Winter Wonderland

Well it has been slow coming but worth the wait.  Six inches last night and the sun is shining today. What more could anyone ask.  Hope everyone had a safe and happy Christmas and have fun planning your winter playground holiday!

New Store, New Menu, New Hours

We've been very busy at the inn this spring making some big changes.  We have added a great new country store for you to browse through.  It has quite an ecclectic mix of merchandise.  We were aiming for  unusual, whimiscal, funny and delicious.  I think we have done pretty well.

To go along with our new store we created a new menu and opened the restaurant all day.  We have been smoking our own meat and fish and the results have been quite marvelous. The fruits of these labours are yours to enjoy.  Pastrami, pulled pork, smoked brisket and salmon. 

We created our own sauces for the pulled pork and the brisket and soon they

will be available for you to take home and use for your own barbeque.

Days a wastin' so I had better get going.  More later.

June

Obviously blogging is not my thing but I just had to share this morning.  The gardens are starting to

pop.  Peony, iris, lupins - all glorious.

I underestimated

Just shoveled two walks and the car and called it quits.  There is over a foot of new stuff out there and I shovelled twice yesterday!  Butter tart day just turned into plow and shovel day!

.....still snowing

No rain here in the Madawaska Valley folks.  Wet heavy stuff yesterday and last night it got colder and man did it snow. Must be 6 or 8 inches of light stuff on top of the heavy.  Haven't been out to shovel yet this morning to be more exact but trees are laden.  Trails will be amazing.

Fresh Snow

Well as you can see I am not a good blogger.  Too many things in a day calling me away from my desk.
I guess that is a good thing.  I did want to let everyone know that the snow is falling here big time this morning.  After the very disappointing melt down last week we had 2 inches of fresh stuff yesterday and it is snowing hard today.  Looking good for sledding going into march.

We had two groups here this weekend.  One doing RAP and one just out for some day sledding and even with less than ideal conditions a good time was had by all.

Oh the Peonies!

On top of the list for June's many virtues, has to be the peony.  My love for them grows every year.
The gardens here at the inn have somehow managed to accumulate nine different varieties, some of which I know and some remain a mystery.  They range from fuchsia pink to white, last for ages in a vase, smell divine, and the plant looks great in the garden till frost  What more could you ask.  Don't forget this June to stop and smell the peonies.

Had a brief getaway myself this week.  A friend and I had a night in Ottawa.  When you live in the country, you go to the city for your break but I had to laugh at our choices.  We ate lunch sitting on a rock looking out over the Ottawa river.  We stopped our tour of Rockcliffe Park when I saw what looked like a path into the bush.  Sure enough it was a lovely walk through what appeared to be a very old estate which was mostly given back to nature.  We also left the city early so we could take a scenic route home through the country.
So much for the city break. 

What I wanted to mention was the noise.  It was so loud in Ottawa with traffic, construction and industrial sized lawn mowers that I couldn't wait to get away.  Apart from our lovely drinks and dinner at Zoe's in the Chateau Laurier it really was an assault to the senses. So take a break folks and come up for some peace and quiet - and while you are here you can smell the peonies.