Innkeeper Notes

Cookbooks, and why using them more should be your New Year's resolution, too

2011-12-28T18:08:00.002-05:00

My New Year's resolution is often to cook with a new vegetable. How else does a girl from Wisconsin experiment with okra or ugly fruit? This year, however, I've decided to encourage myself to use cookbooks more, both the ones I already have and the ones I salivate over at Blue Hill Books.

At the inn, the office shares the same big room with the kitchen. When we started serving dinners at the inn last May, our shelf of cookbooks had to make room for the top shelf liquors in one spot and the fancy tools of the trade for baking bread in another. The cookbooks being far away and the computer being quite handy lead to me looking up recipes online. I love cookthink.com and allrecipes.com. Lots of sites allow you to browse by ingredient, consider variations, peruse photographs, and look at other cooks' comments. The speed with which I can consider three or four options for the crabmeat I want to use tonight or for how best to pair blueberries and sage is nothing short of miraculous.

So why the resolution to use more cookbooks of the food spattered paper variety?

Because recipes are often about anticipation, about possibilities, about looking to the future. Cookbooks have a romance allrecipes.com never will. So join me, paging slowly through an old friend or a new favorite, sipping perhaps on a kir royale or a favorite robust red...

A wonderful place to start is Kate Schaffer's Desserted. You know I love Black Dinah Chocolates... Imagine how gorgeous their first cookbook is?! This is highly recommended.

Swordfish boat captain Linda Greenlaw collaborated with her mother on two cookbooks, Recipes from a Very Small Island and the Maine Summers Cookbook. Seeing as both Kate and Linda are on Isle au Haut, you ought to visit!

A local map artist, Jane Crosen, published the Maine Mapmaker's Kitchen. It's part memoir, part sketchbook, but all creative.

Do you know Cynthia Finnemore Simonds? Me neither but check out her blog! She has written a trio of cookbooks--one on salads, one on soups, and one on desserts.

Brooke Dojny is a dear you might find just about anywhere. Still, she finds time to blog about squash, publish recipes and cookbooks, and write about the local scene. (For more on Brooke, read this Island Ad-Vantages article.) Rumor has it Brooke has a new book coming out this spring: Lobsters!

Jonathan Chase has been in the area a long, long time and diners are delighted to rediscover him, most recently at Buck's in Brooksville. He cowrote Saltwater Seasonings with his sister, Sarah.

Diane Bianco's book, Let's Party in Maine, really focuses on food that is easy to make and easily pleases a crowd.

Have you ever wondered what to cook on a windjammer cruise? Here's the cookbook for you!

The "Picasso & Pie" Buffet Cookbook: Blue Hill Buffet's Famous Recipe Collection has a wonderful back story which we'll explore another day.

I recommend browsing and buying at Blue Hill Books, New Cargoes, the Barnacle, North Light Books, Red Gap Books, and the library's monthly book sale. Afraid of commitment? It's easy to get a library card and staff can locate books at tons of other libraries and bring the books here for you.

Do you have a cookbook to recommend? Post it on our facebook page!

Need more suggestions? Just let me know. Here's to 2012 being a happy, healthy, delicious year!

Great Gift Ideas from Maine

2011-12-10T06:41:00.017-05:00

Sometimes this season is challenging because I never know what to buy people for presents. As I started looking around, I realized we have amazing choices right here.

We have lobsters (red! perfect for Christmas). And Greenhead is great about taking care of last minute gifts.

We have so many book options! Blue Hill Books, for a bit of everything and lots signed by local authors; Red Gap Books, for the rarefied bibliophiles on your list; the Sleigh Bell Shoppe and Lobster Crate has a great selections of books but crafts and live lobsters as well!

We have wreathes (green! and made from local balsam and spruce or seashells).

Wine and good food from the Wine Shop, the Cave, and Seasons. (I think I've been good this year, Santa. Very good!)

What about some music? Paul Sullivan and Rosie Upton...,
the Bad Daddys Band..., or perhaps season tickets to Kneisel, Bagaduce, the Grand, or the Opera House?

You've heard me go on about jewelry--Handworks Gallery, the bead shop, the Turtle Gallery, Pyramid Studios...

Even furniture?!

And pottery from the Rackliffes.

A hooked rug?

And gift certificates fit everyone! We have very pretty ones for lodging or for dining. If you contact us directly, we can make every detail just what you, and the recipient, want!

With the help of those who attended the Winter Fest in Blue Hill and helped us get the town tree lit, the Blue Hill Inn was able to donate $300 to the Tree of Life Food Pantry. We had chestnuts roasting on an open fire, of course... The Food Pantry does an amazing job making food available to those in need. While they appreciate food donations, they are a bit like a teenager in their preference for cold hard cash!

If you need other ideas for festive gift-giving, just let me know!

October Fest

2011-10-22T11:29:00.009-04:00

And fest we did! Chef Devin and I attended the 6th annual Foliage, Food, and Wine Festival's Taste of the Peninsula. Chef Devin was in charge of the menu: tastes of butternut squash soup, finished with toasted squash seeds, green apple, and parsley oil; and for lunch, braised short ribs with Four Season Farm celery root and potato mash and a braised local red cabbage slaw. We couldn't stop there, though, because each year, I've made a round or two or three of the festival grounds with a silver tray full of goodies--sometimes pecan mini muffins, apple walnut cake, homemade graham crackers, pillow chocolates... This year Assistant Innkeeper Sebastian made my favorite browned sugar cookies and Chef Devin couldn't resist making pumpkin truffles. I was so popular! The truffles were so well received she is now topping the creme brulee with them for dessert.

We are sad to be closing the restaurant for the season on October 28. Such a first summer! I am amazed at the number of people who say a certain dish or meal is the best they've ever had but I hear it again and again. Chef Devin is magic in the kitchen and the staff in the dining room take care of everything else. If you're able to come see us this week, make a reservation. We are looking very busy as everyone scrambles to get one last visit in. We have two specials to offer you: 1. come for dinner and mention that you read the inn's blog and would like apple crisp on the house. 2. Reserve a room as well as a table and your lodging will be half price (this is good for any night Oct. 24-28. Staying over is a wonderful way to really have a relaxing evening, and then to be pampered with our three-course breakfast in the morning.

The latest issue of Maine magazine just arrived, with a great selection of Maine made gifts. For me, part of Maine's appeal is the combination of gritty--like Stonington's working waterfront, and pretty--like Castine's downtown, of smart with Blue Hill's bookstores and film festival and coloquoy, and art with galleries found down every gravel road and artists sharing wares at farmer's markets and craft sales.
Autumn is an especially inspiring season for artists along the coast.

Are you on all the mailing lists for the area? El EL Frijoles has a great one--and it's the only way to find out about their special meals all winter long. Lucy's Granola is another--Lucy'll send any of her granolas to anyone on your gift list--or to you! The Whale's Rib is closed for the season, too, but will be back in the spring.

From the guestbook (my Italian, French, Chinese and German aren't really good enough to translate some of the comments!): "This is my new favorite inn," Leon from Virginia; "Thank you for such a wonderful stay. Your hospitality was beyond our expectations," from Pennsylvania; "You do a wonderful job of making everything charming and welcoming," from Colorado. If life isn't charming and welcoming where you are, come see us!

the beauty, and deliciousness, of fall

2011-10-03T11:15:00.016-04:00

Ah, October! At last leaves are crimsoning up and drifting down.

The Blue Hill Inn is bursting with events this month.

First, Chef Devin Finigan and I invite you to a European wine dinner. Chef Devin has crafted a five-course dinner, with each course inviting diners to visit a different country in Europe.

We'll head to France for oysters and an Domaine Duseigneur Lirac 2010 rosé (The color alone of this rosé will dazzle.),
to Greece for Mediterranean flounder and Assyrtiko Santorini 2008,

to Spain for duck breast confit with peach and pepper sauce paired with Old Hands 2006 Monastrell,

and then on to Italy for peppercorn-crusted tenderloin paired with Riparosso Montepulciano d'Abruzzo Illuminati 2009.

We'll end our European tour with a German apple strudel and Dr F Weins-Prum Estate Riesling, Mosel, 2008.

Information about each wine poured and the pairing will be included. For reservations or more information, call 374-2844. Thursday and Friday, Oct. 6 and 7, 6:30 p.m.
Dinner is $80 per person (dinner, wine, tax, and gratuity included).

Then, we are hosting a reception for George Stevens Academy alumni and friends after a a New Surry Theatre presentation of songs and scenes from their production of Wizard of Oz on Sun., Oct. 9.

Then we move into Foliage, Food, and Wine Festival mode! This year again, we partner with El El Frijoles for two nights of their supper club here at the inn. Maxx from the Blue Hill Wine Shop will be on hand to wax poetic on wine pairings, with Michele from El El Frijoles doing her best to challenge his wine expertise.

We've had a bumper crop of hen of the woods mushrooms
this year. As I type this Chef Devin is creating ravioli with the mushroom, caramelized onions, fresh parsley and toasted walnuts. Again, she makes being vegetarian so much fun! Her soups have been very popular. This week she's making a native fall corn soup with peeky toe crabmeat--the absolute best this area has to offer. She's grilling quail and serving it with a fig demiglaze and polenta--so delicious. Her grilled steak is finished with gorgonzola butter and has farm carrots and crispy kale.

I, always testing the waters on your behalf, had oysters at Arborvine recently. The Hikades do it all right at Arborvine--the setting, the service, the food. Dining there, right around the corner from the inn, is always pleasant.

So many inn guests, as they head out for the day to kayak, hike, shop, and explore, wonder if I get time off. I recently was invited to an island to play pétanque with Tony from the Pilgrim's Inn, among other aficionados. When you're here next, I can steer you to the various courts we have in the area, including the one at the Pilgrim's Inn.

If your fall isn't this much fun, come share with us! But call ahead, our fun events sell out and we're all booked up in the inn certain nights this month.

Ah, September

2011-09-16T15:38:00.007-04:00

Full on sunshine, cooler days and definitely cooler nights, crisp clear air--we love September!

We've had guests write some great reviews about the inn and the restaurant. If you haven't visited us yet, come see for yourself what they're talking about.

This weekend is Maine Open Lighthouse Weekend when you have a chance to tour some of the many Maine lighthouses. (See my blog entry from Sept. 20, 2009, for details about my visit to Eagle Island Light.) Tomorrow I'll get to go to Mark Island Light in Deer Isle Thoroughfare! We're traveling with Capt. Water Reed, who will charter his lobster boat for you. The lighthouse on Mark Island has a foghorn--it's the one you can hear on most of Deer Isle and certainly from my favorite hike to Barred Island.

Dining at the inn has been end-of-summer delicious! Listen to the steak offering: Grilled 8 oz. New York Center Cut Steak with gorgonzola and shallot butter, red wine braised cabbage, crispy kale, and garlic mashed potato! The baked haddock has the best roasted potatoes, the lentil soup is served with heirloom tomatoes from right around the corner. And dessert--doesn't a warm apple crisp with house-made caramel and ginger ice cream sound scrumptious? Or perhaps you would prefer our flourless chocolate cake with toasted walnuts, organic strawberries and vanilla ice cream. Most nights we run out of tables so do call ahead for a reservation.

One of the quotes from the guestbook this week celebrates our favorite local author. "In the words of E.B. White's Charlotte: 'Terrific.' And to bend another of her weavings: 'Some inn.'" Elizabeth was quite a Charlotte's Web
fan and turned me on to The Story of Charlotte's Web by Michael Sims. I ordered it from Blue Hill Books and am now waiting
patiently for winter to delve into it. We also got a copy of another interesting looking book, Jonathan Fisher of Blue Hill, Maine
Commerce, Culture, and Community on the Eastern Frontier. Fisher was the first Congregational minister of Blue Hill but was a talented man in many directions. You can tour his 1814 homestead here in Blue Hill.

If you plan to visit us this fall, make your reservations soon! Our fall is busier than ever, right through October. Foliage in this area, along the coast, peaks between Oct. 13-21, right during our fabulous Foliage, Food, and Wine Festival. Contact the inn for more information.

The Blue Hill Fair, and braised short ribs!

2011-08-30T17:18:00.007-04:00

I love having the Marine Environmental Research Institute here in town. In the back is a marvelous touch tank. Local fishermen pass along unusual catches, like this rare blue lobster. They offer educational programs for children all summer and lectures year round.

Red Wine Braised Short Ribs... Who knew celery root mash could be so heavenly? Chef Devin sautes Tuscan kale from Four Season Farm and drizzles the perfect amount of her gravy over the dish. The result is heavenly and perfect for these evenings that are getting a little cooler. She's topping her corn soup with peekytoe crabmeat and our parsley--it's so good. (For a deeper understanding of this delicious local crabmeat, read this New York Times article.) Another nod to fall is our vegetarian option--a roasted acorn squash stuffed with wild rice, butternut squash, and cranberries then drizzled with apple cider reduction. The espresso chocolate mousse has been so popular, rivaling the blueberry crisp. We also have the sweetest crème brûlée, served in demitasse cups for the perfect ending to any meal. You must hurry in to see us, though. Our last dinner of the season will be Oct. 28. That is our last weekend of lodging on the inn proper. We'll have a glorious Halloween gathering and then host all guests in the Cape House Suite and Studio until May.

