Here’s the link to my post: https://thehomeplaceweb.com/2021/05/27/the-journals-of-l-m-montgomery-author-of-anne-of-green-gables/
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What a difficult and unhappy course of life…Her stories must’ve been a retreat from the stresses she endured.
Thanks for enlightening us readers about her biography. Must include these in my homeschooling lessons with my kids.
Thanks Joni!
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Your welcome!
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