New towels!

How do you know when you've been innkeeping for a long time? You get really excited about...NEW TOWELS!

In a blinding rain I drove to Wells today to pick up our new towels. We get them at the Cannon Outlet on Rt 1 just south of the Wells Auto Museum (same side of the road). On Tuesday I drove down to buy a few towels to 'test'. I brought them home, washed and dried them and then handed them out to the guests to do the 'touch test'. As far as I know, those 4 guests were stopping in at the outlet to buy the towels they tested!

Yesterday I called the warehouse and ordered 4 dozen of each towel size plus 2 dozen floor mats. The floor mats are 50% bamboo and they are the softest floor mat I've ever stepped on. (Yup, bought one for us, too!)

So, you know what we'll be doing for the next couple of days...washing and drying! I hope we can get everything changed out by Monday. We went with the Vista Spa model which is a large, thick, soft towel with good drying ability. Rock likes a towel that does the job it's supposed to do and looks good while doing it. (Hey, that sounds like a description of Rock himself!)

For those who are wondering what happens to all of the old towels, fear not...we take them to a homeless shelter for use either at the shelter or to give to the folks moving into their own new housing.

The driving today was miserable, I do have to say. I usually love the drive to Wells because I stop at Ogunquit Beach to go for a walk. Not today. Ugh. It was awful out there, simply driving rains on the interstate which had traffic going 40-45 MPH. So, given I missed my walk on the beach, I treated myself to a lobster roll at Day's on Rt 1 South, just across the border from Freeport in Yarmouth. Yum-o!

I think I'm going to blog about lobster roll sometime. It'll be tough doing the research, but someone has to do it!

Our tax dollars at work

About 6 weeks ago we came home to find big pink lines drawn at the end of the driveway. Hmmm. What could this mean? There were lines drawn at the top of the street as well and a large boulder that was protruding from the pavement had also been sprayed.

One day a few weeks ago, some heavy equipment showed up. The end of the driveway was ground up, the end of the road was ground up and the boulder was dug out. Paving season had begun in Maine!

Friday last week the really heavy equipment rolled in and we got new paving all down the street. Joy and rapture! You've walked out of the driveway so you know what a mess it was up top at the 'zebra crossing'. No more. It's lovely.

I'm not big on paving but this looks mahvelous dahling!

Freeport, Maine happenings

My goodness! Go away for a couple of days to see the new baby (she IS precious, BTW!) and things happen all over town!

Zales Jewelers (on the corner of Bow and Main Sts) has closed. Not sure what is going to go into that space yet.

Quite a few shops are now open in the new Village Station...Izod, LL Bean Outlet, Coach, Nike, Brooks Brothers and others are having the finishing touches put on them. Linda Bean's Perfect Maine Lobster Roll is set to open around July 4. The 'hole in the wall' lobster roll shop is still open right on the side of the Bike & Boat store on Main St.

Freeport Square, the art & music venue on Main St is moving up one door to the old Pet Pantry location. Where Freeport Square is now located, a new family-style Italian restaurant is going in- Siano's Pizza of Portland. Also on Main St, Amato's is opening a storefront pizza and sandwich shop right next to Mangy Moose.

The Freeport Cabaret now has outdoor seating and a new menu along with their new name: Venue. They are located on Depot St right across from the entrance to the new parking garage, which is also open. And parking is free!

The Farmers Market is open every Friday afternoon from 2-6 PM in the Town Hall parking lot. Last week I got some homemade hummus, some basil and rosemary plants for the herb garden, a terrific blueberry scone and some rosemary and olive oil soap. The veggies are really starting to come in now and you have to check out the fresh meats (lamb, goat, pork) and Gryffon spices to top it all off.

In the old Sadie Green's building a is new fine art gallery called 'Beautiful Gallery'. They just opened on Saturday so we haven't been in yet. Hoping there is a grand opening gala sometime soon!

Here at White Cedar Inn, I'm finishing up painting the porch railing and will be getting the porch deck ready for staining. Reming me to do this more frequently so it doesn't take so long next time!

The gardens are looking wonderful! Here's a shot from the dining room window.

New arrival!

The new granddaughter made her debut this morning at 8:57 AM.

7 lbs, 9 ozs of little baby girl. She screamed her greetings into the phone. Everyone is doing well!

A tulip grows in the mulch pile

Sometimes, you just get to 'cleaning up' a little too much and you find that you've tossed good bulbs into the mulch pile along with the leaves and weeds...