This week we're excited about the Blue Hill Fair! The rides, the animals, the award winning vegetables, the fancy chickens, the live music, the sheep dog trails, the horse racing--this country style fair is a hit with everyone.

Hurricane Irene passed us by with a wave of wind and a shower or two, making way for exquisite late summer weather. Come see for yourself. Now is the time for a long sail, an extra afternoon by the shore, a glorious cookout under the sky full of stars. I hope your summer has been this marvelous and you're looking forward to a relaxing Labor Day weekend.

Spruce Hill Farm honey citrus chevre!

2011-08-17T18:20:00.005-04:00

I've been so frustrated with the technology behind the blog lately. I have wonderful iPhone pictures but haven't been able to upload them without crashing everything. The very talented Matt is on the case, however, and you will be drooling over food pictures in no time!

If you were dining with us last week, you were choosing among carrot and ginger soup, a summer salad with Stonington Spruce Hill Farm honey citrus chevre (shown here at the great farmer's market in Stonington),
a Stonington lobster spring roll, or Prince Edward Island mussels for appetizers. For an entree, would you have picked the risotto with foraged chanterelle mushrooms? or perhaps the red wine braised short ribs (my selection the other night--so delicious!)? Chef Devin has been making as many lobster ravioli as she can as they are so popular. New on the menu last week was the seared wild sockeye salmon, which Chef Devin served with a salsa of capers, Four Season Farm leeks and tomato, and olives over a bed of garden parsley quinoa. Just to make the decision more difficult, the duck was served with a native strawberry and port compote, such a pairing! And, speaking of good pairs, the grilled steak was graced with a gorgonzola and shallot butter. Mmmm. She tweaks things each week, which makes Monday a very fun day here at the inn.

I hope your August is abloom and asunshiny! It's not too late to swim and drink gin and tonics under sun umbrellas!

David's Folly Farm

2011-07-25T17:15:00.006-04:00

This week at the inn, we're offering White Bean Escarole Soup with Four Season Farm tomatoes, Carding Brook Farm patty pan squash and rosemary crostini; Summer Salad, with Carding Brook Farm greens, toasted pecans, Great Blue Hill cheese, David’s Folly Farm roasted beets, and lemon vinaigrette; Peeky Toe Crab Cakes, with Carding Brook Farms greens and lemon parsley aioli; Butter-Poached Lobster Ravioli, house-made pasta, Stonington lobster, lemon gremolata, and citrus salad; Seared Frenchman’s Bay Halibut, with summer succotash, organic spinach, lemon beurre blanc drizzle, and David’s Folly Farm roasted potatoes; Long Island Duck Breast, organic strawberry and port compote, David’s Folly Farm carrots, and turnip puree; and a Grilled New York Center Cut Steak, with a garden chimichurri, Four Season Farm carrots, Carding Brook Farm snow peas, and garlic mashed potato.

Lobsterman Luke came to dinner last week, said he had to try the lobster ravioli. He is now raving about the ravioli, and said the mussels were the best he'd ever had!

This week, Chef Devin is offering potatoes and carrots from David's Folly Farm. I had dinner at the farm itself Saturday night! The photo above is one of the spectacular views. Megan and Greg, the farmers, create a farm supper each Saturday night for a small group of very lucky diners.
This area has an amazing array of farmers markets, farm stands, and farmers innovating as to what they can offer those of us hungry for farm fresh and local. The photo to the right is the farmer/cooks and their friend/cooks receiving accolades from the stuffed and happy diners. If this idea delights you, you must call them now to get a spot. These supper clubs are very popular--in the winter, El El Frijoles offers them during the quiet season and they sell out mighty quick.

Did you see Chef Devin's picture in the Ellsworth American last week? The local press, both Penobscot Bay Press and the Ellsworth American, have been great support of our new venture. Have you heard our ad on WBACH? Recorded by yours truly... We've had so many dinner guests who have never set foot in the Blue Hill Inn, although they've been in the area for decades, and we've been here since 1830!

Look what Rackliffe Pottery is making now! We have loved their mugs, and the sweet cream pitchers, but these serving trays are wonderful. This line is so new, it's not pictured on their website yet. We're using them all the time--I'll try to get a better picture to show you. What a perfect housewarming, wedding, or hostess gift. Rackliffe Pottery is open 6 days a week but you can also call them up and say you saw it at the Blue Hill Inn and Margaret or David will take care of you. (If it's the lobster spring roll you're admiring, you'll have to come see Chef Devin.)

From a review on TripAdvisor: "the inn was charming..." If you haven't let the world know how you feel about Blue Hill Inn, Chef Devin's cooking, and the Blue Hill area, maybe now's the time!

Here's to a sun filled August!

...one of the highlights of our trip...

2011-07-13T16:25:00.010-04:00

What a heavenly summer we're having!

New on the dinner menu this week are lamb tacos in chive tortillas with a mint sauce from our garden. We have lobster cakes with Stonington lobster and a baked haddock with a crabmeat crown and the most delicious lemon beurre blanc. The chilled borscht with Four Season Farm beets has been a perfect option for these warm summer nights but I'm still hooked on the Bagaduce River oysters.

Josh Dunbar, our oysterer, took me out to show me the farm. I was amazed how much like farming it felt like--I do claim to be a farm girl from Wisconsin after all. As it turns out, our oysters come from the river at the foot of Sunset Acres Farm, where we get the delicious chevre we adore. The Working Waterfront, a newspaper about the water published each month by the Island Institute, explored their farming relationship in a 2009 article that makes great reading. (For more fun reading on the seafood in this area, try this NYT article which also talks about Bagaduce River oysters.)

Guests and neighbors alike have raved about dinners here. From a TripAdvisor review: We highly recommend dining at the inn if you can. The meal was one of the highlights of our trip over two weeks... Breakfast is terrific too. This [area] is a great alternative to the more commercial Bar Harbor area, yet close enough to access Acadia National Park and other attractions of the area.

Although the New York Times just spent "36 Hours in Bar Harbor", we find that most of our guests prefer to stay a bit further out and take day trips to Acadia National Park, into the fray of Bar Harbor, and out to explore the beauty of Stonington and Castine. Although this area has something for everyone, a guest summed it up perfectly for me when he said he loved it here because there were no people but great food.

If you head to dinner on Deer Isle, as we did the other night, to the Whale's Rib, you have to leave plenty of time for sightseeing on the way. Stopping at Caterpillar Hill is a must and a stroll along the main street of Deer Isle at sunset yielded this view. Tony, the owner of Pilgrim's Inn, recently installed a boules court. You'll have to try really hard to not fill up on the bread basket--delicious! Guests have enjoyed scallops at the Surry Inn, vegetarian sandwiches at 66, burritos from El El Frijoles, lobster at the Boat Yard Grill... No one is going hungry! And at breakfast this morning--cinnamon pecan scones, amaretto french toast, Four Season Farm eggs with dill from our garden... If you aren't eating this well, come see us!

Freedom!

2011-07-05T09:29:00.005-04:00

That was the rebel yell during 4th of July festivities last night. Guests made it to the Deer Isle parade, thoroughly enjoying the small town charm and humor. One guest got a late start and said she missed the first pass of the parade but caught them as they went by the second time after they turned around! Others headed off to Harborside, even taking part in the pie eating contest (a third place winner!). Here in town the steel drum band's street dance had old and young alike boogying. You can catch them in the area every Monday night so don't think you've missed it all.

If you do suffer from FMS (fear of missing something), which I do, terribly, then you must come to dinner frequently because the menu changes often--these were the offerings last night.

Chilled Summer Gazpacho, with farm tomatoes, garden herbs, local cucumbers and bell peppers
Spring Salad of Carding Brook Farm greens, spiced pecans, Four Season Farm roasted beets, Great Blue Hill bleu cheese, with a lemon vinaigrette
Bagaduce River Oysters Two Ways, three on the half shell with Four Season Farm cucumber mignonette and three grilled with Smith’s Smokehouse peppered bacon, cayenne pepper, and Carding Brook Farm garlic scapes
Fresh Stonington Lobster Spring Rolls, with an herb salad and a spicy dipping sauce
Barbeque Pork Ribs with Braised Pork Belly, caramelized onions, bourbon barbeque sauce and potato puree
Seared Frenchman's Bay Halibut, salsa of tomato, leek, and Four Season Farm basil with Four Season Farm roasted new potatoes
Summer Ratatouille, Four Season Farm squash, Carding Brook Farm herbs, tomato, and corn over creamy parmesan risotto
Long Island Duck Breast, native strawberry and port compote, Old Ackley Farm beet greens, and mashed turnip

We are certainly celebrating strawberry season this week! Pillow chocolates, generally organic Lake Champlain chocolates, were fresh strawberries, dipped in dark Callebaut, and rolled in toasted almonds and sea salt. And for dessert, luscious strawberry crème brûlée, with native strawberries, mint from our garden, and a dark chocolate drizzle. Let's hear it for summer fruit! You can pick your own at Homewood Farm--and you might meet Maple, the springer spaniel!

Four Season Farm Lovefest, mmm, and presents of peonies

2011-06-28T15:51:00.007-04:00

As a guest at the inn, you see "Four Season Farm" on the menu quite a bit. They are one of two farms which supply eggs for our breakfast dishes (this morning we offered them scrambled with a maple pork sausage, sauteed onions, and sharp cheddar cheese or in an omelette with cherry tomatoes, herbs from our garden, and feta). The yolks of a fresh farm egg are much yellower and the flavor much richer. I am certain it is because the chickens are living a good life here in Maine, running around the farm, eating good food. At Four Season, they move the coop around, giving the chicks fresh territory. We also get produce from the farm--lovely Tuscan kale, deep green cucumbers, zucchini, spinach. We mention their farm stand to guests heading out that way. This morning the recommendation earned me a present! Guests heading back to Connecticut gave the inn the bouquet they couldn't resist but couldn't travel with.

Selections from our menu this week include Four Season Farm carrot and ginger soup, with a parsley leaf and parmesan crisp; spring salad of Carding Brook Farm greens, spiced pecans, native strawberries, Sunset Acres Farm chèvre, with a lemon vinaigrette; Bagaduce River Oysters Two Ways: three on the half shell with Four Season Farm cucumber mignonette and three grilled with Smith’s Smokehouse peppered bacon, cayenne pepper, and Carding Brook Farm garlic scapes; Blue Hill Mussels steamed with Four Season Farm basil, shallots, white wine and a touch of cream; and a grilled New York center cut steak with a garden chimichurri, sautéed Four Season Farm kale, and garlic potato puree; seared swordfish with a salsa of tomato, leek, and Four Season Farm basil over garden chive quinoa.
And if I were you, I would hurry in to try Chef Devin's summer ratatouille. It's ambrosia of Four Season Farm squash, eggplant, Carding Brook Farm herbs, tomato, and corn over creamy parmesan polenta. My suggestion, if you are like me and not apt to order a vegetarian entree, is to bring two or three vegetarian friends--you can "try" all of their dishes and not have to share any of your lobster ravioli! Devious, I know, but when it comes to Chef Devin's cooking, it's every girl for herself! We love how popular the lobster ravioli are--it means Lobsterman Luke (Chef Devin's husband) has to visit more often!

And desserts! Chef Devin was making profiteroles... Too delicious! And this week, a crisp with Carding Brook Farm rhubarb and native strawberries, or maybe you'd prefer the flourless chocolate cake with toasted coconut?

From the guest book: "Thanks for spoiling us so wonderfully!!" "Tremendous hospitality in a superb setting." "The inn is a wonderful civilized place."

From the neighborhood, a couple came in to celebrate their 39th wedding anniversary. We said congratulations with one of Chef Devin's special desserts. The gent popped in in the morning to say how lovely dinner was and to thank us for the sweet, with a large bouquet of fragrant, gorgeous peonies from their garden. We have been basking in their pinkness ever since.

If your life isn't as magical as all this, come visit us. We'll share.

Long Island Duck! Flounder! and a Film Festival!

2011-06-15T21:42:00.007-04:00

Guests and innkeeper alike continue to be dazzled by Chef Devin's offerings. For starters this week, we've been serving a Spring Salad, with Carding Brook Farm Greens, Spiced Pecans, Roasted Grapes, Crumbled Great Blue Hill Cheese with a Lemon Vinaigrette; Lobster Cakes, with Stonington Lobster, Parsley Lemon Gremolata, Local Greens and Lemon Sorrel Salad; and Charred Bagaduce Oysters, with Roasted Leeks, Smith’s Smokehouse Peppered Bacon, and Garden Chives, among other options. (Can you hear my voice reading these words out loud? The combinations Chef Devin puts together intensify the deliciousness.)

