Brandie of Green Gables

Have I mentioned before on this blog just how much I am completely, head over heels, totally in love with Anne of Green Gables?

The books, the movies, all of it. I love them.

When I was younger, the local PBS station would play Anne of Green Gables once a year during it's fundraising (or maybe twice a year? I can't quite remember).

When it came on, I was right there, ready to watch Anne as she came to Green Gables, made her way into Matthew's heart, befriended Diana, and grew to see Marilla loved her so much. I watched as she died her hair green, fell off a roof, and almost drowned. I heard her use lovely phrases, beautiful language. I saw her enthusiasm for school, for her bosom buddies, and her adopted family.

I was hooked. Or obsessed. Or both. I wanted Anne to come and be my best friend.

Some point, after my girls were born, but before my son came, I decided I wanted to own copies of the movies. And my mother, god bless her, found them. She couldn't find them in the US, and somehow ordered them from Canada. According to her they took forever to get her, but when she gave them to me, I was over the moon! And surprised - there were THREE of them! I had grown up Watching Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel. But I had never seen the third on, Anne of Green Gables: The continuing story. When they were new, I pulled them all out and watched them over a couple of days.

Now, I'm not going to lie. The third movie didn't do it for me (and maybe that's why I didn't know of it's existence) but Anne was Anne and I loved her.

my lovely dolls

When my girls were 4 and 1, we went to Disney World. While we were working our way through the countries of Epcot, I noticed in the Canada store they had Anne of Green Gables dolls! I wanted ALL of them. Of course, that was out of the budget (and unrealistic to get them home) so I picked two - Anne and Diana. The plan was to get 2 more each time we returned. Sadly, the next time we went to Epcot that particular building was no longer a store and none of the Canada stores had the dolls.

Every few years, I search amazon/ebay and have never been able to find these dolls. Maybe I was the only person to ever purchase them? I don't know! But I'm sad I can't get anymore characters.

When I fell in love with Anne, I didn't know there were books as well. But eventually figured it out. And then I didn't read them.

I worried that if I read the books, it would make me love the movies less. And I had so many great memories of watching Anne that I just didn't want to take that away!

It took me a long time to decide to read the books and about 8 years ago - I finally did. I read them once. I enjoyed them. I should definitely read them again.

But, I still love the movies. And I love the books. I remember when I read the books that I thought the movie took some liberties and mixed somethings up, but they did a great job of capturing the essence of Anne and Matthew and Marilla, of all the characters.

This am grannie had to go for an EEG. Which meant that last night we had to stay up until 3am (she was allowed 4 hours of sleep before the test). Just last week, I had gotten Anne of Green Gables for grannie to read on her audio books.

Grannie at her birthday last month

She uses the Talking Books program through our state, which is through the Library of Congress. She has a special player and can get any book they have recorded the audio for free to listen to. Grannie is mostly blind and has been for a while. She has read A LOT of books. I get her new books as I can, but since I can't keep up with her reading pace, I often guess and just get books.

Last week I said in passing, I'm sure you've already read Anne of Green Gables, and granny told me she hadn't! So I got her the first book. Thankfully she enjoyed it! 

So when we had to stay up so late, I suggested we watch the movie. It's long, it's good, and she had just read the book, so I figured it was a good fit to fill a lot of late night hours.

And it was. We made it through the first one and watched part of the second one. I sat and knit, and it was really a great night for me. And granny managed to stay up a lot past her bedtime!

It almost felt like being a little girl again, sitting in the living room with my grandma (who has since passed away), getting to stay up late so I could watch the entire Anne of Green Gables movie.