After taking a walk down the old Jailhouse Trail we came back out to the parking lot and noticed there was a little cemetery just across the way. It looked very small but hey, we’re here, why not?
The cemetery was attached to a lovely unitarian church and at first we thought it was only a few stones however we soon realized that it wound around the church and very quickly became the TARDIS of cemeteries going very far back and even across the road! I guess Barnstable must have had quite a booming population at one point! Having done no research at all I do not know if there is anyone noteworthy buried here, though I would kind of doubt it. It did however have stones going all the way back to old slate and sandstone with the usual weird carvings I adore so much. We got quite a hike out of it! And a spooky photo of myself and one of my companions silhouetted in a way that make us look like ghosts! How cool is that? Definitely a fin little detour.
Sometimes when you have been out adventuring for as long as I have the inspiration starts to run a little dry and then you just have to ask the universe what it thinks you should do. In this particular case it thinks I should go to the oldest wooden jailhouse in the United States which was said to be open. Sounded good to me so off we went! And there it was in all it’s adorable glory sitting next to an old blacksmith shop and a Naval Museum. But woe! Although the brochure on the door said it was open it was not. So we took a walk down the trail directly behind it – two days in a row – because as you guessed it, it wasn’t open the day after either.
And you know what? The trail was a destination in and of itself! Cute and cozy and near civilization and yet covered in vines and greenery that made it seem like an import of some far away jungle. Before very long we crossed a railroad track which provided a fun opportunity for photos. Beyond that there seemed to be a number of unmarked trails all jutting off of each other. I am honestly not sure where we ended up or why. But when I started overheating we headed our way back, having had our walk in for the day.
It was kind of cute. I would definitely tell someone who lives in the area to go check it out. Maybe you’ll get lucky and the old jailhouse will be open! If only… as for the trail, it was nice, worth travelling very far? maybe not. Although the surrounding area was super interesting and unique so maybe….
There’s few things more enticing than the promise of a large antique store with multiple dealers. This was one of those and whew! We found some weird things! My favorite was a wrought iron bank that was in the style of Punch and Judy. Give it a quarter and they walloped each other! Fun for the whole family!
As usual we got to play Is This a Dog? with a painting that looked…. vaguely doglike and yet just bunnylike enough to raise a few eyebrows. Another “dog” had such weird googly eyes we couldn’t tell what was wrong with it. But the overwhelming theme of this shop seemed to be disturbingly suggestive bric-a-bracs of tipsy and or seductive children. Little weird. Little uncomfortable. That’s not even mentioning the commemorative plate of a boy betting another boy to…. eat something. What was the something? WHO KNOWS! But it’s not all losses on the side of the children – there were two photographic wall hangings of a sweet little girl that I am absolutely positive came with a free ghost. And if that wasn’t to your style there was also a uranium glass lemon juicer. Nothing like irradiated lemon juice. Mmmmm. Taste the glow. Speaking of which there was also some anti-CIA Russian propaganda that was… an interesting rabbit hole to fall down. Thanks to FaceBook and someone image searching the damn thing. “The Moscow City Court sentenced Paul Whelan, a citizen of the United States and several other countries, accused of espionage, to 16 years in a maximum-security penal colony, finding him guilty of espionage against the Russian federation.” (The poster full of rats was — a depiction of a rat getting what it deserved. Wink wink nod nod.)
All and all this was a fun shop with a lot of un finds. Worth the travel for its good size and variation.
I’m not going lie, I’ve been absent from my blog because my life has been absolutely insane lately, and I haven’t had the spoons to do fun stuff like travel. That being said, I still wanted to attend the NecronomiCon, billed as, “the international conference and festival of Weird Fiction, Art, and Academia!” I mean… who could resist with that tagline? Probably neurotypical people now that I think about it. Thank the Eldrich gods I’m not one of those.
This year we wanted to attend some of the short films and the live radio show but also wander and hit some things we hadn’t in previous adventures – like the art exhibit and a puppet show. We started at the vendors, obviously, to check out which artists and crafters had shown up with adorably crocheted abominable horrors and whatnot. The first artist was indeed exactly that and boy did she know her audience! Her creations were perfection for anyone who loves the cross section between horror and cute huggable things. I almost bought a tiny baby Cthulhu in a plant pot but decided maybe I should wait on that as the place had just opened after all. This woman mopped the floors, with her competitors though. She almost sold out by the end of the day! I was more than impressed, so much so I took a card saying that I could find her at crochetmecurios on facebook and beyond.
