One of the very nicest B&B’s I found while on a hiking vacation in New Zealand had a wonderful sparkling clean bathroom with a huge multi-jet shower, a whirlpool tub, warm towels, and two sinks. But the best thing about the bathroom was the lavender amenities – local products of very good quality that smelled […]
Read MoreTwo Jane Austen weekends in a row always leaves me trying to catch up with lots of things around the inn. But as I’m doing that catching up, I think of all the good memories and good pictures that went away with my guests and I don’t mind a bit. The weather was beautiful on […]
Read MoreIt’s August, the time when people around the village of Hyde Park start again mentioning to me that they have noticed ladies in long dresses wandering around the grounds of the Governor’s House, playing croquet or carefully holding their parasols to protect them from the sun. Period dress is always optional, but many guests enjoy […]
Read MoreSomething new will be happening at the Governor’s House in Hyde Park. The Vermont Apple Pie Literary and Travel Society will be holding dinner-discussions here starting in October. Mary Ann Shaffer’s best-selling novel is the obvious inspiration for the Vermont Apple Pie Literary and Travel Society. The fictional Guernsey Literary and Potato Pie […]
Read MoreThere are two bits of news that I am happy to share. The first may not seem like a great announcement, but it has taken years for me to be able to make it. And it is that the mountain laurel is blooming. These are plants that I brought with me when I moved here […]
Read MoreI have returned from my springtime travels, bringing back good memories and a few new ideas for the coming season. The newest trend in London also works well in Hyde Park, Vermont. They start with full English afternoon tea with tea sandwiches, warm scones with clotted cream and jam, and little sweets, add a cup […]
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We are starting with a soup course. Soup might be ladled from a soup tureen, or as we have it, already in bowls as we sit down. Most of the guests tonight have rimmed soup bowls, also called deep plates. I have a cream soup bowl, which is smaller in diameter and taller with no […]
Read MoreWe arrive into the dining room to find the table set for dinner. But tonight not all the place settings match. Sometimes it is fun and perfectly acceptable to use a variety of different china patterns and other things to make the table interesting. Here the china matches, but the differences are in the settings […]
Read MoreThe etiquette talk was an important part of the evenings and we started with a bit of definition. Simply put, etiquette is the code of rules which a society holds to establish expected behavior. My talk is exclusively about etiquette at dinner and in western Europe and the United States which, for the most part, […]
Read MoreI am very happy to announce one additional activity for the Jane Austen in character weekend on August 2nd. Tess Quinn will read a story from her recently-published book, Pride Revisited. It is a collection of “interludes”, scenes that can be inserted into the plot of Pride and Prejudice at given moments without necessarily changing […]
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