Entrees include Pan-Seared Long Island Duck Breast, with Mashed Turnip Puree, Duck Confit, Local Rhubarb Compote, and Four Season Farm Garlic Spinach; Crabmeat Crowned Broiled Flounder, with Shallot Lemon Beurre Blanc, Buttered Quinoa, and Sauté of Four Season Arugula; an 8 oz. Grilled Grass-Fed New York Strip, Au Poivre, with Reggiano Butter, Garlic Mashed Potato, and Sauté of Four Season Spinach; House Chive Gnocchi, with Roasted Butternut Squash, Garden Herbs, Toasted Walnuts, Asiago Cheese, and Braised Kale. The squash was the last to come from Chef Devin's own garden. Our small kitchen herb garden keeps us supplied in sage, basil, thyme, rosemary, oregano, chives, parsley, and mint.

We are delighted to be hosting a reception for the Image Gazer Film Festival Friday night. If the weather holds, we'll enjoy hors d'oeuvres and drinks in the garden; a spring shower will bring us into the parlor. We are co-hosting with the Maine Film and Video Association so you know the conversation will be lively.
Following the reception will be shorts and live music at the New Surry Theater at the Town Hall next door, student films in the Town Park, followed by the premiere of Flash Phenomenon, a documentary about the steel drum craze here in Blue Hill. How can you not be excited about this line up? The festival is traveling this year so you can catch films at the Opera House, the Alamo, and the Grand.

The 10th Annual Lupine Festival rolls into the area this weekend as well and the lupine are right on schedule. I worried all spring--so many blossoms have been a week or more late, but the lupine aren't letting us down. Check out their schedule and make a plan--lupine by sea or plane. Art, music, everything lupine!

If you aren't expecting to have this grand of a weekend, come see us! We have all this plus sweet breads at breakfast that have guests raving all day. This morning, the cook baked pineapple coconut scones with toasted almonds. From the guest book: "Thank you for the delicious pampering." "A splendiferous experience, laced with impeccable taste."

See you on the lupine loop!

Chef Devin's menu for the week of June 6

2011-06-07T16:53:00.007-04:00

Have you been out to eat and the food was so delicious that when the waiter came back to ask, "How is everything?" all you could do was moan in appreciation? I've been getting a lot of that lately as I table hop in the dining room. I have loved my job but I love my even more delicious job even more!

On the menu for this week--though items do change daily, depending on what comes in and what looks good...

The amuse bouche tonight is a roasted tomato, with herbed marscapone, balsamic reduction, and basil from our kitchen garden.

For starters or small meals
Roasted Cauliflower and Sage Puree $7
with Toasted Walnuts and Fresh Lemon Sorrel

Spring Salad $8
Carding Brook Greens, Spiced Pecans, and Shaved Pecorino with a Rhubarb Vinaigrette

Lobster Ravioli (you can see a photo of Chef Devin putting on the finishing touches in the last blog entry) $14
Stonington Lobster, Parsley and Lemon Gremolata, and Pea Greens

Baked Bagaduce Oysters (Josh the oyster man or his helper brings them right from the Bagaduce River to our door) $13
Grilled Salsa of Tomatoes, Leeks, and Garden Chives

For entrées
Vermont Quail Stuffed with Old Ackley Farm Chicken $24
Creamy Asiago Risotto, Tarragon Gravy, and Sauté of Kale

Pan Roasted Frenchman’s Bay Halibut $26 Summer Succotash, Parsley Quinoa, and Lemon Beurre Blanc

Grilled New York Steak $28
Caper Salsa Verde, Sautéed Tuscan Kale, and Garlic Mashed Potato

House Agnolotti $23
Seal Cove Chèvre, Herbs, Hazelnuts, and Lemon Zest, and Warm Arugula Salad

Our bread is made fresh daily
and served with Dickson Family Butter from Brooks, Maine.

Desserts this week will include Caramelized Peach Kuchen with Morton Moo’s Vanilla Ice Cream; Decadent Chocolate Mousse with Mascarpone Whipped Cream and Caramel Drizzle; Vanilla Bean Panna Cotta with Carding Brook Rhubarb Compote.

We've been fine tuning our wine list, adding more choices including additional bubbles. A popular selection has been one of our reds available by the glass or the bottle, an organic pinot noir, Domaine du Chateau d'Eau, Moillard, France, 2010. We have some great organic wines on our list. We have to give a shout out to Maxx at Blue Hill Wine Shop who has generously shared his knowledge and passion for wine with us.

If your dinners don't have you moaning in appreciation, call us. We take reservations for Monday through Friday, 5-8 p.m.

Lobster ravioli!

2011-06-03T18:15:00.008-04:00

So much deliciousness to tell you about!

We had our first week of offering dinner at the inn. The response has been so favorable. One of my favorite dishes is Chef Devin's lobster ravioli. You know I'm a romantic... It's Chef Devin's husband, Luke, who is catching the lobsters and I think that is part of what makes this dish so good. He fishes out of Stonington and sends her pictures of gorgeous sunrises, like this one. This is the two of them when he popped in to see her at work. The ravioli she makes with his lobster has chunks of meat, perfectly cooked, embraced by pasta she has made. She bathes them in a parsley lemon gremolata, which magically transports me to the seaside. And here I struggle with how to describe it to you. I just have to say, make a reservation and plan for your own magical dinner.

A guest told me a story about his visit to the L.L. Bean mother store. He, being a good midwesterner, had a Cabela's cap on, which he sheepishly removed and crumpled in his hand while paying homage to the Big Bean. At the check out, the matronly clerk demanded, "What's in your hand?" When Jim showed her, she said, "Give me that!" In exchange for the Cabela's cap she took away, he got a new L.L. Bean one. I wonder how often she does that?

From the guestbook: "Comfy, friendly, tasty!"

How on earth do I manage to have time to read, now that it's spring, you ask? A few minutes with a book and early morning coffee (sometimes really early morning coffee) helps adjust my attitude and is almost mandatory as life gets busy. A friend picked up This Life Is in Your Hands by Melissa Coleman for me at the farmer's market. Elliot Coleman, her father, is behind Four Season Farm and has written numerous books on organic farming and sustainable agriculture. I'm only on page 40 but I certainly recommend Melissa's book. We get eggs from Four Season--gorgeous orange yolks come from happy chickens. You can visit their farm stand down on Cape Rosier when you come to visit.

See you then!

Our first dinner menu--for May 31st

2011-05-20T15:54:00.007-04:00

We had such a lovely time at our Open House. The inn was filled with local businesspeople, some farmers, a fisherman or two, some musicians, friends from way back and from next door. Chef Devin created an amazing parade of goodies--potstickers, duck confit, tenderloin with pesto, and cakes, lemon and chocolate! She's pictured here with one of her sous chefs, Sarah Havener. People raved about the food, complimented the wines, and continue to tell us what a great time they had. Staff and friends made the inn look spiffy--look at this beautiful bouquet of flowers Millbrook Bakery sent us. I'm sorry you couldn't make it to the party but now you can make plans to eat breakfast here or dine here or sleep in one of our gorgeous beds.

Here's a look at a sample dinner menu. Items will change every week, and maybe even every night depending on what comes in, what's fresh, and what whim Chef Devin follows for the night. Prepared to be solidly delighted!

Asparagus Puree
Parmesan Crisp, Pea Shoots and a Chive Chip $6
May Spring Salad
Carding Brook Greens, Grilled Asparagus, and Shaved Pecorino with a Lemon-Vinaigrette $7
Lobster Ravioli
Stonington Lobster, Parsley and Lemon Gremolata, and Pea Green Salad
$12

Apple Smoked Ribs
Bourbon BBQ Sauce, Duck Roasted Potatoes, and Pickled Cole Slaw
$23
Pan Roasted Frenchman’s Bay Halibut
Buttered Lentils, Toasted Hazelnuts, and Sunflower Shoots
$26
Spring Risotto
Sauté of Fiddleheads, Butternut Squash, and Chives, Asiago Cheese and Arugula
$19
Seared Duck Breast
Parmesan Polenta, Rhubarb Chutney, Sauté of Spinach and Asparagus
$24

Chocolate Espresso Moulton Cake
with Ginger Ice Cream
Luscious Citrus Cheesecake
with Rhubarb Compote
Trio of Sorbets
with Maine Blueberry, Lemon, and Raspberry
Vanilla Bean Crème Caramel
with Hazelnut Chocolate Drizzle
Desserts $7

At breakfast this morning, Jack, a long-time returning guest, demanded to know why I hadn't told him and his wife how wonderful Nervous Nellie's is. I wonder how he and his wife have missed it for so many years! The tasting cafe is heaven and the artwork all around the property is creative and a bit crazy. Well worth the trip, especially when combined with a hike at the Tennis Preserve, or a longer one at Barred Island (pictured here). Deer Isle makes for a great day trip from the inn.

One of the jobs I wrangle away from others on a pretty spring day is mowing the orchard. Yesterday I got to the mower first and so whiled the afternoon away under apple blossoms with fantasies of garden parties. We now have a table--the sort one could sit at and write in a journal, blog on a laptop, or (if you must) spread out some paperwork--waiting for you in the orchard.

Big news!

2011-05-15T10:00:00.006-04:00

We are so pleased to offer guests and friends from the community a fine dining experience at the inn this year. Chef Devin Finigan has joined us and will be delighting diners with her food as she incorporates Maine fare—the freshest seafood, local free-range chicken and eggs, local meats and produce—into dishes with a European flair. Chef Devin is new to the inn but not new to the area. She has trained with Jonathan Chase, of Buck’s Restaurant in Brooksville, and traveled to Italy with him as a sous chef numerous times. She has also worked at the Lookout Inn and the Brooklin Inn. Growing up, she worked with her father, a chef at a Relais and Chataeaux inn in Vermont.

She was a guest chef with Thomas Keller (of the French Laundry and Per Se) at a charity event in Deer Isle and participated in an intense training week at Per Se in Manhattan, with other up and coming chefs in America. Chef Devin’s husband, jeweler Luke Hartmann, fishes in the summer and supplies the inn dining room with the freshest lobster available (and the innkeeper with handsome beach glass and silver jewelry, now available at Handworks Gallery in Blue Hill).

We'll offer dinners Monday through Friday nights, beginning May 31. Call and make a reservation now; we have an intimate dining room.

We attended El El Frijoles's season kick-off at Edgehill in Sargentville. Edgehill rambles along in the great Maine farmhouse style. It's available for weekly rentals--it sleeps 18!--and comes with a barn, a mill pond, and ocean access (check out the view down Eggemoggin Reach). Michael and Michele, of El El Frijoles, launched their catering company, We Bake!. We've loved their Latin-inspired food for years and now we're hooked on the desserts, the sushi, the garlic dip for the potatoes... I wonder if they offer chocolate-dipped macaroons by mail order?! You can see photos of the event on their Facebook page.

Farmers market season opened and I'm enjoying Millbrook Bakery's olive rolls. You can find Jill Smith's bakery offerings, both sweet and savory, at the Castine, Blue Hill, Ellsworth, and Stonington farmers markets.

Other than the Blue Hill Inn, breakfast choices have been fairly limited in Blue Hill. Friends took me to Marlintini's this weekend to try their new breakfast venture--delicious! Even the eggs benedict, which has many opportunities for less-than-perfect-ness, got raves. We also had dinner at the Fish Net one night. I adore their fried scallops.

All this great food and the beauty of spring with the fuzz of impending blooms, the forsythia and daffodil yellows against the increasingly more vibrant green. Life is marvelous here in Blue Hill. If it isn't where you are, let us share!

2011-04-22T16:05:00.009-04:00

Have you checked out our newly revised website? I've collected the recipes you've asked for over the years and put them in our "online cookbook" for you.
I promise we'll be adding photographs. I think we've been too busy in the kitchen getting food out to you in the dining room to think about snapping a photo of the pretty dishes. I do seem to take photos of how we use technology in the kitchen. I think Stella, a long-time innkeeper from many years ago, would appreciate the dueling MacBooks and the iPad recipe book!

Have you tried the Blue Hill Co-op Café's new donuts? You may not want to risk it. They are so habit-forming, and so far, the co-op just makes them on weekends. I recommend the plain ones. The Co-op Café does a great job creating delicious choices for folks who want something gluten-free or sweetened with maple syrup. Artichoke season is definitely on in this area--Marlintini's offered them crab filled along side their Caesar salad and Seasons crisped them up and served them next to salmon.

Once again, the Blue Hill Inn is helping to raise money for Habitat for Humanity. The offer is very simple. Between April 25 and May 27 this year, we will offer rooms at half the regular rate, in exchange for a $35 check payable to Habitat for Humanity. Just mention the special fundraiser when you reserve and we'll work out the details with you.

These funds will be distributed among the ten local chapters of Habitat for Humanity. Habitat for Humanity International and its affiliates in more than 3,000 communities in 92 nations have built more than 300,000 homes for partner families around the world.

My favorite seaglass jeweler, Luke Hartmann, will be showing his baubles at Handworks Gallery this year! Handworks is less than two blocks from the inn and filled with arts and crafts. Owner-artist Marcia Stremlau painted the book shown here. Her art seems to really capture the feel of Maine.

