I slept in, not arising until 9h45. It was a grey day, warm-feeling when I went to the car to retrieve some tea, which I drank in my room while I worked on Friday’s post; I wasn’t hungry enough to go to breakfast and lolled around reading and relaxing. By the time I left at 13h30, it had become a bright, sunny day with lots of white clouds and the car’s thermometer registered a pleasant +23 (73).
Today’s cèilidh at the Celtic Music Interpretive Centre featured Douglas Cameron on fiddle and Betty Lou Beaton on keyboard; Kiffie Carter was in attendance and, I’d guess, played guitar with them after I left. I sat with a friend and two of her friends from Chéticamp and enjoyed talking with them. While the music was playing, I had a haddock burger, salad, and tea. Although not packed as it often is, there was a good crowd present, filling all the tables. A friend from Truro told me the October Masters’ Concert tickets were already on sale, so I picked up one of those—the front row seats were almost gone, so I chose a central seat in the second row. The music was, of course, superb and the crowd was in a dancing mood: two square sets were danced while I was there, the first square set with five couples and the second with eight.
¹ Posted on Tuesday, 20 June, for Sunday, 18 June.↩
at the Celtic Music Interpretive Centre this afternoon.
I’d normally have happily stayed through to the end, but Shelly Campbell and Marion Dewar (Jerry Holland’s accompanist in his later years) were at the Red Shoe and I couldn’t pass up the chance to hear them play a whole cèilidh—I have only rarely heard them together before and then for at most a couple of sets. Accordingly, I left at 15h20, taking the Rear Intervale and Mabou Roads, both currently in excellent shape, and shorter than the Cèilidh Trail route, and offering a couple of fine views of Cape Mabou from the backcountry hills. On the paved part of the Rear Intervale Road not far from the bridge over Judique Intervale Brook, I saw what I first took for a dog, but soon realized was a bear. I stopped dead in the road a good distance away and got a couple of shots of it through the windshield—it ran off into the woods as soon as it saw me; the last bear encounter I had, also driving, was a mother and three cubs crossing the Whycocomagh Port Hood Road maybe seven years ago, so quickly I had no chance to get a photo of them. Anyone who worries about encountering bears in the wild should read Safe Travel in Bear Country, ignoring the part about grizzlies, which are not found in Cape Breton; there is really very little to fear from black bears, as they are far more afraid of you than you are of them, except when protecting their cubs.
First one I’ve seen in several years!
At the Red Shoe, I again sat with friends. Shelly and Marion opened early with a great march/strathspeys/reels set and the fantastic music continued throughout the next three hours and ran over the ending time. As a good friend and fine fiddler commented on the photo I posted of them playing, “Great combination! Nice to see the upright played by a true traditional player.” Indeed! Marion’s beautiful chording to Shelly’s gorgeous, expressive fiddle was an incredible treat for me and the rest of the appreciative audience, who rose for a standing ovation at the end. In the very limited space in the Shoe, two square sets were danced and a waltz. I find Shelly’s incredible fiddle most amazing on the slow airs, and she gave us a few of those to savour during the afternoon.
I had a red ale when I arrived and then tea; I had intended to wait until after the cèilidh for dinner, but the smells of the plates being delivered to adjacent tables so made my mouth water that I gave in during the last half hour and ordered a house salad and the wonderful catch of the day, a perfectly cooked pan-seared halibut steak, moist, juicy, and delicious, served with mashed potatoes, asparagus, and a vegetable dish whose name I don’t know, all superb.
After thanking the musicians and briefly chatting with some friends, I took my leave. It was a sunny and humid +23 (74) day when I regained the car and drove back to Port Hood. I worked briefly on yesterday’s account but was out of steam, so I relaxed a bit and went to bed shortly after dark.