Beyond this there were artists with paintings, prints, wood etchings, T-shirts, books galore, and even the most inventive take I have ever seen for a bra, aptly titled, “The over-the-shoulder-beholder-boulder-holder,” which you can totally buy at Dogzillalives’ Etsy Shop for a very befitting $666. As much as I LOVE that I’m also not that loaded (or perky-breasted) so I ended up buying mostly postcards as well as a wood etching and a small print. My companions bought crochet things, T-shirts, DVDs of former film festival shorts, and a variety of other things. Clearly this room was dangerous so we meandered out and started walking to our next destination – the art exhibit. It was a bit of a walk in a little gallery next to Lovecraft Arts and Sciences which is a fun little bookstore if there ever was one. Since we got there early, a few minutes before it actually opened, we wandered into the bookstore and checked it out. This place is also dangerous for weirdoes with spare change. What it lacks in size it makes up in uniqueness. I ended up with a book titled Death in Early New England: Rites, Rituals, and Remembrance which is soooo niche and sooo my kind of rabbit hole! Every time I hit this bookstore it always has something cool.
From here we ambled back somewhere else for the film festival and watched the first block of shorts. They were all very tame, I must say, nothing too outlandish, mostly going back on old tropes about our cursed colonial settlers. Though one did imagine, in the most brutal way possible, what it might be like to be kept as a pet by an alien. It was less Fantastic Planet and more Dr Rat as they started as lab subjects before becoming less than loved pets. It was… creative.
From here we made it to a shadow puppet show because why not? When one comes across a shadow puppet show there is no other option but to see what it’s all about. That one was an experience. We got there early, once again, as a crowd gathered outside this tiny establishment. You might wonder who was in the crowd, waiting as an adult to see a puppet show, and you’d be surprised it was quite diverse in age, gender, and expression, though that one very particular guy was also there asking everyone if this was an American styled shadow puppet show or a Japanese styled puppet show. No one knew. Or cared. Well, except for him. He apparently really loved Japanese culture. Eventually we’d be herded into this tiny room with a stage, all 300 or so of us. It was immediately hotter than the sun from everyone’s body heat and I couldn’t really stop my intrusive thoughts from telling me cuddling up like sardines was how people die, god forbid a fire should break out. My intrusive thoughts are always super cheerful like that.
ANYWAY, there was one woman putting on the whole production. She played a recording to narrate the story which was a voice actor and a theramin playing in the background. We’d hoped for a live theramin but I guess a recorded theramin is better than no theramin at all. I was just sad the aforementioned music was more high-pitched screeching noises than cool hovering woo-woo noises. We were warned this was a low budget production. It was entirely done via an Old School projector and what appeared to be colored cellophane scraps and bits of cardboard cut into silhouettes. I was a bit distracted by the fact much of the cellophane pieces had random bits of scribblings on them and as well as scratches and at times tattered edges but hey, one person’s trash is another person’s…. shadow puppet. All joking aside it was actually well done. I enjoyed the story and the silhouettes were apt. But it was time to be off once again.
We made our way back to the vendors where I then bought the things I’d eyed earlier but still had some time to kill so we decided to check out the gaming rooms. By this time I must have been showing my wear. I was getting very tired both physically and mentally. It’d already been a long day. So long in fact I forgot to mention we’d already found food at some psychedelically inspired cafe and did a mini walking tour where we glared at the shunned house of Lovecraftian fame which now had a cute little terrace and a sign that read in French, “Warning, weird dog.” Of course, the second my fatigued non-gaming butt walked through the door the woman at the table immediately told us all about the free coloring pages and crayons and showed us to some empty somewhat dark tables. BLESS NEURODIVERGENT CROWDS. That was the kinda break I could use! But first we noticed the vendor tables. I thought that’s why we were up here but my companion actually had no real inclination this would have it’s own separate vendors and was immediately smitten as a magpie at all the shiny things. I do love shiny things myself but I don’t know what they are or what they signify. Nonetheless I took a pamphlet from a pirate(?) boy and made it look like I knew what he was talking about when he discussed his new game described within it – as one does – I like to be encouraging. And then I handed it back to someone who very likely had more knowledge than myself and went back to playing with the giant die with the floaty eyeball in it. I don’t need to know shit to enjoy that! By this time we had 10 minutes to hurredly color before the doors closed so we did so. Man, it’s been a LONG time since I’ve used crayons. They’re like coloring something with cheap birthday candles. But it was stupid fun and we got to hang up our precious artwork next to the others who… clearly spent more than 10 minutes on theirs.