Our annual open house is May 18. Please plan to come! We are very excited about our plans for the 2011 season and look forward to sharing them with you.

Spring in Blue Hill

2011-03-24T11:49:00.002-04:00

I can title a blog post whatever I want, of course. By "spring" I mean widely varying temperatures, gorgeous snowfalls that stick around for a minute, and weather that includes sun, sleet, hail, and picturesque snow--all in one day! Bulbs are coming up, a bit disgruntled but showing good faith.

Maine artists talk about the light and this is the season of amazing light. As Ellen O'Neill says, "Maine and all of New England are my principal areas of interest whether it is the inland lakes and mountains, farmlands, the coast, or its people. It is the play of light dramatically affecting the color, atmosphere, and mood of a scene that first draws my attention to it. My challenge is then to convey to others, through my painting, what I felt, the story it may tell and my inspiration." "Fleeting Light" is one of her paintings.

I had a lovely dinner at the Pub at the Brooklin Inn the other night--surf and turf with fresh scallops (read this interview with a scallop diver and you'll appreciate your winter desk job a whole lot more!) and steak tips from Bianco's. The pub is casual and cozy. Someone else is feeding us and the woodstove... They have some fun beers on tap, too. And, best part of the whole evening, Brian, who works down the road at the Brooklin Boatyard, came in with his dog, Digby, part Bernese mountain dog. Heaven for me. Dining upstairs in their lovely Maine cottage dining room is an option as well.

If you're craving a water motif cup of coffee, C Shells is your spot. Shelly has the prettiest cafe on the peninsula, and you can get the Weekly Packet along with your breakfast, lunch, or coffee break.

Arborist Bob Salesi (aka Tree Bob) turned me on to free trees from the Arbor Day Foundation. A membership is very reasonably priced and you can choose 10 free trees! Tree Bob recommended Colorado Blue Spruce so that's what I went with.
He said I could grow them a few years and then have gorgeous Christmas trees if I wanted, or we could decorate them for the winter birds and have them for years to come. He and Matt came, in the midst of the latest spring snowstorm, to clean up some wayward branches at the inn. I would love to have a job where I smelled like sawdust, sap, and fresh air! Now there's a candle scent.

I hope your spring has been as interesting as ours!

The Snowy Winter Reading Pile!

2011-02-05T08:10:00.004-05:00

Welcome to the snowiest winter yet! Blue Hill is gorgeous in white, just gorgeous.

I have the most luscious stack of books to delve into. I just picked up Ellen Booraem's latest at Blue Hill Books (they often have autographed copies of books by local authors). I loved the Unnamables. I also picked up Gonville, a memoir by Peter Birkenhead, I am giving to a friend. Next on the list to read, though, is Obsessive Genius, the Inner World of Marie Curie, so I'm ready for the Brooksville reading group.

I've been taking a Colloquy, Maine Painters, with William Irvine, but it was a January happening and now it's February so I have a pocket of time. (This painting is one of his, Dancing Sea.) Well, I had a pocket of time--now I have these books and plans to see films and the latest play at the Opera House, Dying City. The class about painters who loved Maine was great--Marsden Hartley, Winslow Homer, and William Thon, to name just a few of my favorites. So many artists catch the incredible beauty and light of the coast.

I did find time to take a cooking class--in potstickers!
I thought they would make a fun offering during the hors d'oeuvres hour. All winter long I'm collecting recipes and ideas. Come May I'm bursting for the main inn building to open up again so we can start serving guests pancakes and cookies and savory nibbles. This time of year we deliver muffins and sweet breads and cookies and chocolates but it's not quite the same as the cookie tray in the parlor and then the table of hors d'oeuvres before dinner.

I'm starting to wonder if Blue Hill is the greeting card capitol of the world--the Barnacle has a great line of handmade cards as well as Maine-based cut out cards (the lobster trap is perfect!), and New Cargoes has lots of cards by Maine artists, and Fairwinds Florist has a very sophisticated line of cards that are perfect for my friends as well as Maine art gift cards and Blue Hill Books carries perfect cards to add to the book which they will giftwrap for you. The Blue Hill Inn has always offered to stamp and mail correspondence for guests, whether our postcards or others. I only just realized how perfectly this amenity fits into Blue Hill as a whole!

And if all of that weren't excitement enough, the Packers won! I am from Wisconsin, after all.

I hope your February has just the right the ratio of snow to hot chocolate, delicious reading and scrumptious outings. If not, come see us and we will adjust as necessary!

The Holidays in Blue Hill

2011-01-04T16:03:00.001-05:00

Although a part of me keeps wondering, "Where did August go?!" we are firmly into our quiet season. This time of year, November to mid-May, we offer lodging in our Cape House, in the Suite and the Studio. We leave snacks in the rooms, some savory, some sweet, and some healthy. The baking elves leave scones or muffins or coffee cake. And of course the rooms are supplied with our organic, free trade coffee. Although we are in the middle of town, deer short cut through the yard, the pileated woodpeckers visit the trees, and other birds feast on the berries. The sun rises this time of year at a reasonable hour. The sunsets, though very early, often bathe the whole town in pinks and purples. And the full moon, well, it's practically a Blue Hill citizen.

Halloween at the inn has adults enjoying adult beverages (we don't make the grown ups say "trick or treat" on their way to the bar) and kids selecting treats from the big silver bowl. This year's silly non-candy option--toothbrushes! (These went over well, to the amusement of a dentist-guest attending the festivities.) I dare you to try it at your house!
Thanksgiving always includes some dining out--Cleonice, the Arborvine, and Table all remain favorites, but we've added the Lookout, at their winter digs. Seems like such a Maine thing--a restaurant moves up the hill to a cozy house with a central woodstove and continues to offer incredible options. We are still dreaming about corn chowder with Maine shrimp (just coming into season--so fresh!), the seared scallops with creamy risotto, the steak au poivre (with wee shoestring potatoes), and the crème brûlée and chocolate mousse. Call them now!

My favorite Christmas event, the Bagaduce Chorale concert, was better than ever this year, with a Fred Waring toast. Nothing gets holiday spirits up higher!

I've told you each year that you must come for New Year's Eve in Blue Hill. The line up of music and entertainment--all completely free--delights even the sophisticate. We have loved Scott Howell because he's a great carpenter and has helped us at the inn with many projects, and because his daughter Ellie has worked at the inn for the last few summers, but now we love him because we love his Loose Cannon Jug Band! The evening hosts over a dozen performers at locations all around Blue Hill (and within easy walking distance of the inn). We caught some steel drum music, our local pastor and his wife singing together, and our own Mesa Schubeck. We didn't make it to the New Trad Trio or Black Tie Fiasco--next year I hope.

You might be thinking, "Ah, but now it's after the holidays, and Blue Hill gets dull," but no! Now it's time for the first El El Frijoles Salsa Night! And by salsa they mean a three-course dinner and a salsa dance lesson followed by music, dancing, and carrying on. And the Blue Hill Concert Association starts their winter program this weekend with the Lefthand Canyon Trio.

I hope you had magical holidays, filled with laughter and wonder, and that January has you marveling at the cold crisp clarity of the winter world and snuggling under the covers! (Photo credits go to Lisa Peschel, a pal of mine since 7th grade, who was here for New Year's, and Julie Jo Fehrle, who manages to be in Blue Hill for epic full moons and festive pumpkin carving. Thanks!)

The End of a Wonderful Season!

2010-10-23T12:51:00.011-04:00

And so we come to the end of October... Did your summer fly by as fast?

The Foliage, Food, and Wine Festival is so much fun! You must put it right on your calendar for next year. Always held the third weekend in October, it's all about food and wine and, well, foliage! The Blue Hill Inn continues to collaborate with El El Frijoles to create a delightful evening for guests. The five-course dinner sold out so quickly that we added a second night. And no wonder, with Huevos en el Pugatorio, Carnitas Tostadas, Bogavante Asado Cola (Michele is pictured here brushing the lobster with chili butter)--with so many local foods, like vegetables from Horsepower Farm and eggs from Quill's End Farm and lots that is grown right at the El El Taqueria! And, El El Frijoles went on to win Best of the Fest for the second year in a row at the Taste of the Peninsula on Sunday!

The Artisan Chocolate Making Class was a tremendous success as well. Kate, from Black Dinah Chocolatiers, is amazing behind a vat of chocolate. She masterfully led 12 students, with bonbons dancing before their eyes, to creating wee bits of delicious art. Kate's blog is filled with yummy recipes and a nice dash of romance. Kate is shown here on the left, watching Kim work on truffles in the Blue Hill Inn kitchen. Guests at the inn that night were treated to lovely chocolate leaves for their pillow chocolates, which have left me wanting fancy chocolates for all occasions. Aren't they so pretty? Kate and Steve will make you lovely things in their Isle au Haut kitchen!

Did you catch the article in the New York Times about Ingrid Bengis and her Deer Isle seafood? It's hard to read it and not get craving the local lobster or crab or scallops--so delicious! All year long I have guests marvel at the wonderful dining options we have in this very rural area. And then, in the guest book this morning, "Thank you for an absolutely wonderful night in Blue Hill. Guests must try the blueberry pancakes!"

We are gathering pumpkins and costume ideas and recipes for our Halloween party. If you're in the area, come by for a treat!

2010-10-01T20:45:00.008-04:00

Woe be he
And all his kin
Who steals this book
From the Blue Hill Inn!
so inscribed is the copy of The Girl with the Phony Name, written and presented to the inn by Charles Mathes. He and his lovely wife, Arlene Graston, an amazing poet and artist herself, stayed at the inn this fall and sent me the book and one of Arlene's card to say thank you. I love this illustration of hers from Aesop's fables. You know I have the sweetest guests ever! And so talented!

Two other delightful guests sent me a vacation in St. Croix! Well, they sent me a book, Don't Stop the Carnival, by Herman Wouk, with explicit reading instructions: "The appropriate time to read this book is in front of a fire on a cold, rainy and windy day after you have closed the Inn for the winter when you can let your mind wander to imagine life in the Virgin Islands in virtually perpetual sunshine during the day, gentle winds and water you can actually swim in without fear of turning into an ice cube." I'll put my feet up. I might drink a piña colada while I'm at it!

Have you seen October's DownEast magazine?! Blue Hill is the special supplement star this month! The autumn photographs capture the feel and look of October in Blue Hill perfectly. (And Jeff the chef's apple walnut bars capture the taste!)

Sour Cream Apple Squares
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups firmly packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup chopped nuts
1-2 tsps. cinnamon
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup sour cream
1 tsp. vanilla
1 egg
2 cups finely chopped, peeled apples

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly spoon flour into measuring cup; level off. In large bowl combine flour, brown sugar, and butter; beat at low speed until crumbly. Stir in nuts. Press 2 3/4 cups of crumb mixture in bottom of ungreased 13x9 inch pan. To remaining mixture, add cinnamon, baking soda, salt, sour cream, vanilla, and egg; mix well. Stir in apples. Spoon evenly over base.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 30-40 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cut into squares.

If you haven't made your reservations for the Foliage, Food and WIne Festival, you must do so immediately! More events, more music, more people! We have a few spots left in the artisanal chocolate making course with Kate from Black Dinah Chocolates; we have a few rooms left for the weekend; and we can put you on the waiting list for our wine dinner with El El Frijoles. Tickets for the festival Sunday are available the day of so you can procrastinate at that, if you want.

Is your October this yummy? If not, come see us!

Hints of Autumn

2010-08-31T15:20:00.011-04:00

Guests have been hiking and biking and eating lobster and scallops and duck and blueberry pancakes ("best ever"). Folks from England and France and Maine and all over the south have been loving the weather and the pretty New England scapes. All sorts of folks celebrated Maine Lighthouse Weekend with boatrides and flights and hikes. We are lucky to have so many both in Maine and close by. If you'd like a copy of "Lighthouses and Lobsters in DownEast and Acadia Region" full of information about them both, just call the inn.

I received a very fun email from a previous guest: "I married my high school sweetheart on April 30, 1983. We are both Vermonters of many generations, and we traveled to Maine with a stop or two in New Hampshire. I had been to the Bar Harbor area before and loved it. We stayed in many little inns, but yours stands out in my memory as something special. We were there sometime during the first week of May 1983. It would be kind of neat if you actually did have a book with an entry, because I am sure if there was a guest book, and you still have it, we would have written in it.

It was a very special night, having the whole place to ourselves. We were given the key, and told to enjoy the place as we wished. I remember the huge and wonderful kitchen. My wife and I both love to cook. Here we are almost 30 years later, with two of our children who are professional chefs. I am still in love with my wife, more today than ever. It does happen, even in this crazy world of today. You could say I met my soulmate, and we are joined forever.

If we ever get back up that way, you can count on a visit.

And you are right, you may own the place, but really it owns you for a short time. That is why we stayed in as many places like that as we could. I would not be writing to the Holiday Inn today."