What innkeepers do when there are no guests.

I was thinking you might be interested to know what we do when you're not here. (Then again, maybe you think we're akin to teachers-who thinks teachers exist outside the classroom!) So, I went through some of the photos I've taken this year to show what we've done. Here, then, is a little photo album of what the innkeepers did since January...
One thing was to have the upstairs, and the stairs themselves carpeted. We did not, however do this work ourselves. If we did do such a big project ourselves, those of you who have been here this spring would have been handed some carpet tacks and a hammer and been asked to pitch in...we are sloooooooow when it comes to big stuff!


Some smaller projects that we can do ourselves and still get them done before summer are things like retiling a bathroom floor.

Before the new tile goes in, though, the old tile has to come out. Advice to beginners that they don't show you on any of those bathroom redo shows on TV- wear a full face shield when chipping up old tile.

Rock had a group of innkeepers here for a meeting thinking he needed medical attention due to all the little cuts and scrapes he had from flying tile.



Then there are the even smaller indoor projects like updating old cushions on chairs and making table runners and tablecloths for the dining room.

I'm particularly happy with this project (the floral is the new cushion) because I actually finished it.

These chairs are in the living room at the games table.



Pretty soon, it warms up and we head outside to clean up after the winter.

We've added this new sign to make it easier to find the stairs. With all of the evergreens along the stairs (even though we took out 2 of them last year) it's still tricky figuring out where to go when you first arrive.

We did this with a stencil we ordered online. Only took 10 coats of paint and 2 tries to get this one right. (Yes, I know the lattice still needs to be painted. It's on the list!)



And because we're tired of all the gloom and doom everywhere, we've decided to 'get happy' here with some of the outdoor color schemes.To that end, we bought the red and yellow Adirondack chairs and then decided to paint the old 'motel' chairs and table in what are fondly known around here as 'orange tractor' and 'school bus' colors.

There is no way to sit in these chairs and be glum!



There are also a couple of serious projects we've done this week. One of those was the repair of the sidewalk outside the front door. We had some pretty heavy rains this past year which have progressively been washing out the sand underneath the sidewalk. That has lead to water pooling in places it ought not. This project should help (as it's raining today, we'll see how it works out).

Had to take this shot a couple of time as the glare off the top of Rock's head was blinding me. (Don't tell him I said that!)



The last big project we're going to get to this year is painting the front porch. So far, this is all I've gotten done. Can't paint in the rain and scraping paint in the rain is messy. I'll be back to this tomorrow or Thursday.

Hope you enjoyed this little tour through our project list! Also hope you enjoy the results when you get here.

It's really greening up out there, so make plans to come and visit.





You didn't think I was going to tell you EVERYTHING we do when you're not here, did you?

Wink.

Maine Tourmaline

Maine tourmaline, the state gem, is in the news in Down East magazine. As many of you know, you can 'mine' for tourmaline at several locations. To experience mining for yourself, check out Western Maine Mineral Adventures.

If you have no desire to get dirty but still want a true Maine tourmaline gem to take home, including the knockout 'watermelon' tourmaline, be sure to stop by RD Allen Jewelers on Middle Street in Freeport where they have a fantastic collection of tourmaline in all colors.

Congratulations to Jacqueline's Tea Room!

Jacqueline's Tea Room is on the Yankee Magazine 'Best of New England' list in the May/June, 2009 issue! 'Best Proper English Tea' is the heading- page 151. The Tea Room is just up the street from us. Full tea is served Tuesday-Friday and every other weekend. 207-865-2123 for reservations (required).

The Desert of Maine is another Freeport location on the list. (Best Place to Park Your Camel)

A 'Best Bargain' is the LL Bean Walk-On Adventure. At $15, you cannot go wrong!

What's new in Freeport

A quick rundown of what's new in town, boy do things change quickly!

• Arlberg Sports has moved out of town. That space will be taken over by the Beadin' Path, which moves out of its location, right next door.
• Harry and David is closing.
• Mexicali Blues is expanding and should have the new space open today (May 1).
• Summer Shades is moving in where Sunglass Hut is now. (Sunglass Hut is moving to the new Village Station.)
• Maine Embroidery is moving to the old Wilbur's Chocolates building. (Wilbur's moved last year to its new location a few feet south on Rt 1.)
• Wilbur's is doing tours of the factory on May 1, 9, 23 & 30 from 11 AM - 2 PM ($3, includes samples).
• Morrisons Chowder House is now Freeport Chowder House, same location on Mechanic Street, different owners, different recipe.
• Cumberland Farmers Market in Freeport opens on May 22 (will go until early Oct, every Friday). 2-6 PM. See our blog post about one day at the market last year. At the Town Hall on Main Street. (Town Hall driveway and parking lot will be used, please park on West St.)
  
