T Stands for Bleubeard and Squiggle's Friends

Winter is back here in New Hampshire. Yesterday (Monday the 4th) we had a snow day with no school, which was exciting as it was my birthday and I got to have a day all to myself. It is probably the only time in March the snow made me happy.

But now it is Tuesday and it is time for T again. Today for T I am taking you to visit a place that has lots of cats. I thought Bleubeard and Squiggles might like that.
(I have a lot of photos today and I will warn you my dates are approximate and are based on what I remember being told. If you are an expert on this subject you might have more specific information.)

 Ernest Hemingway (for those unfamiliar with American Literature) was an accomplished 20th century writer. He won both the Pulitzer Prize and a Nobel Prize, and maybe some other prizes too.

During the 1930's he lived with  his second wife in Key West, Florida in a house that is today a museum. It is the largest privately owned piece of land in Key West, 1 acre, and technically the house belonged to his second wife as she was very wealthy, and he was not.

The present family who owns the house turned it into a museum because after Hemingway's second wife unexpectedly died in the early 1950's, the house was sold to a woman who was then constantly bothered by people coming to her door and asking if it was the Hemingway House.
At the time the house became a museum, Hemingway had been divorced from his second wife and was married to someone else. He might have been  living in Havana, Cuba then as that is where he went after Key West.

Now Hemingway liked cats, especially those with extra toes.

There are still six toed cats living at the Hemingway House, many of them descendants from the original Snowball.

And they have the run of property too.

The cats even can sit on the furniture and sleep in the beds, which by the way have signs saying keep off the furniture. Those signs only apply to people.

This guy had the tour guides routine down and had found a perfect spot for a treat. We saw him do it 2 other times with other tour guides.

Now these cats have their own full time private veterinarian. Females have one liter of kittens and then they are neutered, just to control the numbers of cat.  There are in the neighborhood of 42 cats on the property.
The guides know all of the cats too.
But they have some pretty fancy digs besides the main house.

And when they die, they have their own cemetary on the property.

I hope neither Bleubeard or Squiggles get any big ideas from this post.
I even liked some of sidewalk decor.

I thought Hemingway's writing studio above the garage would be a great place for an art studio.

His decor wasn't exactly my style, but it was cool to see his actual furniture and where he had his most productive years of writing.

 And the gardens were so tropical and lush.

And lastly, there was the pool. Our guide told us that the Hemingways bought this house for $8000 around 1930, give or take a couple of years. When Hemingway was gone for awhile (maybe covering the Spanish Civil War as a reporter), his wife decided to add a pool. The pool cost over $20,000 dollars to put in. It replaced his beloved boxing ring.

 It is a nice pool. I would like something like that at my house, especially if I lived someplace it could be used more than a few months out of the year.

 I really liked this reflection photo.

When Hemingway returned and found out about the pool. he tossed a penny into it. He said something to the effect that his wife (Pauline) had spent everything including his last penny. She had the penny permanently put into this spot so she could always say I got every last cent out of him (after they were divorced that is).
And after that tour, it was time for lunch.

 And how about a Havana Red-Amber Ale to quench your thirst while you wait for your hamburger to come off the grill?
Join us at   Bleubeard and Elizabeth's  with your drink related posts, and you can see what all the T Gang has been recently up to.
Big thanks for visiting me today as I know it was a long post. Hope you enjoyed it.