You can see why I love my job! Although we have guest registers and menus books going back many years, I couldn't tell them much about their stay. Did I tell you about the waitress from 1967?! She and her husband stayed for a few nights recently and told me all sorts of tidbits from her summer here. I wonder what one of the first guests or waitstaff, from 1840, would have to say!

I'm noticing I like a symbol. Here at the inn one of our symbols has to be the Rackliffe coffee mug. I adore the blue and white mugs (they come in yellow as well) and love knowing that the clay is from East Blue Hill, just down the road. They are making us napkin rings as well as syrup pitchers and saucers--these aren't on their website but if you call them up and mention the Blue Hill Inn, they will know just what you mean!

We often talk about how to help guests extend the vacation feeling. I had a friend who would "point" the ends of the toilet paper from time to time at home! I will sometimes send guests away with a handful of pillow chocolates and suggest they do a turndown service for themselves (I tend to do this especially with guests who leave us to go camping--having your sleeping bag turned down at the end of the day and an organic chocolate on your pillow helps make that transition!). Serving warmed maple syrup in a Rackliffe pitcher is a certain method for continuing the vacation feeling!

Come try the maze! Could there be a better fall activity? The Homewood Farm is my favorite for strawberries and pumpkins, in part because they have springer spaniels!

From the guest book:
"What a wonderful place. Your gracious hospitality combined with the charm of the Inn and friendliness of guests made for a beautiful visit." Miami, FL
"We feel so lucky to have discovered Blue Hill and the Blue Hill Inn, both of which are idyllic. Thank you for a wonderful stay--it was perfect in every way." United Kingdom

If you aren't having a perfect time where you are, come see us!

The recipe is... Coffee Squares!

2010-08-03T11:19:00.006-04:00

You might think I am describing nerds who talk about coffee way too much, but I'm not. Instead, coffee squares, or mocha bars, as we sometimes call them, are the latest "oh, this is so good, I have to share the recipe" treat at the Blue Hill Inn.

Coffee Squares
As suggested by the Summer Inn Bed and Breakfast in Haines, Alaska

Cake
½ cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ cup hot coffee

Frosting
1 ½ cups confectioners’ sugar
1 tablespoon cocoa
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ cup melted butter
Cold coffee

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together. Add egg and vanilla extract, and mix well. Into a separate bowl sift flour, salt, and baking powder. Alternately add flour mixture and hot coffee to the creamed mixture. Mix well and pour batter into a 9-inch square pan. Bake in a 350° oven for 30 minutes.

Into a small bowl sift together confectioner’ sugar, cocoa, and salt. Pour in melted butter, and add the cold coffee one tablespoon at a time, mixing well, to make a spreadable icing. Frost the cake when completely cooled. Serves 9.
We of course use our Carrabassett Coffee Company organic coffee, which makes the squares especially delicious.

Guests have been hiking to Barred Island, climbing Blue Hill Mountain, jogging past the country club, kayaking in the bay and in Stonington and in Castine, biking all over, swimming in Walker's Pond, and wondering about town. All of which is to say, you can indulge in coffee squares and pancakes at breakfast (with an extra slice of bacon!) and pillow chocolates and still fit into your work clothes when you head home from vacation.

I've started a little collection of silly Maine art. A bright red lobster on a bright blue car is my idea of a color scheme!

If you aren't having a colorful season, come visit us! The blueberries are mighty blue, and so is the sky, and so is the water...

O the eating!

2010-07-18T17:03:00.009-04:00

I blush to tell you all the places I've visited in the last few weeks: the Brooklin Inn, Table, Dennett's Wharf, Guildive sailboat, the Blue Hill Wine Shop, Arborvine, Fish Net...

Friends and I happened to be in Brooklin around dinner time and lucked out with a table at the Brooklin Inn. Proprietor Chip Angell helped us select a yummy wine from the very nice list. A few in our group opted for the prix fixe off the menu and enjoyed a fresh fresh salad, delightful three-fish bouillabiase, and choice of dessert for $25 (especially nice, I thought, was the freedom to choose any of a good list of sweet things). I opted for a broiled rib eye with chantrelles and was certainly in heaven.

For the sake of the guests only and only for the purest altruistic motives, I went for a sail on Guildive. Capts. Zander and Kate were delightful and took great care of us. We went for a sunset cruise, leaving off the dock in Castine. Dennett's Wharf is conveniently located right there (think--really fun bar and on-land bathrooms!). We were able to board a bit early and slid out into the harbor, past the Maine Maritime Academy's training ship, the State of Maine. We didn't have much wind but we had the best time! The views, the hors d'oeuvres, the chatting with Kate and Zander, the wildlife... So much fun!

Twice now I've had occasion to lunch at Table. Mmmmm. Cevishe of the day, their hamburger, the beet salad. Mmmmmm.

And, I know you are really pitying me now, I had to go to Arborvine this past week, too! Crispy roast duckling... tournedos pommery... Bagaduce River Oysters--on the half shell with a frozen sake mignonette--mmmmmmmmm mmmmmmmm. And I don't even like oysters. Order twice as many as you think you could possibly eat. Trust me on this. And then, hope that the crab and avocado tower is on the menu.
And if the person you're dining with says, "Oh, we can share," make that person order his or her own. Just trust me, you'll thank me. And then, dessert... Save room. I have no idea how but there's a lemon mousse napolean... A fruit crisp perhaps... Luckily, the restaurant is a short walk from the inn and the stroll home is down hill.

How lucky are we in Blue Hill to have so much great eating?!

We had two live music special treats, too! Mesa Schubeck, who you might have met on a recent stay as she is an assistant innkeeper here this summer or who you might have met at one of the contra dances as she plays with the Oakum Bay String Band, entertained at hors d'oeuvres hour Friday night and assured us it won't be the last time. She's a delightful pianist and vocalist.

Down the street at the new and improved wine shop, Bill McHenry did a couple of impromptu concerts among the bottles.

And then a bottle of bubbly on the deck at the Cockatoo in Sunset--because there is always something to celebrate! Among other things this week, it was my third anniversary as Sarah Pebworth, innkeeper at the Blue Hill Inn!

If your summer isn't delighting you, come see us. We can surely help.

And summer comes on with a bang!

2010-07-05T08:18:00.013-04:00

So much to tell you about! Taking my responsibility as the innkeeper in the know very seriously, I've been eating out... Buck's at Buck's Harbor, the new BoatYard Grill here in Blue Hill, another trip to El El Frijoles to try their Sunday lobster special, take out from the Fish Net, dinner at Barncastle (and they have a pool table and Ms. Pacman game),
even treats from the Black Dinah Cafe on Isle au Haut! And I inaugurated the new room at Maxx's Blue Hill Wine Shop!

You know I've always loved Maxx--did you know he plays the cello?--and think the Blue Hill Wine Shop is amazing. But now! Now, you can get fabulous cheeses and pastas and some sausages... And he will make you a coffee and you can get Tinder Hearth bread and some days it's a farm fury with produce from David's Folly, Elliot Coleman's Four Season Farm, or Living Branch! And he has a puppy who might be in residence on the day you drop by, too. She's Tansy and very dear. (The secret to having a quick visit to the wine shop is to get someone other than Maxx to wait on you. If you have the time, though, Maxx is the king!)

I've sent many a guest out to the Black Dinah Cafe but hadn't been there myself until this past week. The mailboat out of Stonington has a varied schedule so we were able to eat breakfast at the inn and still get out and back in time to be the hors d'oeuvres serving innkeeper. On the island, we met a ranger who supplied us with maps, a bathroom, and a ride partway to the cafe (so much for my plan to burn a few calories on the stroll! still, many in my group were happy with his generosity). The cafe isn't far from the town landing but it's a wooded walk, not along the shore.
The cafe had exactly what we needed--a loaf of fresh bread, hot and cold chocolate, plenty of great coffee, scones, truffles, ice cream, gifts for friends back home, a game of Uno for the kids... All that plus co-owner Steve's great smile and a wave from the co-owner chocolate maker, Kate, from the kitchen. Another day, we will plan our day around a longer visit and a hike or bike across the island.

Dining at Buck's got us out to Buck's Harbor--so beautiful! Dinner was delicious--Thai mussels, Acadian jambalaya--chock-a-block full of seafood, and a flatiron steak with a lemon-caper sauce. The bread basket was so delicious I had no room for dessert.

Closer to town, the BoatYard Grill at Webbers' Cove BoatYard just opened last week. As luck would have it, we happened upon them on opening night and got to enjoy a steamed lobster, cooked just right, a Boatyard cheeseburger, and grilled skewers. Although all was tasty, I am still craving the ginger-soy marinated grilled tuna with soy wasabi dipping sauce. Mmmmmmm. They have a fun bar and the sunset view is great and, it's in the middle of a boatyard! Anneliese Riggall (remember her from the Wescott Forge?) and Matt Cousins are the hosts.

Another night we headed to the Barncastle, the perfect spot when you are tired of seafood and a sit down dinner in a pretty old building is in order. We were dining with a 14-year-old and there was a waiting list so we were thrilled to discover Ms. Packman in the pool room. Then we moved on to Backgammon, even taking the board to the table to finish our game. I always get the ribs and am always so pleased! The pizza is great, friends rave on the salads and the vegetarian chili, but I just keep ordering the ribs! Again, not a bit of room for dessert... Well, the teenager might have had pie, a la mode, and eaten every bite!

And then we happened past El El Frijoles yesterday and the car took us right in, somehow knowing that there would be an extra grilled lobster (really smart people call ahead and reserve theirs) just for us, and we had crab quesadillas and four kinds of salsas and even horchata! Lobsters are a Sunday special only. It never hurts to call ahead and see what's up at El El. You can also byob (a neighbor stopped by for his dinner with a six-pack in tow and tipped Michael with a beer!). Getting to say hey to Michele and Michael is the best, and we love steeping in the Mexican folk art and great vibe.

With all this great eating, it's a good thing we've had perfect weather for hiking out to Barred Island and swimming and kayaking. Flash in the Pans has been playing around and about so we've been to the street dances, too. And the first of the month always finds a contra dance at the town hall, right next door to the inn.

From the guest book: "What a wonderful trip--Sarah and her staff were amazing. They made it all so special--the best vacation ever--absolutely delightful--hate to go back to reality--the best" from Dallas, Texas "Thank you for a lovely stay. It was the perfect headquarters for our explorations--like coming home at the end of each day" from Nashville, Tennessee. "Absolutely the height of New England charm!" from Greene, New York.

I hope your summer is filled with wide smiles, too.

Prettiest Spring Ever in Blue Hill

2010-06-19T16:44:00.016-04:00

So I write that it's the prettiest spring ever but I must confess my Aunt Jane has influenced me. She is one, each year at Thanksgiving, to proclaim it has been the best Thanksgiving ever. And every year, it's true.

The Blue Hill Farmer's Market is my Saturday routine. This morning, I grabbed my friend Nick on the way (he and his family are selling these amazing condos on Greene's Hill here in town. The prices start at an unbelievable $199,999). We grazed our way through the market--a fried egg sandwich from Lucy of Lucy's Granola (she makes them with sausage from one vendor at the market, eggs from another, greens from another), pastries and coffee from Millbrook Bakery (blueberry scones, mmmmmmm), samples of caramels from Bagaduce Farms, El El Frijoles salsa... I of course also shop--this week I came away with one of Chris Leigh's silk scarves!

Wait til you see it--amazing shades of greens and blues, a few subtle polka dots. She makes all sorts and colors. We had a lot of fun watching Amara eat a double chocolate chunk black raspberry ice cream sandwich from Millbrook. I love running into people I don't often see, including an old friend from Western Massachusetts (hi, Jill!) who was visiting her brother Eric who is married to Molly Blake who is my graphic designer (she rocks!). Eric meanwhile works with my friend Bob at the Brooklin Boat Yard. One of the joys of living in a small town is playing the connection game! I recently took some friends to Acadia and up Cadillac Mountain. You've heard me say Maine looks good, even in gray. Here are the pictures to prove it! One of the highlights of the trip was running into guests Ann and Kathryn from Virginia and Missouri at the top.

I hope your June is as beautiful and yummy. If not, come see us!

Most gorgeous May ever

2010-05-31T17:37:00.004-04:00

I can't believe you aren't here! The inn opened for the season May 21 and has been dancing ever since. The lupine in the sideyard and along the roadside love this warm, sunny weather and might be ahead of schedule in terms of their June 18-20 festival. They still have a ways to go before they are in full bloom but look at how pretty they are with the birch by the garden shed.

Flash in the Pans will help us celebrate the perfect weather with a street dance at the town park tonight--first of the season. (Sample them here--though it's impossible to get the feel for an all-ages, outdoor, seaside dance party without being here, bouncing to the beat.)

From the guestbook, our very dear visitors have lavished praise upon us: "Never slept better"... "What a delightful treat! We enjoyed every single detail--the wonderful appetizers with wine, the exquisite king 4-poster bed, fireplace crackling in the room, clawfoot tub--ahh, how relaxing!" ... "Delicious food, great bed, great atmosphere, lovely hostess!"

