The old schoolhouse

The old schoolhouse, or where we spent our summer vacation

Samantha here.  So, astute readers of this blog will have noticed that most of the posts from this summer were actually from the second-to-last weekend in May.  And you may be wondering, what did we really do this summer?

Remember when we said the human acquired an old schoolhouse from the 1840s?

This summer, the human and her male counterpart bought a house that had once been the District No. 5 schoolhouse in some small town in Vermont.  It was in service as an actual school from the 1840s all the way through 1953, from kindergarten through 8th grade.  (The human has neighbors who went to school there.)  The main body of the house is still one giant room, and you can see the original timbers in the rafters and the basement.

This has become the doll window

 The human couldn't take all of us, so Lily, Celestine, Nellie, and I accompanied her this time.  Our usual spot in the house is in the window that used to be an exterior window of the schoolhouse proper but is now internal thanks to the added sunroom.

The main schoolhouse, now converted for the humans

Out in the garden

There's an acre and a quarter of the house and the gardens, and across the street is another 27 acres of woods for us to play in.  We mostly stuck the gardens because the human did not want to deal with a 45 degree incline hill with us.  She remembered what happened the last time she took us on a hiking adventure...

 We went in August, which meant one thing.  Blueberries.  Lots and lots and lots of blueberries.  That's a 4 quart bowl full you see there, and the human filled one of those every other day or so.  There were also early blackberries and some apples from the two apple trees in the yard.

Obligatory tree climbing 

Jam and cat

And this is what became of all those berries.  About 4 gallons of blueberry jam, and some apple jelly and apple butter for good measure.  (Further apples were turned in cider and even more apple butter.  By last month, the human was making 3 gallons of apple butter at a time...)

Halloween at Honeydukes

Happy Halloween!

Kana and Lily (and Sam hiding in the back) here.  We're having a study break/tea party at Honeydukes to celebrate.  (Yes, we're still here.  The human managed to acquire an 1840s schoolhouse up in the wilds of Vermont, and has been occupied getting it set up for other humans and us.  We will, at some point, have our very own one room schoolhouse.)

But that's not what you came here for.  You came here for what lovely food we have.  The menu for afternoon tea is cauldron cakes. chocolate covered strawberries, pasties, pumpkin tarts, and the obligatory Honeydukes candy:  a chocolate frog and a box of sugary butterfly wings.

Sam's off reading about quidditch and other fun library books (Lily's studying potions again, and I have a few chapters of history of magic to work through.  Much less fun.)  The 'afternoon snack for 1' has a cauldron cake, 2 pasties, and a chocolate frog.  There are so many chocolate frogs everywhere.

Owl la carte, anyone?

 And if you want individual cakes to go, just pay the owl on the cart.  You have your choice of tarts (pumpkin, lime, citron, or bakewell), caudron cakes, and candy.  By the box or the half dozen.
Orders, anyone?  If you place them now with the human, she can have them ready by Christmas.

Provincetown Vacation: Along the breakwater

We actually ended up hiking all the way to the very end of PTown to the very tip.  There were some gorgeous houses along the way, with lots of blooming lilacs.

And then we hit the breakwater, all 1.25 miles of giant granite boulders to scramble across if you want to reach the beach at the other end.

So of course we had to.  There was lighthouse on the other side that we wanted pictures of.  In retrospect, this was not the best idea, as the human had to carry us in a tote bag over her shoulder, and then had to scramble over the rocks.  Which required both hands at times.

Oops.

At least we got some good pictures...

Looking back over the water at PTown

On the dunes with brambles

More dunes.

You can just barely see the Pilgrims Monument in the background.

The little lighthouse that was our goal

And back just before the tide came in.

Provincetown Vacation: Playing on the beach

We headed to the beach after getting back from the Pilgrim's Monument.  

Enjoy the pretty ocean scenery as the summer ends.

Provincetown Vacation: The Provincetown Museum and Pilgrims Monument

With a cannon from the HMS Somerset

Saturday afternoon saw us headed to the Pilgrims' Monument and the Provincetown museum.  Despite the human coming to PTown every year since 2012, she'd yet to go to the museum, and we provid the perfect excuse.

The first fire engine in PTown

The museum had a wonderful antique doll collection

It's rather unfair that the antique dolls have books and we don't.

At the base of the monument, looking out over the ocean.

At the top of the monument

No, we didn't drop anything off the edge.

We actually did make our way up the monument, and the human was playing games with holding her phone through the rails to get better shots.  We somehow managed to make the trip without dropping the human's phone or Celestine's glasses off the top of the monument.  Go us!

Provincetown Vacation: Saturday Morning

Statues, statues, everywhere.  I guess it's art?

Saturday morning in PTown saw the human going around town to all the garage sales, and us tagging along and getting photos everywhere that looked interesting.  It was absolutely gorgeous out.

The Provincetown Library

One of the many pretty gardens in town

First (and definitely not last) photo of the
Pilgrims' Monument

Lilacs and the church

The old stone theatre sign, now on the beach

Hiding in the tiny little Asian garden

You can hardly tell we're in PTown...