5 August 2019, Monday
It’s early afternoon as O and I drive back to the Celtic Music Interpretive Centre in Judique. Here one can attend an informal Ceilidh while enjoying lunch. There is also a museum focusing on the history of Celtic music and dance. As I hobble in the door on my crutches, O announces to the two young women at the desk that I have come to learn step dancing. They both chuckle and ask if we are there for lunch. We are shown to a table right next to the stage upon which sit the fiddle player, Donna Marie DeWolfe, and a piano accompanist. Donna plays a variety of predominantly Scottish sounding airs, reels, jigs and strathspeys with one additional tune that sounds straight out of Nashville. O and I have a long wait for our food to appear, but that’s OK with us. We can’t go too far wrong with a beer, a glass of local wine, and good music. The waitress, Siobhan, is very apologetic, explaining that they’ve been having trouble in the kitchen. We tell her not to worry about us. Our meal finally arrives after more than an hour of sipping and music. The food, though late, is quite good.
After lunch we enter the interpretive portion of the Centre. There are many interesting displays which discuss the history of Cape Breton music and dance. There is also a video teaching the step dance for the jig, the reel and the strathspey. Once my ankle heals I’ll be an expert! In the next alcove is another instructional video which explains how to play a reel. There are four fiddles and bows hanging on the wall. The fiddles are in tune and ready for playing. The fiddler in the video tells us to rosin our bows and shows the fingering. We are then invited to play along. O actually manages to get a semblance of a tune from his fiddle. My bow, however, is in serious need of some rosin, and all I can manage is a few horrid squeaks. So much for my first fiddle lesson!
Off we go to the gift shop to buy some authentic Cape Breton CD’s. I copy them onto my computer and from there onto my I-pod mini. We listen to one of our new recordings on the drive back to Mabou. We had planned to eat at the Red Shoe Pub again, but as the wait is more than an hour we return to camp where we have a nice chat with G while munching our dinner. It’s a beautiful last evening here at Whycocomagh Provincial Park.