As the temperatures slowly rise...

As the temperatures slowly rise and the earth dries out from a long, cold winter, we are sprucing up for the summer season! Here's a shot of our innkeeper, Big Red, getting the paths back in order and the newly installed string of bird feeders that Rich put together for us so we have lots of activity in our yard for the guests to enjoy!

Are you getting your plans ready for your flower planters and gardens? Tis' the season!

George Tooker will always be part of Windsor

"Subway"

Late last month, famous American artist, George Tooker passed away. Tooker received the 2007 National Medal of Art and lived in nearby Hartland, VT for many years. Windsor is lucky enough to have an incredible original 7 panel mural depicting the seven sacraments, at St. Francis of Assisi.

You can read more about the egg tempera paintings that he gave to the church in this article, "George Tooker: Small -town church, big-time artist", more about the man in this New York Times article, or a wonderful interview from Vermont Public Radio's, Nina Keck here.

If you haven't, take a minute to look through some of Tooker's work. It is haunting and profoundly beautiful. As curator, Robert Cozzolino said in Keck's interview,

One of the things that is exciting about George's work that will make them really remain in the minds of viewers for centuries to come is that he managed to say a lot through his visual depiction of the world around him and the human condition."

Our chat with Dr. Verghese

Last night we had the incredible opportunity to discuss "Cutting for Stone" with the author, Dr. Abraham Verghese via speaker phone. What a treat! He was as eloquent and articulate as the words in his book. He was very gracious and answered ALL of our questions along with a couple extra because he said he was having such a good time speaking with us. It was wonderful to sit in the Maxwell Perkins library and speak with another literary giant. The creative energy and passion was palpable. He mentioned that he attributes a lot of the success of the book to clubs like ours. This book is close to his heart and is to our as well now. It will be joining the shelves of the Maxwell Perkins library at Snapdragon Inn for sure!

If you couldn't make it last night or are interested check out this NPR interview discussing the book. His thoughts on the relationship and collaboration with his editor was especially of interest to us thanks to our connection with famed editor, Max Perkins.

Thank you NPR and Thank you Dr. Verghese for your time and thoughts. He asked that in order to complete this event that we take a picture of our club so he see could the faces of the people he was talking to.

We might not be able to speak with the author of our next book, but we have a wonderful time reading and discussing. Our next meeting is Thursday April 28th at 7PM and we are reading "Swan Thieves".

Sugarin' season 2011

photos via sublimeeye

Word is, it has been a pretty decent sugaring season this year in Vermont. I am sure some of our sugarmaking friends can tell us if that is true or not but there is absolutely nothing like fresh warm maple syrup.

We visited a local sugarhouse last week and thought we'd share some of the pictures from our adventure. If you are visiting Vermont during the sugaring season, you must stop by one of the these and take a look. Each is different with varying degrees of technology but did we mention, there is nothing quite like warm, fresh Vermont maple syrup? Oh we did.

They Raymond family are just down the road in Hartland, Vermont and have the perfect set up to check out the whole process. We watched them gather the sap (from buckets and from their lines), boil, and went home with a fresh warm quart of syrup! You can go to their own site and purchase your very own! After seeing all the work and involved AND tasting its deliciousness, It is soooooo worth the small investment to have pure Vermont maple syrup!

Only Hours Left To Help!

250 Years:250 People is a project about community and how art, photography, storytelling, and media can all intersect to help open up new lines of communication as well as document important moments in time. We are trying to raise the money required to create:

*Dedicated website which will feature audio stories, video, and photos of 250+ Vermonters
*Short documentary film on the process of creating the project with subject interviews.
*Gallery show on Main Street in Windsor with the option to travel statewide.
*An multimedia ePub edition available in Apple’s iBook and for other e-readers.

*Photo essay book containing the final photos.
*Digital archive of the project presented to the Windsor Library & Vermont State Archives

And while the project is centered on Windsor, the themes of community, economics, history, and culture are universal. We really think people will find this project engaging far beyond the borders of this town.

We need your help in these last few hours to make it happen. If we do not reach our goal on Kickstarter, we do not receive any of the pledged funding so far--it is an all or nothing proposal. So please share the links, take five minutes to watch the video and review our project, and become a backer if you can. Pledge levels start at $1 and there are great rewards at every level of funding.

Thanks so much to all who have participated so far--we look forward to making this project something great!

April Fools on us!

Snow on April 1st! This is enough prank for everyone, although I can't say we are surprised since we live in Vermont and must expect these sorts of events. It is just kind of sad when they actually occur. Luckily, it's warm outside (well 35) and it won't be sticking around very long.

On couple of more positive items for today.

First, we had a wonderful Literary Club meeting last night and came up with lots of insights and questions to ask Dr. Verghese next week when he calls into our club to discuss his book. We also chose our book for our April 28th meeting. We will be reading "The Swan Thieves" by Elizabeth Kostova which sounds like it will be an interesting contrast to "Cutting for Stone". You can join the group here.

And finally, do you have an anniversary coming up with your special someone? If so, couples love the quiet, relaxation, and convenience of the Inn. Check out our newest review on TripAdvisor. They stayed in Room 6.

The rooms were luxurious; from the comfortable beds, high end linens and a heated bathroom floor it seems that not a detail was missed. I can’t wait for our next anniversary to come back!

Thank you for the wonderful review! We love the opportunity to create w lovely and relaxing experience at the Snapdragon Inn. See you next year.

Enjoy your weekend! We will be thinking sun!