• A new art gallery is opening on Main Street. As yet unnamed and no opening date. They'll be in the former Sadie Greens building up by us. (Sadie Green moved last year, right next door to Wicked Whoopies.)
• The 1912 Cafe opened in LL Bean. It is run by the good folks from Buck's Naked BBQ.
• Coach is moving to the new Village Station.
• Cole Haan is renovating their store and will reopen in May with a second entrance right onto the Village Station.
• All this talk about the Village Station reminds me that an actual train station is slated to be built for the arrival next year of the DownEaster, which will continue up from Portland, through Freeport and on to Brunswick.
• A new sidewalk is going in alongside LL Bean on Justin's Way. Very nice for heading to the back parking lots and Discovery Park.
• Bre's 11th birthday is coming up on Mothers Day. Some of you may know that she gets a Ben & Jerry's ice cream on her big day.
• Speaking of birthdays, we're waiting for the arrival of the new granddaughter, she's expected around Mothers Day, but she'll get here when she wants to!
• You can now follow us on Twitter or be a fan on Facebook.

Whew! More on Freeport as we get information.

Popham Beach Redux

So, a couple of years ago I wrote about Popham Beach right after we returned from our annual Christmas walk on the beach. What a difference a couple of years make! After the Patriot's Day storm in April 2008, the tides turned, literally. Erosion on the beach has made it impossible to walk out to the Fox Islands unless the tide is VERY low, and even then it is not a good idea. The chance of being stuck out there is high.

This is what the beach looks like headed in a southerly direction. To compare what it looked like a couple of years ago, check the previous blog post.

What you see above USED to be the dunes. The erosion is so bad in some spots that it is at least a 10' drop from the now-closed path to the beach. Here's an example, with Flat Stanley standing in for a measuring stick. (FS is about 1' tall.)

In spite of the erosion, it's still a great walk on the beach. It's better to plan your walk at low tide than around high tide. Along with the erosion, though, an interesting new beach area has been formed with lots of driftwood tossed up making some comfortable places to sit and just contemplate the placid, ever-changing, always the same ocean.

It's also a great opportunity to walk around to Fort Popham, along the Kennebec River. Something we're going to accomplish one of these days!

New flower beds

With the beautiful weather we've had the past few days and the chance of a good watering for the plants tomorrow, I was scurrying around today to get a new flower bed planned and somewhat executed.

Unfortunately, when Rock was pulling out the cotoneaster by the roots with a rope tied around the hitch on his car, I was inside talking on the phone and so missed a rare opportunity for interesting photos. Suffice it to say, the cotoneaster stopped the Buick in its tracks and the rope snapped. Luckily, it had pulled up somewhat by that time.

If you are ever tempted to plant this shrub, be forewarned, it digs in and hangs on and spreads all on its own. We're already finding 'mini me's' in random spots.

Also unfortunate is that Rock doesn't take a lot of photos unless I hand him the camera and say, 'Take a picture of me doing this,' (whatever 'this' might be) so there are no photos to be had of me running the cultivator this morning prepping the new bed. Also no pix of me edging the whole thing, either. You'll just have to wonder at what it must have looked like!

If you've been here before, you know this is the bed right by the entry stairs. It's been getting a bit overgrown and the cotoneaster is really good for catching leaves and random McD's wrappers that get tossed from cars, so it really needed to go.

Other diggings and plantings have been happening as well. Outside the Bowdoin's back window, I planted a small bed with a shrub whose name I do not know (help appreciated when you see it) and some hostas. We moved the red dogwood away from the house and placed it in a new bed at the end of the wall where the hostas grow. And, we moved another one of those name-not-known shrubs away from the house and put it in the new bed above. (More pix are coming when the plants are in and the mulch is down.)

Where those 2 shrubs were, I hope to get in some herbs this year. It's a great, sunny location so they should take off.

OK, one last pic- our tulips which delight me by returning every year (sometimes not where I thought they would as the moles & voles move them around).