Haha… it’s funny now. But it sure wasn’t when we were in it!
Yesterday we had a tour that all of us were looking forward to. We are currently in the Bras D’or region on the island of Cape Breton. Located here is the Cabot Trail which is a scenic 185 mile loop on the northern top of the island. It is supposed to be one of the most scenic drives in the world and included the Cape Breton Highlands National Park. Our tour was a guided motorcoach trip around the entire Cabot trail. We boarded our coach at 7:45 am and met our tour guide, Fred. Fred is a local, born and bred on Cape Breton. So far so good. He explained a bit about where we were going and a bit of history about John Cabot, the trail’s namesake. Fred talked to us about a variety of things related to the area and interspersed that with personal stories.
Our first stop was in a tiny town that had a small museum primarily devoted to rug hooking and the woman who became very famous for hooking peoples faces… she had done all the US presidents, British prime ministers, astronauts, etc. I was quite skeptical of any interest I might have in this, but after our Acadian tour guide, a self described ’hooker,’ explained the process in her very thick French accent, I had a new appreciation. In fact everyone did! Even Steve! The visit was very short, and although I wanted to buy a small kit myself as well as an Acadian flag (Steve has Acadian ancestry), we were hustled out of there quickly so that we could visit our next stop, a church, which happened to be closed so we couldn’t go in anyway.
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| A closeup of the artists work. She hand-dyed all the wool for all the shading and detail |
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| An example of her realistic facial rug hooking |
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| One of her larger pieces |