Onto the live radio show which was the H P Lovecraft Historical Society’s Dark Radio Theater’s presentation of The Shunned House. We had no idea this too was also filled to the brim with people and just like the puppet show we were left without a seat standing numbly in the back. I hadn’t worn my knee braces all day and I was one hurting puppy from all the walking. I decided I didn’t need to see anything (it was a radio show after all) and sat on the floor with a gaggle of others. That was no less painful as I had no back support and half my body was going numb. Those who had room just lay down. I was entertained by the show itself and the little story it told but because I was also blind to the stage I had the double entertainment of the audience bursting out in weird noises at random whenever the screen up front prompted them to help out. I was also delighted to see someone else taking a cellphone photo of the same patch of rug I’d taken a photo of a year before. It’s a pretty design! Actually, the people at these things always add to my joy of the whole event. Their choice in wardrobe is always wonderful. This year there was a Fantastic Planet T-shirt, a full-blown rat suit, the aforementioned pirate boy, and a chick wearing a tutu wound with lit Christmas lights. The last of which was likely on her way to the ball – which is extra I’m told. I said yeah, extra extra as you’d also need to find something bomb to wear. Someday.
All and all it was an exhausting but very much worth it day of hanging out with fellow freaks and geeks. Until next year – love y’all!
It’d been a hell of a few weeks for me and unfortunately, I think my chaos gremlin followed me to Rhode Island on this particular week because my usual travel companion wasn’t having an easy go of it either. We both needed desperately to get out of the house but lacked the energy to actually do so. A compromise was made – to stay in town and go back to a destination we’d already been to before – a destination I remember taking photos of but for some reason cannot find said photos or blog entry?? Shame because I took very few photos this time around thinking I already had plenty!
Prescott Farm is the site of a historic farmstead and gristmill. It has one of very few surviving windmills in here in the US built in the early 1800s and there are several other historic buildings also on the property you can poke at. And “gardens,” lots of “gardens” which appear to be wildly out of control fenced in weeds… which I guess are mostly native and probably were used at some point by locals but I definitely saw some things in there that clearly blew in from somewhere else. A vegetable garden this was not. Although I did find a patch of choke cherry trees along the perimeter. SOMEDAY. Someday I’ll have land and chokecherry trees of my own with which to make jam with.
The location is known for its little duck pond where a gaggle of them wait to be fed. We however were here to check out the hiking trails first so off we went past the old homestead, the historic markers, and the windmill, into the woods! The woods were a well needed respite from the heat. Despite the fact that today was hotter and muggier than a teenage Shrek’s jock strap (sorry) the woods were cool and refreshing! And pretty! We found a bunch of little fairy houses that someone had left at random trees and then I spotted a really fat deer – the first one I’ve seen on island in all my visits here! And just beyond the deer we came across a weird bird sitting at the edge of the water just chilling, giving no mind to us whatsoever. My companion thought it was a hawk because of its coloration and short stubby shape, I thought it was a blue heron because of its beak. Drawing closer to it I realized it wasn’t nearly big enough to be a heron and its beak definitely wasn’t that of a hawk. We were both bewildered by the animal who still didn’t care we were staring at it like leering predators. We’d only later learn its identity by posting photos on FaceBook – it was a night heron. I have never heard of such a thing and am growing increasingly concerned I might be wandering ever closer to becoming a birder, the horror. This goes doubly for my companion who thought he heard an owl. This resulted in us both stalking a mourning dove to the chimney of the farmhouse. To be fair the “mourning” sound of mourning doves does sound a bit owl-like.
The trails were very short and sweet and at times a little messy but it was cute and I was happy to have seen some wildlife. We were however about to approach the famous duckpond. Ooooooph, it was very choked in out in weeds, I don’t think they were native either. However, the ducks still persisted, as did frogs, baby turtles, pond skimmers, diving beetles, and a fantastic orgy of every kind of dragon fly you could think of just finding their love match. It was kind of funny. The ducks showed interest in us only as long as it took to figure out our sorry asses didn’t have any food for them and then they wandered off crankily quaking at each other.
This was a nice little diversion – just the amount of green and activity I needed to get back onto a path of a well-regulated nervous system. So, if you’re in town maybe check it out. It’s rather cute, child friendly, and has a little history. Also, the windmill is nice to take photos of.
