Summer has flown by and finally we can  enjoy August’s more predictable weather, a lessened number of mosquitoes (the ones that are here still find me!) and clear nights watching shooting stars as we annually pass through the Milky Way.  Last night we saw 8 huge shooting stars whose tails stretched right across the sky as they blazed from the north to the south eastern sky.  We have no light pollution up here so the viewing was fabulous.  We also enjoyed campfires with some of our B&B guests, and took a mini-vacation during last week.

We started up in Parry Sound at the Festival of Sound’s Brazilian Jazz Cruise, then over to Wasaga Beach for our annual sunburn day, then finally up to the Haliburton Wildlife and Wolf Reserve. We took a little personal tour of the area’s local waterfalls first and then took part in the centre’s evening wolf howl.  Although I did my best howl – the resident eastern wolves were unresponsive. I guess I’ll have to practice more with our neighbours’ mountain dogs.  The next day we walked the famous Canopy Tour where I overcame a lifetime fear of  heights! I highly (excuse the pun) recommend it.

Back home, we all too quickly jumped back into our B&B routine and hosted a plethera of guests that weekend.  We recently enjoyed some Red Hatters that came up for a luncheon. They are always such a pleasure to serve!

We are now experimenting with selling our Garden Gate tearoom’s famous Cranberry Orange Scones and jams at our neighbours’ highway corn stands  surrounding our town.  I’ll keep you posted on how that goes.  Well, I’m off to watering and weeding the gardens.  Come on up and see the profusion of brown-eyed susans and summer phlox.  Relax with the sight and smells of late summer up at The Haven.

creating the Haven Booth

We began an early spring by getting involved in the Boomer Health and Lifestyle Show in Linday, ON. We used some old theatrical set pieces and recreated our Garden Gate tearoom interior, with a B&B exterior.  We were able to network a lot, managed to sell some teapots and even sold out of a few of our teas.

Since this weather has been so warm, our summer perennials are surpassing their spring bulb bedfellows. The daffodils are swaying in the dry breezes as the hyacinths are slowly peeking their heads out of the soil.  We have hardly had any spring rain as yet and I have already had to water the gardens twice.  However, I am comforted that the life of my flowers is not in my hands but in the hands of the Master Gardener who sustains all living things great and small.  After building a twig arbour for our new pathway to the house (the path will come a little later), and planting some hedge along the driveway, we are focusing on the outside before the mad rush of tourist season begins in just a couple of weeks. Already May is filling up with B&B  and tearoom reservations; we are feeling the remanents of last year’s recession dissipating from our little haven north of the GTA. 

We invite you to our next event here at The Haven -Our 4th Annual Mother’s Day High Tea.  With no serious advertising done as yet, we opened up Saturday afternoon , May 8th just in case - since we are halfway to being sold out on Sunday, May 9th already! Until I blog again, I’d like to leave you with some beautiful words written by Emilie Barnes, a woman who loves gardening like I do…..

“Garden time is time that involves itself in the moment, that passes each moment fully alive, that focuses on the soaring stateliness of trees and the minute scale of the tiniest blossom and insect.  Garden time requires daily attention but does not require that everything be done in a day.  Come away from your rat race, your conveyor belt, your traffic jam, to be renewed and refreshed in the company of growing things.  It won’t take long, but it will feel like a day in the country.  You’re on garden time now.  It’s time the way God created it; as a servant and not a master. 

I hope you will make time to be in the garden.  I hope you will take the time to be still and experience the paradise you have helped to create.  And if you really don’t have the time or the space or the inclination to start and maintain a garden, I hope you will find a way to have a flower in your life, even if only by reading about it or by purchasing a bouquet from a street vendor.”

Emilie Barnes,

Everything I Know I Learned in My Garden

Christmas has come and gone and we have rung in the New Year with great anticipation!  This year, 2010, is a milestone year for us in a number of ways.  First of all, it is our 5th year in our home – The Haven Bed and Breakfast.   Secondly, we are celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary this August.  We are also both celebrating our 50th birthdays (we sure don’t act it even if we may look it….). Finally but not the least important, we are in our first year of the Garden Gate Tearoom.  Lots to celebrate and so we shall!

First things first.  As we wonder whether we are in for any more huge dumps of snow (the forecast is saying no at least this week), we are in the throws of preparing for our 4th Annual Valentine’s Day Victorian Tea.  Every year we have been sold out and we anticipate no less this year.  The recession has slowed B&B traffic down a little so far this winter, but our Garden Gate tearoom guests continue to arrive hungry and in a hurry, and leave  full, relaxed and rejuvenated. Conversations during tea time flow in between tasty morsels and sweets; laughter and giggles are overheard through whispered reinactments of past times together;  sometimes even a tear or two unwittingly escapes as friends connect deeply from the heart.

And so, as tea is good for all parts of you, including the heart, we extend our warmest invitation to join us here at the Garden Gate Tearoom for our special Valentine’s Day Victorian Tea to be held on Sunday, February 14th with your choice of a 2 pm or 6:30 pm reservation. All ladies will receive a beautiful rose as a gift from us!  Bring your special someone here  – we’d love to spoil you with ambiance, great food, and our excellent customer service in order to make this a Valentine’s Day to remember!

To make this event a truly memorable one if you visiting from out of town, think about extending your Valentine’s celebration by staying overnight in one of our lovely guest suites in the Haven B&B.  We are offering a special discount for that evening as the next day is a national holiday and you can sleep in!  Ask about our romantic extras that we can have waiting for you in your room such as truffles, bouquet of flowers, or a personalized gift basket for a  nominal extra charge.

Well, my teatime is past, and bedtime is imminent.  Have a TEAriffic New Year, and hope to see you soon.  Feel free to comment about your tea experiences, your visit to either this site or to the Garden Gate Tearoom.  We’d love to hear your thoughts!

Sweet tea dreams,

Sylvia

Welcome friends – past, present and future! It has been a long and interesting journey from simple beginnings in 2006 opening with 3 rooms, a simple website, home-made brochures by “yours truly”, and a single home phone number – to a new Logo branding, call-forwarding to my business cell phone (I have entered into the modern world now), opening a 4th guest room, the Garden Gate Tearoom addition in 2008, a retail component this summer and now our new interactive website with a blog!

The tea venture has been a good decision for us and it has proven to be a real joy sharing the decadence and graces of “Afternoon Tea” with local residents and tourists young and old alike. It has allowed local day guests to be able to share in the same peaceful, home-away-from-home ambiance that our more long-distance overnight guests are privy to (and be just as well-fed too!) The Garden gate Tearoom has its own blog separate from this one and all things “tea” will be posted there.

Have fun checking out this new website of ours. We think our website designer is terrific and has done a great job of capturing the same “Haven” essence of the old site with the much better administrative functionality of this new one. Don’t forget to turn the music back on for those who liked it. I am aware that in the past it was very annoying for the musical background to keep starting over every time you went to a new page so we fixed that for you.

We REALLY want to hear your comments on what you think of our new site, especially if you have been used to seeing our old one. I look forward to reading your thoughts, ideas, comments, etc. I will fill you in on neat little tidbits, local happenings and stories whenever they come my way, so let us know if you want to be on our automatic email list when there is a new post. We’ll get you on board.