First snow of 2011

Snow began falling Sunday afternoon and didn’t stop until late Monday morning. We have about six inches of beautiful fluffy snow blanketing the town. I wanted to wait until the snow stopped before I put on my parka and boots to shovel the porch and sidewalks. To my utter delight someone beat me to the job! I looked out the front windows to see my neighbor, his son (who used to be my neighbor), and their friend all scooping snow on my property. They seemed to be quite jolly while doing it. I’m thinking my thank-you will take the form of something baked.

There’s very little traffic today on the streets. I suppose most people are staying indoors, just as Baxter and I are. It’s very cozy here. The 102-year-old cast iron radiators are radiating away and the teakettle is steaming. The larder is stocked, so there’s no need to go out before tomorrow.

I hope you’re cozy and safe wherever you are. And I hope you’ll snuggle in at the Tea Rose Inn sometime soon!

Never a boring breakfast

I love my "frequent fliers"...guests who return again and again and become friends in the process. But most innkeepers will tell you that the best part of this business is having the chance to meet and sometimes (if the house is not too terribly hectic) get acquainted with people from all walks of life. People who live such different lives from mine that our paths would not likely have crossed any other way.

Just in the last three days I've had at the TRI a retired fighter pilot; a big-city crime scene investigator, just like the ones on t.v.; a retired couple who are on a month-long road trip in their shiny new little red Corvette; a woman who shares (and probably exceeds) my love of fiber arts, who showed me how to use a drop spindle; and two faithful return guests, one of whom I see frequently at the B&B and the other who is here once or twice a year. Now do you think the breakfast table is ever a boring place to be with company like that? Hardly!

Besides the good company and engrossing coversations, we've all been enjoying the juiciest, tastiest peaches from my own tree. The fruit was a bit late ripening this year, but well worth the wait.

International Summer

The past few months have been particularly "international" at the TRI. I've had guests from Thailand, Korea, Denmark, Canada, Italy, the Phillipines, Rwanda, and three parties from Germany. Not bad for the middle of Kansas!

The other day I got an unscheduled visit from a couple who, judging by their names and accents, I took to be German. Wrong! They are from an ethnically German area of Italy where they grew up bilingual. Currently they live in Canada, and were vacationing in the American West. With English they are least trilingual, which leaves me a little awestruck. I thought that they emobodied this international summer, and how fitting that they visited at the very end!

Where did summer go?

My little B&B, now in its 12th year of operation, has just had its busiest summer ever. That's why I haven't blogged all summer! But I'm having a blessedly moderate week before the Labor Day weekend, and I'm determined to use my spare time to catch up on a few neglected projects.

Some projects are very pleasant, like the needlework I've done in the last week. Two or three years ago I found an attractive wool wall hanging at an antiques store and bought it for the Homestead Room. But the yarn was broken in a few small places, so it sat on my "to do" pile for a long time. Finally got out my sewing kit last week, made some careful repairs, and now it's decorating the west wall of the room.

A few months ago I inherited a very old wool patchwork quilt, made from men's suits. I thought it would look great hanging in the Homestead Room. It's in perfect condition, except that the edges had never been bound. So off it went to the infamous "to do" pile. Last night I stitched the last stitch on the binding (by hand, of course). Now to figure out how to hang it before weekend guests start arriving tomorrow!

In a couple of hours I will make my way out to the garden to give it some much-needed attention. Much of our summer was so brutally hot that working outdoors was just unbearable. But recent rains and a cool front that blew in at midday today have made for some pleasant gardening conditions. Looking forward to a lovely evening outdoors.

On a day like today you can really believe that summer is almost behind us and fall is around the corner. That means the fresh summer flavors we've been enoying--perfect melons, basil and chives, peaches and cherries--will fade into pears and apples, pumpkin muffins and gingerbread pancakes. I always try to use local and seasonal foods whenever possible. The changing of the seasons, for me, is marked as much by the foods of the season as the changing of leaves and grasses and temperatures.

I hope you'll come and share the season at the Tea Rose Inn B&B sooner rather than later.

Blue skies

What a bodacious storm we had last night! Hays is typically on the edge of storms, but last night we were right in the middle of it. When the storm siren sounded I and my one guest did the sensible thing and waited it out in the middle of the basement with the emergency kit nearby. Several tornadoes touched ground within a few miles of town, but I didn't hear of any serious damage done, which was a miracle.

Once in a great while we get a little stormy excitement like that. But it's like I tell my B&B guests--this house has been standing unscathed for 101 years now, and that's a pretty good record.

Nevertheless, I was moved to go out and buy a weather radio today. I opted for a "crank" model, so I can manually recharge the batteries. I can also use it to recharge my cell phone and computer, although there's no telling how much cranking those would entail. It has a built-in flashlight and AM/FM radio. I was pretty pleased to get all that for 40 bucks!

I also replaced the bottled water stash with fresh bottles. All ready for the next cautionary basement visit, or winter power outage (also rare here).

Now, if you only know Kansas by reputation and not experience, you might think Kansans are always rushing down to their primitive cellars to escape enormous twisters, like the one in The Wizard of Oz. I am a lifelong fan of that movie. I'm pretty sure I know all the dialog by heart. I love TWOO. But I am also reasonably sure that those dull, gray scenes of a perfectly flat landscape (it was a soundstage, folks, not the real thing) are more responsible than anything for the image most people still have of Kansas. That is, unless they've actually been here and have dared to stray more than a mile or two from the interstate. It's a beautiful state, and part of that beauty is in our dramatic skies.

Yes, a tornado ocassionally drops out of those dramatically gorgeous skies. But no more often than in a dozen other states, and that's a fact. So come see Kansas! I can recommend all kinds of day trips and short excursions with the Tea Rose Inn as the base camp. And if necessary, we can huddle together in the basement with a well-stocked emergency kit until the skies turn blue again. Really, really blue.

Tea for Two

A lovely young couple is enjoying the "Tea for Two" package this weekend in celebration of their first anniversary. They're new to Kansas, and I'm proud to say they chose Hays for their first weekend getaway. They've been antiquing and spent some time at the Sternberg Museum.

I don't often meet young people who are so enthusiastic about tea. We had the best conversation about all things camellia sinensis. For their afternoon tea I served my house blend, tea and roses, with finger sandwiches and assorted sweets. This evening they have a dessert tea in their room:  green Darjeeling in cut crystal mugs and cheesecake with chocolate sauce. A cheery vase of flowers and a scented candle add to the ambiance and are theirs to take home.

At breakfast I may serve apricot brandy tea, since they mentioned an apricot flavored tea they'd enjoyed somewhere. That should nicely complement the special French toast with berries I have planned for tomorrow.

During afternoon tea the young man commented on the Celtic music I had playing. That led to me mentioning Tinderbox, my musical guests from the U.K. (see May 7 post). We ended up listening to the Tinderbox CD, and they really liked that too, no surprise.

Now I'm enjoying a glass of ICED tea under the ceiling fan at the end of this unseasonably hot day. All in all a very satisfying day.

Toto, we're in Kansas...

That's why two days ago the cloudy, rainy weather made it necessary to have the furnace on during the day, and today I had to switch on the air conditioner at 10 a.m.! That's Kansas in springtime.