Jeff the chef has started the season off deliciously well--this morning's brioche got rave reviews and I adored yesterday's smoked salmon quiche. And he made an apple butter I put on absolutely everything. And let's not even talk about the browned sugar cookies, the it's-not-too-late-to-have-a-happy-childhood graham crackers, the walnut brownies...

Gardener Jean has the outside looking spiffy. As she trims flowering bushes, she brings branches into the inn for vases. Even in the kitchen, we have lilacs and Japanese maples adorning the counter.

Last night was the first opening of the season at the Leighton Gallery, a mere two blocks from the inn. Judith Leighton is celebrating 30 years of having a fabulous gallery and representing amazing artists. The sculpture garden inspires and delights. Be sure to see it when you're in town next.

There's so much more to tell--boat trips, restaurants, the new men's clothing store--but I must get hors d'oeuvres out (the mushroom and Swiss mini pizzas smell heavenly and guests have really liked Le Colture Prosecco Fagher we've added to the wine list). If you're planning to come this summer, don't wait to make your reservation--so many dates are already booked.

Open House at the Blue Hill Inn

2010-05-14T07:27:00.008-04:00

Spring continues to be a delight here on the coast of Maine. I haven't seen so many smiles since Black Dinah Chocolatiers were dipping truffles in the kitchen here. Your hardworking innkeeper has been dining out to test the waters--El El Frijoles, Whale's Rib, Table, C Shells, Bird Watcher's, Dennett's Wharf. We'll have the inside scoop for you when you ask for reservation suggestions. The photos are ones I took on the way to the Whale's Rib, which is at the Pilgrim's Inn on Deer Isle. The 20-minute drive really is this beautiful. I'm not sure what the schedule for the bridge work is but when cars have to wait it usually isn't long.

The full inn opens next week, Thursday, May 20. We have our annual open house the night before. If you're in the area, please stop by, 5-7 p.m. We'll have live music from the George Stevens Academy Varsity Jazz Band, delicious nibbles, and great company. During the quiet season we offer a continental breakfast in the Cape House but next week we start the full menu. Our blueberry pancakes, homemade granola and yogurt, an omelet, the poached eggs with the fire-roasted red peppers and chive flowers... And that amazing bacon Libby makes for us at Smith's Smokehouse. It's going to be a delicious summer once again.

Have you checked us out on Facebook? We're always posting about things happening in Blue Hill and the surrounding area.

We're looking forward to Wings, Waves & Woods, May 21-23, the annual birding festival with all sorts of events going on down on Deer Isle. We'll get you started with maps and birding lists.

If you're planning to come visit, make your reservations now. It's going to be a busy summer and lots of weekends are already booked up. We are running a spring special to encourage people to come earlier, stay a bit longer, and really relax--come for three nights but pay for two. Call us for the details. Here's to a blossom-filled spring.

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2010-04-29T12:30:00.001-04:00

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"Best Classic B&B in Maine"

2010-04-28T08:50:00.003-04:00

We are doing the spring dance of joy here at the Blue Hill Inn because the latest Yankee Magazine proclaims us the "best classic B&B in Maine"! I blush to report they write, "Innkeeper Sarah Pebworth does everything right at this Federal gem, featuring three-course breakfasts and plentiful insider wisdom." They didn't have room to mention Jeff's cranberry sorbet, Matt's popovers, Jean's amazing lawn care and handy-woman-ness, Bonnie's expert control over the housekeeping, and the able assistance of Sue, Elizabeth, Ellie, Kaiya, Keira, Susan, Kelly, Heather, Emily, Maura, and others, many of whom will be here this season to welcome you back to the Blue Hill Inn. See you soon!

Yes, she's talking about sticky buns, again!

2010-04-14T21:48:00.004-04:00

When I look back over the 2009 season, one of the food highlights has to be discovering a sticky bun recipe. Before finding my own way, I would buy a sticky bun from Millbrook Bakery at the farmer’s market each Saturday. I was hooked, I was dependent, so much so that for my birthday in August, I had Jill (the person wearing the baker’s hat at Millbrook) bring me enough for all the guests and the staff and the birthday girl. Then I discovered the Barefoot Contessa’s recipe. A key ingredient? Frozen puff pastry! Now, with a quick trip to your grocery store, you, too, can dazzle your guests—or just your family—with gooey, heavenly sticky buns. They are so rapturously delicious, two guests created a Facebook photo essay about their experience. Thanks again, Pat and Pam!

Speaking of Facebook, have you become a fan of the inn yet? I have great fun making more frequent updates. I even made a wee video of the beach and fog horn at Barred Island so I could share it with you!

Spring brought magnolia blossoms so early this year--town is gorgeous with forsythia and bulbs and green! Come see for yourself!

Pecan Sticky Buns from the Blue Hill Inn

Makes 12 larger or 14 slightly smaller buns

Topping
12 tablespoons (1½ sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/3 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
½ cup pecans (or 24-28 halves)

Filling
2/3 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 cup pecans, chopped fine (or, if you really like raisins, use raisins, or both)

2 sheets frozen puff pastry, defrosted
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a cookie sheet pan with parchment paper. Place standard muffin tin(s) on the paper-lined sheet.
With an electric mixer or food processor, combine the 12 tablespoons butter and 1/3 cup brown sugar. Divide into muffin tins (approximately one tablespoon in each). Distribute pecans on top of the sugar-butter mixture (place pecan halves upside down so when the sticky buns are right side up the pecans will look lovely).
Mix together the remaining brown sugar, cinnamon, and pecans, and set aside.
Place the puff pastry, with the longer side toward you, on a floured surface (or keep the nonstick paper on). Brush the whole top of the sheet with half the melted butter. By paying attention to the edge closest to you, you will ensure the center of the sticky bun is especially heavenly. Distribute half the filling over the entire surface—don’t forget that edge closest to you! Starting with that edge, roll the pastry up snugly like a jellyroll around the filling, ending with the seam side down. Slice the roll into 6 or 7 equal portions. Place each piece, with the flattest spiral side up, into one of the muffin cups. Repeat with the second puff pastry sheet.
Bake for 30 minutes or until the sticky buns are golden to dark brown on top and firm to the touch. The butter may bubble over the sides of the muffin tin. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes only, then invert the buns on to the parchment paper that you placed under the muffin tin. I do this with a spoon in one hand to ease out any filling that may want to stay behind.
Serve. Prepare for oohs and ahhs!

Adapted from Ina Garten’s recipe

An Early Spring in Blue Hill

2010-03-17T22:20:00.006-04:00

I still have to pinch myself--I get to live here! "Were you born in Maine?" "No, but I got here just as quick as I could."

We had sunshine and temps in the low 40s the other day--a great excuse to head to Brooklin. I hadn't been to the Morning Moon Cafe in ages and I took a friend who hadn't yet been to the Cave.

The Moon is for sale--and if it doesn't sell by May, they say it will close. Here is your chance to own a cafe! It comes with a four-bedroom house--all for $485,000. Brooklin is such a dear town--EB White used to call it home and now his grandson runs one of the local boatyards. The Cave is a new business, filled with decadence. I'm addicted to their caper butter. Laura, the proprietor, puts out too many samples. I could resist the smoked cheddar but did try the chocolate drizzled popcorn--too delicious! Her shop has wine, cheese, sweets, gifts, beautiful cutting boards, artwork, and Caroline Mayher's pottery (the joke is that she and her husband are the "mayors" or Brooklin).

I met another friend at Jonathon Chase's Buck's Harbor Market in Brooksville. The chowder was yummy and the market has all sorts of treats to take home with you. And it's almost kid time--Sunset Acres Farms has an "open farm" during the spring, with three bottle feeding times a day!

Have you become a fan of the Blue Hill Inn on Facebook?! Now you can post a picture or a comment and I can give you more casual notes on the happenings at the inn. A dear guest sent me a photo essay about making our sticky buns--check it out. You can also befriend the Blue Hill Wine Shop, Black Dinah Chocolatiers, El El Frijoles, The Cave, and Table!

Guests have been happily coming in and out and making lots of calls about the summer. If you have been planning on coming but haven't got around to calling--call now! Brides and birthdays and photo shoots--we have many many weekends all booked up.

You know how I love my winter reading. I visited the Maine authors section at the Blue Hill Library (have I mentioned they now sell coffee?! I love our library) and brought home an arm full. I just finished The Dead Cat Bounce by Sarah Graves, which I thoroughly enjoyed. She wrote a series of books: "A Home Repair is Homicide Mystery". As I do a fair amount of Inn repair, I can relate! With all the great weather we've been having, I'll hardly have enough winter to get far into her books. I'm not complaining; no one is. At the post office, at the town hall, at the library, at the cafes, we're all smiles. I hope your spring is wondrous as well!

An early Valentine

2010-01-16T07:12:00.010-05:00

I know it is only January, and mid-month at that but I am, as they say, feeling the love. (And wishing happy birthday to my brother George who took his hospitality inclination to Whitetail Bluff Camp and Resort, a fun campground and bar and grill they started in southwestern Wisconsin).

I had heard that Cullen from Fairwinds Florist, our local flower girl and purveyor of many things gorgeous, had her picture in February's Martha Stewart Living magazine. So I found myself paging through the glossy celebration of red hearts and deliciousness. And, turning corners down on lots of pages, before even getting to the lovely article that focuses on Black Dinah Chocolatiers.
During the season, the inn is a playground for new recipes, pretty flower arrangements, and hospitality adventures. The quiet season brings its charms--snowshoeing, reading books (just finished the Elegance of the Hedgehog; Juliet, Naked; and A Gate at the Stairs); and visiting restaurants (tried Finn's in Ellsworth--get the artichoke appetizer, the Mache Bistro in Bar Harbor--I'm still melting over the beef bourguignon). But I apparently was hungry for some entertainment on entertaining so you might see me whipping up some glittered roses (page 41) or you might find a filigree heart on your waffle (page 39). For certain, though, you will find me praising Black Dinah Chocolatiers all the more.

Kate, the chocolate maker, led a class at the inn during the October Food and Wine Festival last year--the aromas! The oooooos and ahhhhhhhs from the guest-cum-apprentice chocolate makers (and the innkeeper). My tip, though? Don't be so cliche as to get your loved one chocolates for Valentine's Day; you will be dismissed as unoriginal and your amazingly fabulous gift of Black Dinah Chocolates will go under appreciated. Instead, choose to pamper your sweetie on Groundhog's Day, or perhaps the Ides of March, or even April Fool's Day ("Ha! You thought I didn't get you anything for Valentine's Day!"). One last tidbit about the mouthwatering candy Kate produces--the ingredients are so fresh that it makes no sense at all to save the box day after day waiting for the perfect time. They are meant to be savored right away. Mmmmmmm.

Blue Hill for the Holidays

2010-01-02T14:17:00.010-05:00

I can only hope you are having as luscious a holiday season as I am. For me, the highlights are music, people, and food.

Blue Hill is lucky to have the Bagaduce Chorale, with 80-plus voices. They perform two concerts a year at the Congregational Church. Their winter concert included a newly commissioned piece by Anna Dembska. The spring concert, schedule for April 30 and May 1, will include new work by Paul Sullivan.

High school concerts can be scary but not when you have an award winning music department. George Stevens Academy, directly across the street from the inn, has a wonderful array of musicians and their winter concert includes a band, various steel drum combos, a handful of jazz combos, and an acappella vocal ensemble. Guests have asked about George Stevens. The history of who he is and how the school acquired his name can be found at the school's website. One of the great things about living in a small town--the cast of characters is small, even with a history that goes back to the early 1800s.

Ellacappella is another Blue Hill treasure.
They've been out in their bright colors for the tree lighting and at the library for my favorite Christmas event of all--the reading of Dickens' Christmas Carol. As you may know, our library is beautiful, with its central room flanked by fireplaces. In front of one is where three local gents read out the carol, with appropriate chain rattling and hat changing to cover many characters. We laugh, we cry, we eat more cookies.

For me, too, part of the charm of the season in this small town is the proximity. The inn is just around the corner from the Congregational Church and the library and shops on Main Street. We can walk to three bookstores! For me, that describes a great town perfectly. The fact that you can get great espresso in one and fresh bread in another and the third has the best, smartest inventory of a bookstore ten times its size is just like frosting on the cake.

On Last Night, we wander the streets listening to live music and being entertained by an impressive array of locals. This year, Noel Paul Stookey began the evening to a standing room audience. Guests staying at the Cape House, where there are two options of rooms for you, had a great time. One couple ventured to the Arborvine for a fabulous dinner and then walked about town in the snow, to return to the Suite before midnight to enjoy a cozy fire.

If you stayed with us at the inn, you know that we don't have televisions in the rooms in the inn, just in the Cape House next door. But we have books, boy, do we have books. Just in the last month I've added a new one by Rebekah Raye, Bear-ly There. Jonathan Lethem's Chronic City is finally out (I had the pleasure--O so pleasurable!--of hearing him read from an almost final copy with a small group tucked into the East Blue Hill Library). You can borrow it when I'm finished.

