Mother Nature has been rather coy so far this year in New Hampshire. She got cool in August, cool enough we at the Rosewood Country Inn were wondering if we'd see snow in September! But then, suddenly we were in what was always called "Indian Summer" back when I was growing up. We had the air conditioners going and the change over from summer to fall dragged out a bit longer into October as a result. We loved it, but figuring out the right time to pick our favorite apples at the area PYO apple orchards was a challenge!
But now, all of a sudden we are expecting low and below teens this weekend and we saw our first faint glimpse of snow flurries this afternoon. So perhaps our efforts to tighten up the Inn this spring, summer and fall will start to bear fruit. Dan, our handyman and I have been painting, caulking, adding insulation and replacing siding about the old Victorian all year it seems. When you own an older place, especially one as large as our wonderful Inn is you get used to never ending discoveries. So are quasi expected, some make you smile, a couple make you scratch your head and few make you just go "what in the world were they thinking?"! But it's fun in its own way, always a challenge to figure out how to both stay true to the original structure, but at the same time improve it to make sure the grand old lady is here for another 166 years.
Hopefully all of our improvements that we've undertaken will help to make our Winter's tale with Rebecca Rule a little warmer in the dining room. Our skiers still want to snuggle just enough in front of their fires - but more cause they want to, and keep our murder mysteries, comedy nights and all the other fun and somewhat crazy ideas my wife and our team come up with little more comfortable as the snow begins to fly up in our little piece of New England near Mt Sunapee!
