Mama Jo takes on PEI: Green hats and rainy wedding days.

The new Anne of Green Gables chocolate plant is up and running! This past week was spent cleaning, moving heavy machinery, assembling the kitchen, and getting our new home organized. We officially opened on Thursday and jumped right into production making one butter cream after another. The tourists piled in and stood at the windows looking into the kitchen and watched as we worked. For the first few tourists you feel like a celebrity and then the novelty quickly gets replaced with your responsibilities. My favourite customers are mothers and children. Mothers bring their child up to the window and point out what we are doing and the kids press themselves against the glass hoping with every inch they close between them and us will bring them closer to our chocolate enrobing machines. I love the way their eyes light up when they see the chocolate waterfall cover the butter creams, truffles, and chips. Their delight often ends in their parents buying them a box of chocolates and it’s satisfying to see customers leave with paper bags full of our product. Now that chocolate production has begun and most of the boxes, tools, and other do-dads have found a place to resided the opportunity to find our rhythm in this new home is a tangible reality.

The summer treasure adventures continue with a trip to Victoria by the Sea last Sunday afternoon. My vibrant and adventurous spirited friend Bernice and I quickly found ourselves strolling through the small shops and show box sized boutiques with Island crafts. We found an enchanting antique shop with wall to wall dressers, mirrors, night stands, chesterfields, whicker rocking chairs, tea cups, vases, and other previously loved and cared for treasures. It was at this antique shop that I found the love of my life! Tucked in a corner I caught the glint of a green ribbon as sunlight shone through a dusty window. I pulled away the cobwebs and freed the treasure from its shelved life and held up a beautiful green wide brimmed straw hat with a green ribbon and faded white, green, and brown flowers. I lifted the treasure and placed it on my auburn crowned head. It fit perfectly in everyway! I can’t begin to describe the bliss I felt with that green hat crowned upon my head. It flung me down the rabbit hole to my romantic heart and I found my imagination trapped in the ideal village of Avonlea.

Bernice and I took to the beach to look for sea glass. With my hat snuggly placed in its new home I decided to stroll aimlessly along the low tide shore and gaze out at the surf instead of digging through the rocks to find lost glass and pottery. I allowed myself to get lost along the long stretch of sand bar venturing further and further out to the edge of the water wading through ankle deep tidal pools. I just needed to breathe. I could have stayed out there all day but Bernice had one more treasure to show me. We drove out towards Kensington and found a steep ditch covered in lupins! We plunged in and picked as many as we could carry before turning the car homeward and closing our adventures for the day.

On Saturday I was blessed to be apart of another wedding. This will be my second out of three weddings this summer. My beautiful friend Chantale married her favourite person on June 23rd at 2:00 in the afternoon. It was a simply stunning wedding. Everything flowed beautifully and was tied together with such joy. The ceremony was short and sweet and to the point and held in a renovated barn. Chantale looked radiant floating down the isle in a white last dress. The threat of rain hung over the day and as we left Charlottetown we were chased by a heavy sky sweeping a curtain of rain across the Island. As Chantale and Blair stood together at the front of the barn it began to rain, it’s as if the sky could no longer contain its excitement for this union and showered down a delightful applause of approval. After the ceremony and a brief time for pictures the party began! We ate, drank, and danced the night away celebrating Chantal and Blair. My heart is spilling over with joy, best wishes, and deep prayers for the new couple. They are stepping into the best adventure they will have in their lives. Be blessed, my friends. Weddings make weekends so much happier.

As the hour draws closer to my bedtime so does a heavy cloud glower over Charlottetown. It hides the sun and drapes the city in a flat dimensionless shadow. But the sun is coming, and it will wake and sleep whether hidden or seen.