Then, too, I've added some art to the inn's collection.
But I'll have to tell you about that another time as the snow is still falling and I'm the snow shoveler today. I do hope you are making snow angels and enjoying the winter wonderland. (Sand angels, for you folks a bit more south, sound painful... You should just visit us and bring your snowsuits).

Happy, happy 2010 to you!
Sarah Pebworth

Big Fall Finale

2009-11-09T12:36:00.002-05:00

I wish you had been able to join us for the fourth Foliage, Food, and Wine Festival. Put it on your calendar for next year right now--it's the third weekend in October, Oct. 14-17, 2010. Each year more fabulous activities have been added. One of the most delicious was a chocolate making workshop held at the inn. Kate from Black Dinah Chocolatiers taught a sold-out crowd everything about chocolate making. Let me tell you--having a vat of warmed chocolate in the kitchen makes the inn smell heavenly! Not only is Kate a wiz in the chocolate kitchen, she writes of chocolate and Isle au Haut living stunningly well. Check out her blog and you will agree with me.

El El Frijoles amazed our guests during the sold-out wine dinner we hosted as part of the festival. Even long time fans of the taqueria were dazzled by the food that kept coming out of the kitchen that night. The queso fundido, the pork loin, the apple tart... this and more paired expertly by Maxx from the Blue Hill Wine Shop made for a smashingly successful evening. El El Frijoles went on to win "Best of the Fest" at the Taste of the Peninsula event on Sunday. Their posole... Mmmm, mmm.
The inn offered browned butter cookies, apple walnut cake, and those graham crackers I keep raving about. I was very very popular with my trays of goodies. Kathy from Blue Hill Hearth had one of the prettiest displays--look at her patchwork pizza.

Guests at the inn attended the wine dinner at the Arborvine, the beer lunch at Table, the lobsterbake at Barncastle, just some of the special events with the festival.

As summer downshifts to fall, we get more excited about books again. Kevin Hawkes stayed with us, lured here by friends who are returning guests (they really like room 2). Their friends presented the inn with a copy of Kevin's book, Library Lion. If you haven't read this before, go get it now--so sweet. You will fall in love with the illustrations immediately.

We continue to grow our library at the inn--I think we have more books than any other inn in Maine! Guests will sometimes end up in the middle of a book when it's time to check out. Trudy, a longtime friend of the inn, checked in this fall with a book in hand she had started last year. She and her husband always stay in room 3.

Speaking of gifts from guests, I had to pull out the tree book Catherine gave us last year (see the blog entry from Sept. 27, 2008) to identify the American Mountain Ash, or Rowan Tree, we have in our yard that produces the most eye-catching orange berries in the fall.

I received an email the other day with the subject line: "Our stay with you was fabulous." Margaret ended her email with, "Can one be homesick for a place visited only for four or five days?" Blue Hill does has a certain magic...

Autumn's Bounty

2009-09-26T15:28:00.006-04:00

October brings us to that time of year when I convince myself that candy corn looks great in a silver dish and can be offered in the parlor and the staff gently insists it doesn't and it can't.

Luckily they agree with me about the glass pumpkin now gracing the mantelpiece. This was a find from the farmer's market, where I also picked up two chevre spreads from Seal Cove--one with cranberry and the other a chili lime--not for the faint of heart!

Autumn also brings pumpkin donuts! Jill at Millbrook Bakery is now forcing us to decide--nutty sticky bun or pumpkin donut? Clever lady that she is, you can get a donut hole, and a sticky bun. And now she's offering soups and sandwiches, too. I tried the potato leek today. Scrumptious.

The Surry Inn will close up for the season soon. I'm hoping to get there for the beef salad one more time. This is the pretty view from their dining room.

I went to the Maine's Office of Tourism site this week after seeing an ad for the art museum trail. You'll find oodles of helpful information here. You can also see information on antiquing throughout the state, and great foliage tours, and food tours...

I had dinner at Fisherman's Friend last week, enjoying their cornbread and a crabmeat and swiss sandwich. Guests raved about the lobster puff--and had plenty for lunch the next day. I also had my favorite caesar salad and onion rings at Marlintini's, here in town. We do eat well in this area of tiny towns and very fresh seafood.

At the inn, guests have been raving about Jeff's sorbet, his cranberry scones, and one of my new favorites, the apple walnut cake, made with apples from our trees!

The inn will close up for the season at the end of the month but the Cape House Suite and Studio are open year round. Let us know if you'll be in the area.

Now go enjoy the season! There are leaves to scuff through, golden afternoons to enjoy, a fall bounty to partake in.

Eagle Island Lighthouse

2009-09-20T13:58:00.003-04:00

September in Maine is amazing. The warm days, cool nights, and hints of autumn make Blue Hill especially lovely.

I took advantage of Maine's first Open Lighthouse Day to get on the Eagle Island mailboat. Guests Bob and Margie from Illinois joined me and we agreed it was a magical day. From Audrey, our mailboat captain, to the Quinns, our hosts for the island tour, we were entertained and well tended to. Bob Quinn gave us the tour across the island to the lighthouse and took us all up inside the lighthouse. The views were spectacular but I also loved the historical feel of the light and the spiral stairway leading to it. Bob and his wife Helene are fifth-generation Eagle Islanders and have great stories to tell. I can't hope to capture his wit and style but he was a delight. One quip about lighthouse tenders, "You have to be able to sleep with the light on." More poignantly, he spoke of when the light became automated and no longer needed someone to tend it: "They took the keepers away from the light."

My Saturdays have a lovely rhythm. I help with breakfast at the inn and then dash to the farmer's market. This week I picked up bread from Jill Smith's Millbrook Bakery, some produce from one of the local farmers, and a goat cheese spread from Sunset Acres Farm. Assistant innkeeper Maura used the cucumber for one of my favorite hors d'oeuvres--Greek grilling cheese with tomato and balsamic reduction with the cucumber slice becoming the cracker. After dropping off the farmer's market purchases, I often stop in other shops about town. This weekend I returned to Handworks Gallery and am now in love with some silver earrings with lots of hoops. They have a truly wonderful selection.

"How is breakfast?" I asked a guest the other morning.
"Just as yummy as the bed."

Summer summer summer

2009-08-18T20:56:00.004-04:00

Going, going, gone... August was a whirlwind of sending guests off to the local swimming areas, doing some research in restaurants and at events, and just enjoying the scrumptious weather.

I volunteered one day at the quarry park in Stonington. Opera House Arts (OHA), in collaboration with local conservation group Island Heritage Trust (IHT), presented a preview of a new “story at the quarry.” “Q2: Habitat” is a multidiscipline performance commissioned by OHA and directed by founding artistic director of Pilobolus Dance Theater, at the historic Settlement Quarry. “Q2” is a theatrical spectacle including professional dancers in aerial performances; community members; steel drum music from a live community band; giant puppets; and heavy equipment operated by Rick Weed of Deer Isle and Charlie Peabody of Stonington. “Q2: Habitat” is in its first of two years of development leading up to a spectacle at the quarry in August 2010.

On the way back to the inn, I stopped for lunch at the Bagaduce Lunch. What a view. I would be hard pressed to know which take out place had the best view. There's the Bagaduce, the Bayview between here and Castine, the Breeze in Castine. In Blue Hill, we have to make our own by getting take out at the Fish Net and heading to the town park. The steel drum band has been playing there the last few Mondays.

And speaking of live music... Had you been able to come to the Innkeeper's Birthday Party, you would have gotten to hear the University of Maine--Machias Ukulele Band! Gary Bushee, aka the singing waiter, has been a friend of mine since 1988. He suggested inviting the ukulele players to the birthday bash. To the delight of guests and party goers, they played all evening, taking requests and ending with a full on dance party!

In the kitchen, I'm loving Jeff's three-pepper biscuits. We offer them at breakfast and with hors d'oeuvres. Matt has been making his fabulous popovers which give guests a vehicle for tasting Nervous Nellie's jams. I continue to make the pecan coffee cake--it's an easy crowd pleaser (the recipe is on the Oct. 4, 2007 blog entry. I will often bake the batter in a pie plate, rather than muffin tins, as I like the wedge shape.)

Guests have been so complimentary about the staff here. I cannot agree more. I must have the nicest, most talented staff of any inn in Maine. And staff are talented in many directions: Elizabeth Sawyer is a painter whose work in being shown in a number of places in the area, including the Castine Historical Handworks. This is one of her pastels. Heather Lyon, a new staff member at the inn but someone I worked with back in the Left Bank Cafe days, has a self portrait in Rockport's Center for Maine Contemporary Arts show, "Just Look at Yourself!" Jon Imber's work can be seen there, too.

More soon, I promise. There's so much to tell you about this fall, including a class in Artisan Chocolate Making to be held here at the inn with Kate from Black Dinah Chocolatiers! during our Foliage, Food and Wine Festival Oct. 16-18. Call the inn for more details.

Check your calendars!

2009-08-06T16:00:00.005-04:00

I have to jump ahead to October for just a minute--not that I want to leave the gorgeous August weather we've been having but you have to know about the October events before they go too public and get filled up.

First, Columbus Day weekend, we are collaborating with Paul Sullivan, OK, collaborate might be too strong a word. We are lodging and feeding guests who will be attending Paul's music workshops and events all weekend long. Paul is hosting three days of music workshops during this "musical getaway weekend." It's your chance to visit one of the most beautiful villages on the coast of Maine, hang around with Paul, and indulge in music to your heart's content. There will be piano master classes, improvisation sessions, some interesting and unusual musical adventures (steel drums and synthesizers, for example) and great meals including a lobster feast. Paul will also perform a solo piano concert for you on Saturday night. You'll be staying with us at the inn and fall foliage will be at its height. We only have room for twenty participants, so be sure to act on this quickly. Paul and his partner Jill will send you a brochure with more details. Contact them at 207/359-8432, or by email: Jill@rivermusic.com.

And then it will be time for the Foliage, Food and Wine Weekend! This year's event will be bigger than ever.
We will again be hosting El El Frijoles for a Latin inspired, wine paired dinner. This will absolutely sell out so if you want to join us, call us now! Maxx, from Blue Hill Wine Shop, will be on hand to pour and educate.

A new event at the inn this year is Kate from Black Dinah Chocolatiers. She will hold a very small chocolate making class at the inn on the festival weekend. Not to sound like a broken record, but this will absolutely sell out--and our kitchen isn't half as big as our dining room--so you must call us immediately if you want to be included. Of course, you can always just go to the Blue Hill Co-op or Fairwinds Florist while you are in town and buy her chocolates. Sexy Mexi might be my favorite. Or lavender... She and her husband Steve run the cafe on Isle au Haut and they do send their chocolates off island.

And then we're hosting Inn Your Dreams! Have you ever wondered about running an inn of your own? My friends thought I was crazy when I first started talking about it. "What if you don't like it?" they wondered. "Can't you try it out?" Here's your opportunity to explore your dream. I took his class in spring 2006 and look at me now! Come to the inn for a few days as part of Don Johnson's Inn Your Dream seminar and learn all about innkeeping. You'll have field trips, sessions with experts in the field and professionals you need to work with, and solid information about innkeeping from a man who has been there, plus you'll have an opportunity to see the behind-the-scene workings of this inn, where we'll let you get as hands-on as you want.

Blue Hill is stunning in the fall. Pick your activity and come see. Of course, if your activity choice is reading a book under a golden canopy of fall leaves, we'll take good care of you.

In the meantime, sunscreen and raspberry iced tea... August in Maine is fresh blueberries, ginger-pear ice cream from Millbrook's little shop, drinks at Table on the patio...

Great food, great guests, fun happenings

2009-07-27T13:50:00.003-04:00

You know as a dedicated innkeeper, I force myself to try new restaurants on your behalf. Last week, I headed out to Stonington and had dinner at the Maritime Cafe. What a great view and pretty dining room. I especially liked the appetizer list--full of fresh seafood with original twists. On nice days they have outdoor seating right on the busy harbor. In the evening, a beautiful night sky makes everythig taste even better.

Last night, I tried the Cafe This Way in Bar Harbor.
While the quiet of Blue Hill is my favorite, the bustle of Bar Harbor is fun to visit from time to time. I had dinner with Jill Smith, baker extraordinaire from Millbrook Company, Bobbie Lynn Hutchins, owner and chef at Cafe Bluefish, my all time favorite Bar Harbor dining experience, and her partner. Julie Harris, one of the three Cafe This Way owners, visited us from time to time. It's Julie who has designed the menu--with so many interesting choices it's hard to decide. Luckily, we were all willing to share. I think the smoked duck wrapped scallops were my favorite, or perhaps the ribeye with bleu cheese...

And on the menu here at the inn--Stonington crabmeat quiche is on the menu for this morning, Jeff made a lemon poppy seed bread the other day that was delicious, and then there are the savory tarts... O, and the pancakes. Guests have been raving: "Especially loved the blueberry pancakes" "Blueberry pancakes to die for!" "Every bite of breakfast was memorable!"

