Friday, June 6, 2014

At last, lilacs!

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Hors d'oeuvres at the inn
The blooms are behind—I’ve never thrown open the red doors of the inn without armfuls of lilacs taken from right outside.  Never have the purple chive heads been so stubborn to open.  And yet, the tulips, tossed in at the last minute in the fall, cheerfully greet guests and we do have chives to snip onto the gorgeous eggs my chickens are laying (and they are laying!).

Our favorite restaurants are opening:  We got to Stonington last week and discovered that Devin Finigan at Aragosta has started curing meats.  She even has a lobster sausage!  I can tell you from first hand experience that the lobster ravioli is better than ever. Guests who went there last night raved about the lobster po'boy and the view.
Wines and meats at Aragosta

I haven’t gotten to Whale’s Rib yet—I’m holding out until I have time to play some petanque on the court there before dinner.  In Castine, the Pentagoet Inn’s dining room is open to rave reviews from guests as is Jack’s Passport Pub, certainly the coolest in the area.  Although, the Deepwater Brew Pub has undergone a bit of a transformation and the brewery barn in back is amazing!  They open tomorrow night.  We had a guest at breakfast this morning say that her dinner at Arborvine last night was one of the best meals of her life!

A new shop just up the road from the brew pub, Mae’s, opened last week with lots of home furnishings to drool over.  Handworks Gallery, another quick walk from the inn, is under new management but with lots of the favorite artists returning.

Here at the inn we’ve been undergoing beautification projects.  What started as a wallpaper tear down in room 1 ended with the whole inn getting insulation blown in which lead to the repainting of the whole outside (or that’s the plan anyway.  The coastal weather sometimes wreaks havoc with outdoor projects).  We're lucky to have a great crew of painters and carpenters--they've turned into consultants for guests with questions about their own DIY projects!


Wendy, the talented owner of Mae's
We’ve had great talented folks stay with us.  Penny Conti at Tunkables absolutely delighted me when she sent me a present after a recent stay.  Just a few short days after she and her husband checked out, I received a wee package in the mail.  She had inscribed vintage, charming hors d'oeuvres utensils with "Blue Hill Inn"!  They are impossible to photograph; you just have to come see them.

And we have just hosted Andrew Phalen and his lovely wife.  Andrew is the son of the first potter at Rowantrees Pottery, and he wrote a book about the pottery, Following the Brick Path.   He recently wrote a book about his father and published another, Doors and Passageways in Eisenstadt, with his photographs and text.

 Susan Bryant Caron, an amazing jeweler, stayed with us and had me coveting her bangles.  You can see them here

Between Blue Hill Books, the Meadow of Blue Hill, the Barnacle, Three Wishes, the wine shop, Cynthia Winnings Gallery, Blue Hill Bay Gallery, and others, plan on shopping when you visit us!