Summerside and Bottle House

We drove over to Summerside today.  It is a coastal town on the south east side of the North side of PEI.  There were beautiful farms all along the way.  Note the manicured lawn that they all had.

This are has a road that is called the lighthouse drive.  Here are two on the outskirts of Summerside.

Here is an interesting church with two spires.

Inside the gift store at the Bottle Houses were these large metal sculptures of dragonflies and butterflies.  If I had a house I would have gotten one.

The gardens were beautiful.  I loved this fuzzy violet flower.  Have no idea what it is.

There was an interesting bug in the garden.

The bottle houses were constructed by Edouard Arsenault.  They are made up of discarded bottles of all sizes and shapes as well as discarded colorful votive holders.  He got the idea for the houses when his daughter brought home a picture of a bottle house on Vancouver Island and at 66 years of age he decided that if they could do it he could too.    The first house you come to is the last house he constructed.  It is actually a chapel.

Here is a view of the alter.

It even has pews built out of bottles and mortar.

The next house is the Six-Gabled House which is the first building that he erected in 1980

This gives you an idea of the intricate designs in the buildings.

Out the back door is a lawn surrounded by gardens and a replica of the Cap-Egmont Lighthouse.  Edouard was the last resident keeper of this lighthouse.

Walking towards the next  house is this bottle tree created by local artist Lucie Bellemare.

The last house was the tavern where all of the different kinds of bottles that were used to create the houses were displayed.

In the center of the Tavern was this central cylinder.  It is the only remaining part assembled by Edouard.  Unfortunately all three buildings had to be re-constructed from 1992-1998 due to damages caused by the movement of the buildings with each spring thaw.  The fact that they were able to reconstruct the buildings exactly has they had looked before is as great a feat to me as the original construction.

 

Here is a garden bench built out of rocks that Edouard collected.

Here is a second bottle tree.

 

This large bottle graces the entrance to the parking lot.

This old house sits across the way from the parking lot.  It is amazing to me that so many old houses still stand and the majority of them are lived in today.