Saturday, August 6, 2011

Last day on New Brunswick Island 08-05-2011

This morning we traveled to Baddeck to tour the Alexander Graham Bell Museum.  It is set on a hilltop overlooking the bay.  The  grounds are beautiful with flower gardens everywhere.
Bell, born in Scotland, moved to the Baddeck because it reminded him of his Scottish home.  It was here he dedicated himself to helping  the deaf. His interest in the telephone, and other communication modes, was as a result of that life long desire to improve the lives of those unable to hear.
He also invented a written a written language that allowed the deaf to visualize how to form words through diagrams;  in addition he developed ways to teach sign language. 
Helen Keller, could not hear, see or talk. She came to Baddeck to work with Bell, it was with him she had her breakthrough in communication.
Not satisfied with his  communication accomplishments, he went on to develop structural engineering designs, hydrofoil boats, and was "first in powered flight for Canada". 
It is an amazing museum, he was an amazing man.

 image image image
image

That evening we attended a Ceilidh, performance of Scottish music and dancing. It was two hours of tunes, dancing, and discussion of the music and it's history.
Performed with piano, violin, and guitar, you could not help but tap your toes and clap with the beat of the music. 
image image image
image
Performances are every night, performed by an assortment of groups.  These folks are all amateurs who play for the love of the music.
For those of you that have attended bluegrass events you will understand what a treat it is when the audience respects the artists by not talking during the performance. At break time we had a chance to meet the musicians and talk about the differences and similarities to bluegrass.
Hopefully we will be able to find more of this music on PEI.
We returned to our campground about 10:30 PM tired, but happy.

No comments:

Post a Comment