It has come to my attention this entry from last fall was never published so I’ve decided to release it into the world today. Late is better than never! So here we go…
Over the past few years I have had to get more creative in how I find trails, especially ones close to home that no one seems to know about – like this one! Believe it or not I found it while looking at a Redfin map. Whhhy it was on a realtor’s map I couldn’t tell you but I knew I had to swing by and check it out.
I had no idea that I’d be driving down a series of sketchy camp/dirt roads to get here. The Prius LOVES me for these unplanned adventures, especially when fallen leaves obscure the road and make everythign slippery. Nothing like having the fear of God put back into you because you’re driving a Prius.
ANYWAY. This place is near civilization and yet still in the middle of nowhere. It’s odd, but the PERFECT introvert’s trail! Although there was a cute little parking lot which had room for numerous vehicles we were the only ones there on this day and according to reviews online this seems like it is usually the case. Maybe because it’s new? The trail board claimed it was only set up in 2016 and already was faded almost beyond being able to read. A handwritten note to the side pleaded for help to repair the bridges.
The trail itself was a bit wet and slippery under a thick layer of dead leaves but other than that it was an easy trail that ends at a cute little pond view before attaching to a well known snow mobile trail. It made for a really lovely afternoon walk. We didn’t see another soul and it was SO QUIET. A hidden gem indeed.
Keene is such an adorable city. Walking down the main street is always a joy but I hadn’t done so in a number of years and a lot of the stores have changed. One of these fresh new faces was this absolutely bonkers tea lounge and emporium. It. Was. Wild.
Straight in the door you see a line of fabulous witches hats along with some greenery, a bunch of separate booths with all sorts of witchy and steam punky things, with sitting spots throughout and a tea lounge at the back with a huge wall of every kind of tea you could ever desire. This place had all the vibes! And I was surprised by all the spell bottles – so precise and so many to choose from! And the delightful hats? Come on. You can’t beat a nice hat. Or a good crystal. Or a ton of politically left leaning stickers.
Well, it’s been a rough few days for me and it doesn’t look like it’s going to return to sanity for a long while so I would just like to thank anyone who is reading this for following along my adventures. This summer has seen Catching Marbles really take off and I am SO grateful and thankful for all of you. Keep joy in your heart and go get some tea! Much love, Theophanes.
Today I was doing errands and decided to go on a hike afterwards. I found the Ayer Conservation Trails at 73 Groton-Harvard Road Ayer. It was weird, parking was on the opposite side of the road and the kiosk was behind a guard rail and didn’t look like it’d been replaced in yeeeears. I wandered down the trail and when I saw a VERY decrepit sign readin, “pond” with an arrow I followed.
Turned out this was just a series of viewpoints off the main trail but it was GORGEOUS. I took this short video to show you all and then was called home for an emergency so I didn’t get to complete the hike. But I decided to post this anyway because it was still very cool. Video below!
It’ not often we get to check out a new antique store! This one just moved to this quiet location in Cambridge. It doesn’t look like much from the outside but it was very decent.
This is one of the few antique stores that have a consistent vision of what they want to sell. Inside we found almost entirely furniture – all of it farmhouse, country chic, or rustic DIY. I loved it but…. I don’t have a house or the budget for this place. I don’t think I saw anything under a couple grand. Well, except for a giant basket out back marked $18. I pondered if there was a missing zero.
Despite the prices I would absolutely recommend this place for anyone looking for that old farmhouse feel. It’s by far the largest collection of rustic and country chic furniture I’ve ever seen in one place so if that’s your style and you’re blessed with more wealth than myself by all means check this place out!
Few things make me happier than finding a gargoyle in the wild. Imagine my pure delight when I noticed the church across the Grove Street Cemetery had several! Even better the whole building was COVERED in faces. Why, I have no idea but I was enamored. I wandered around the perimeter of the whole building learning that this was the Yale law school.
I eventually caught the attention of what I presume was a professor watching me with my camera excitedly pointing out every grotesque. He stopped, stood on his bike and watched, probably trying to figure out what I was up to. Was it something to be concerned about? Was I a student? A robber? A tourist? Hard to say.
There were also several other cool buildings and burials as we wandered. New Haven has a weird European feel to it as it is just so damn pretty! Anyway… for fellow hawkers and photographers I highly suggest giving it a good poke!
