Canterbury Shaker Village

Mark and I woke up on the morning of our fourth wedding anniversary and decided we needed to do something special. This is what we chose:


It's the Canterbury Shaker Village in Canterbury, New Hampshire. Our fourth Shaker village on our fourth wedding anniversary! I've wanted to visit for a while, but I wasn't sure how to make the trip work with Frances's nap schedule. She obliged by falling asleep as soon as we got in the car. This is rare. We arrived at the village just in time to join a tour. That's the Meeting House in the background.

An unencumbered view:

Mark and I thought Frances could meander around the edges of the tour, entertaining herself, while at least one of us learned about the village. We were wrong. Frances tried to cooperate by taking this picture of the tour:


But that was the extent of her interest. She and I soon headed out to greener pastures, while Mark stayed with the tour.

Frances and I found ourselves in a children's room where Frances could practice her weaving skills, though to the untrained eye it may have appeared that Frances just bedecked herself in strips of cloth and marched around the room.

I now know much more about marching around with strips of cloth draped over my neck than I do about the Canterbury Shaker Village, but I'll share what I learned. This white building was the Laundry House, which was needed for washing the laundry of 300 people with little mechanical help.

This is some of the 3,000 acres that once belonged to the Village, most of it donated by a farmer who became a Shaker.

This is a Shaker rock, which Frances enjoyed throwing.

This is a foundation of what used to be the largest barn in New Hampshire. Sadly, it was burned down in the 1970's, I'm guessing by the owner of the second largest barn in New Hampshire.

Frances and I practiced waving from the top of one part of the barn's foundation.

The original shabby chic, this is the Syrup House, although syrup was never actually made here. Instead, the Shakers made a Sarsaparilla tonic that was supposed to be good for all that ails.

We weren't supposed to take any pictures inside, but we honestly forgot and captured this one of Frances helping herself to the herb display. That's a stem off to her left.

It was a perfect way to spend our fourth anniversary. I'm hoping we will have the opportunity to return many times, and maybe even hear the tour. They have special activity days for sheep shearing and sleigh rides that I would love Frances to experience.