Yesterday we took off and went to the Grand Lake Stream Folk Art Festival
http://grandlakestreamfolkartfestival.com/ in Maine. It took about 3 to 3 1/2 hours to get there and it was well worth the trip. We went to see birch bark canoes because this is one of the few places where you can see and touch them and after reading John McPhee's book, Survival of the Bark Canoe, I wanted to see one and see just how beautiful they are. And they are.
These canoes are made completely by hand and are signed. Usually working full time only about 2 or 3 canoes are made a year.
The following pictures are details of the canoes
Remember, this is all hand done from beginning to end. Even to the hand carving of the paddle. Though I know they are sturdy and resist dents by the nature of the birch bark's flexibility, I would be rather hesitant to actually put one to the test. I have no idea how these canoes are made and how much they cost.
The man that John McPhee wrote about, Henri Vaillancourt
http://www.birchbarkcanoe.net/builder.htm, Is more of a purist and uses no materials that a Native American would not have access to and would have used. His canoes cost anywhere from $850.00 to 950.00 a foot to build. He wasn't there, needless to say and the canoe builder we saw is not connected to Vaillencourt in any way.
We looked at the canoes, walked around and had lunch.
And after that I knew it was time to walk around some more. And we needed to find a friend of ours, Nanne Kennedy, who does yarn, sheep and sheep dogs.
http://getwool.com/ Seacolors yarn. And, she curls with Bob at the Belfast Curling Club.
And now for a shameless self-centered appeal. I know someone with a birthday coming up that would love to have a skein or 2 of Nanne's yarn and would gladly make a scarf/shawl for the person that gave me the yarn :) Back to the fair.
There was a booth with old pictures of people that live and vacationed there. Apparently Ted Williams
used to hang out at Grand Lake Stream. And even though I know my family never vacationed in Maine I'm pretty sure my sister Kathleen and I would have fit right in with these sisters and would have had a ball. They obviously were cutting edge cowgirls with these outfits.
A detail from another hand made boat (Bob's picture). This one was made in Canada.
A picture from the truck as we drove along. To get to the fair we went through Washington County which is the poorest county in Maine. Along Route 9, the Airline, there were sections that had no electricity and though we saw dirt roads going in off the Airline, there were no power or phone lines. The townships aren't named-they're numbered.
Another interesting area we passed through was the Passamaquoddy Tribe Indian Township.
http://www.fourdirectionsmaine.org/passamaquoddy-tribe-indian-township
Another beautiful and devastatingly poor area .
We went up Route 9 to get to the fair and came home Route 1, down through blueberry country and I should have taken pictures. The blueberry fields had a blue tint to them from all the blueberries just waiting to be picked and were marked and ready to be harvested Monday. These are the low, small delicious wild Maine blueberries that are oh so wonderful.
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