I'll have to tell you about our fall offerings and my gallery hopping another day. Right now, it's off to make some of those pancakes for the guests.

I do hope your July is as delicious.

2009-07-17T20:33:00.004-04:00

And, happy anniversary to the inn and me, again! Today, July 17, it is two years that I've been writing "innkeeper" for my occupation. I still say, just about every day and sometimes many, many times during the day, "This is the best job ever" or "I love my job." People often ask how I came to be an innkeeper. The truth? What Color is Your Parachute, by Richard Nelson Bolles. I highly recommend both the book and questioning what you are doing, why you are doing it, and what makes a good fit for you.

Be happy in your work. If you aren't, I'm sure Nick at Blue Hill Books can have a copy of "Parachute" waiting for you when you arrive in town and I'll chat with you over breakfast (this morning, Jeff made scrambled eggs with sage from our garden and a lovely baby Swiss--guests went wild, and was there even one strawberry turnover left for me to try? No. Not even a crumb.),
or I'll talk with you over a glass of wine and some hors d'oeuvres (tonight I did a similar selection to my very first night--I was so nervous then!--I knew I could handle something with a Mexican flair--everyone likes my guacamole and, Sister Salsa, right here in town, makes a great salsa, and quesadillas are always yummy and have endless varieties. We have a white on the wine list from Willamette Valley, Orgeon, called Borealis--delicious and a nice pairing with the spicy food.)

Two years! I really appreciate all the support from friends, family, and staff, without whom I couldn't do this at all, and from guests, who are the real reason this is the best job ever. Two years of so much laughing and learning. Here's to many more.

See you at breakfast...

2009-07-15T19:42:00.004-04:00

What to do on a stunning July night? Cruise to Deer Isle and have dinner at the Cockatoo. I’ve told you and told you how lovely the view is from the deck. I know more guests stop in for a late lunch, having explored Barred Island first, than venture this far from the inn, on such a gravel road, at night. Still, I arrived about 7:30, in the pinking light, and enjoyed a lovely glass of Vihno Verde. The hostess took great care of me from the first moment. It’s a restaurant that can feel awkward, what door to go in, is it OK to just grab a table on the deck?, is it OK with no reservation but I was warmly greeted and immediately taken care of, seated on the deck, greeted by my waitress, glass of wine in hand at once. And, wireless on the deck!

Mark Island Light foghorn can be heard over most of Deer Isle but it can be seen from the deck of Goose Cove Lodge. You can fool yourself that the lobster buoys in the cove are seals, or, heck, maybe they are seals. This image is by Jeremy D'Entremont.

Speaking of lighthouses, Maine is having a Lighthouse Day! Sept. 12 will be the first ever open house of Maine lighthouses, sponsored by the U.S. Coast Guard, the State of Maine and the American Lighthouse Foundation. The largest effort of its kind in the nation, the event is designed to provide access to the public to all participating lighthouses on that one day.

You can see why I am so enthusiastic about this area...

a bit of shopping

2009-07-11T19:03:00.003-04:00

Saturday mornings in Blue Hill, Maine, are the best! Blue Hill has its farmer's market at the fairgrounds and I go to scoop up breads and meats and art. Each week there is a new guest artist. I've gotten handmade purses and glass flowers and admired hooked rugs. This week, the Salty Spinners caught my eye. The hats they make are great.

I got to see Katy Allgeyer's new work, too. You can see some on her website, including a new one of the Opera House in her building series that I am craving.

And I made the mistake of going to the Handworks Gallery, just a block from the inn. I thought I might find a new pair of earrings but instead got this great bracelet which has hardly left my wrist since. I haven't gotten a good photo of it to show you but guests and friends have been admiring it all week. Marcia, at Handworks, has a marvelous collection of art and jewelry and beautiful objects.

Back at the inn, our strawberry plants are still producing, we've loved using the microplaner, and the white gingerbread on this morning's menu was a big hit in the dining room.

From the guest book: "Blue Hill makes me weep with its beauty." "We arrived on a very rainy day, exhausted & weary, & this lovely B&B made us whole. The elegance, the exquisite cuisine & the absolutely delightful staff made this a memorable & restful time." "The atmosphere is enchanting, the service top-notch and the food delightful!" (The last comment was left by kayakers who arrived dripping from rain. I love that even a bit of gray weather can't stop visitors from enjoying their stay.)

If you're craving some pampering, come our way.

"Beautiful place, wonderful people!"

2009-07-04T18:12:00.005-04:00

And so ended the story of your innkeeper making a bit of a fool of herself. See, we had someone famous who I just adore come to stay. I managed to be very professional for most of her stay but when I went to tell her how much I really really like her work, I'm certain I came off as a bumbling idiot. It's just that my mother, who passed away in 2000, was always the Queen of Everything and I was the Princess of Quite A Lot. She and I, and my sister, shared a love of Mary's work so I was just tickled to have her here. And she was gracious enough to sign the guest book, "Beautiful place, wonderful people!" My mother would be thrilled. Mary's website is chock full of great gifts and cards and fun things. And this You Tube interview talks about her very sweet books, too.

Garden peas get the credit for my making new friends at the farmer's market today.

I do like to browse every stall at the farmer’s market but I had made a number of purchases and my bag was heavy and I was planning to head back to the car and back to work when I caught a glimpse of carrot tops and sweet peas. Sweet peas--or garden candy--are my absolute favorites. A couple was running the eclectic stall—there were wooden cutting boards (or serving boards because they're really too pretty to cut on), vegetables, cards, jewelry.

I picked up the bag of peas and asked if she had more. No, she answered, she had picked some for them and this was all that was left. “Well, I’d like these please.”

“Pick a carrot as well. It’s a free carrot with every purchase, for nibbling on while you walk around the market.” The carrot, I will tell you, was a fresh-from-the-garden, giant plume of a tail, bundle of delicious orangeness. You likely know me well enough to know I do appreciate an accessory or two, a bit of craziness with an outfit, a scarf tossed over my shoulder. Enter the carrot plume. So I, while enjoying my carrot, browsed a bit more, and so, by browsing and asking Ann Flewelling, as she turned out to be, dozens of questions, I made an amazing discovery. She and Marnie Reed Crowell collaborated on a book, Beads & String, a Maine island pilgrimage, which they published via their press, Threehalf Press, out of Sunset, Maine (home of my favorite spot in the whole world). There's a sample at this link, or come to the inn and borrow the book, or buy it at the Island Heritage Trust site.

Another book to keep an eye out for is Kathryn Ma's All That Work and Still No Boys, winner of the Iowa Short Fiction Award. I always say that we have the nicest guests--and we do--but we certainly have talented, creative ones as well!

Other notes from the guest book this week: "Great beds & wonderful breakfast!" "Thank you for a wonderful stay. We've enjoyed every minute..." I do have to report on a guest comment from June: A young could wrote, "Great place! The baby picture in 5 is totally creepy." I have to say we do agree with you and finally have retired her to the attic. Perhaps our ongoing historical research will reveal who she is and I can find her a less "creepy" place to hang.

And if you had been here this morning, you would have a strawberry-lemon sorbet (with strawberries from Homewood Farm, just outside of town). And then chocolate currant scones, which were out of this world delicious. Egg dishes this morning included scrambled eggs with Stonington crab meat and sauteed leeks. Mmmm, mmm! If you aren't being served three-course breakfasts where you are, come see us!

This last photo is a snapshot I took when I was showing some friends the granite walled cemetery in Sedgwick. The first gravestone dates to 1835, very near the time the inn was built. Let me know if you're interested in seeing it and I'll let you know where to find it.

Our strawberry patch produced a whole pile of berries today! I hope your July is as delicious.

Our newest accommodation

2009-06-12T19:23:00.004-04:00

Our newest space, the Cape House Studio, is ready for guests. All of our rooms are works in progress--there isn't one I don't have some plan for. The Studio, though, is ready for the 2009 season.

The kitchen/sitting area has a sink, stove, microwave, and small refrigerator. There's a table large enough for a good game of cards plus the chair you see here with a good reading lamp. In the bedroom, you'll find the charming spindle beds, either twins or a king, and matching dresser. The bathroom is a bit beige--perhaps to be remodeled in Winter 09/10? The views toward the back catch the trees in our lower garden. The front faces the gorgeous academy across the street but mostly you see azalea bushes, beautifully in bloom right now. You might wonder why we call it the Cape House Studio. We refer to the whole building, adjacent to the inn, as the Cape House. This is the Studio because it has artwork, paintings by my aunt, Ky Wilson, and great grandmother, Arline Wilson, in the bedroom, and photographs by Terrill Lester in the kitchen/sitting area. You'll find an easel in the closet and watercolor pads and paints and books on the shelf. Mention the starving artist discount and we'll take 10% off your Studio stay. Please forgive these snapshots. I used my iPhone, wanting to show you as soon as possible.

We've been seeing old friends come through already this spring. I love the Morrises--they notice and appreciate every single change and are very complimentary about the food here, pushing us to do a cookbook--someday. Pat and Pam from Connecticut came through again. We try hard to spoil everyone but they are always leaving presents for us. You should see the whoopie pies! This doesn't show how adorably they are wrapped, or were wrapped...

From the guest book this week: "Hooray for your excellent bacon." I have to agree. We still get it from Smith's Smokehouse. Tomorrow I'll pick our order up at the farmer's market, while I chat with Dan from Gravelwood Farm about the eggs his chickens have been laying for us and say hello to Dan from the Flower Farm and get one of Jill's sticky buns. She's from Millbrook Bakery, where we got lots of our toasting breads. The farmer's market is great--came through on a Saturday and we'll give you directions. It's not far from the inn. Breakfasts have gotten good reviews from the guest book, too, and it's no wonder with Matt and Jeff whipping up gingerbread with a fresh lemon glace, chocolate scones, Belgian waffles with sauteed apples, omelets with the yummiest fillings. For today's afternoon treat, Jeff made graham crackers--my first homemade graham cracker ever. I'd be happy to share the recipe--once I get it, of course. These are crisp childhood memories, like the graham crackers you remember only so much better.

I hope your June has been as delicious!

Spring Bounty

2009-06-05T18:22:00.004-04:00

Dan, from Dan's Flower Farm, brought in his first bouquet of the season. They truly are so beautiful you could cry. My photographs do not do them justice in the least but I had to show you.

On the menu for hors d'oeuvres tonight? A blueberry sage baked brie, a recipe adapted from one in Brooke Dojny's cookbook, Dishing Up Maine. Lest you think I only cook out of one book, let me tell you about the Maine Mapmaker's Kitchen, newly out. Jane Crosen--of the incredible hand drawn maps of this area--together with Richard Washburn, her husband, has created a Downeast cookbook celebrating creative, healthy recipes "for home, camp, and a float."

It took reading a review of Becky's in Portland in the latest issue of Maine Boats, Homes, and Harbors to articulate something I have always felt. "Grilled crab and cheese! Try that and you'll never waste your money on a lobster roll again," wrote Peter Spectre. My first crab and swiss came from the Fisherman's Friend, when it used to be across from the elementary school, when the school was still in Stonington, say 1988. You can still get one at the Friend. Mmmm mmmm.
I hope your spring has been as beautiful and delicious and bountiful. If it hasn't, come see us.

Lupine! And Belted Galloway Cows

2009-06-01T19:26:00.002-04:00

Just as the lilacs bloom in time for the inn's open house, the lupine come along right in time for their very own festival. Deer Isle's Lupine Fest, June 19-21, truly does have something for everyone, and it's all a short drive from Blue Hill.

Recipes, mattress information, recommendations for a tasty lunch--we've been offering it all to guests. "The most charming inn on all five continents, with the most friendly welcome," wrote one guest in our book. It must be Matt's breakfasts that send them into such compliments. He tried a new sauce, blueberry rhubarb, with the waffles. Mmmmm. It's heaven to have rhubarb, chives, mint, sage... right in our garden. Our strawberry plants are coming along well.

Blue Hill Mountain beckons... You can hike right from the inn. We even have backpacks to loan you. This image isn't even from the top but from one of the "catch your breath, catch the view" stops I encourage people to take on their way up. An old homestead at the base of the mountain left its footprint in day lilies and lily-of-the-valley. The apple tree was probably in the dooryard.

Do you know about Aldermere Farm in Rockport? (Thanks to a guest, I now know about it.) The 136-acre farm is one of the world’s premier breeders of Belted Galloway cattle (you know, the Oreo cows) and it's owned and managed by Maine Coast Heritage Trust, a statewide land conservation organization dedicated to protecting the working landscapes of the Maine coast, among other things. The Trust maintains Aldermere as a working farm and educational center, helping visitors deepen their appreciation for land conservation and sustainable agriculture.

I hope you're getting your share of strawberries, and Nervous Nellie's jam filled tea cookies, and Carrabassett free trade coffee. If not, come on along--we've got some for you. Here's to a beautiful June.

Spring in Blue Hill

2009-05-22T20:11:00.004-04:00

It has been such a lovely spring--I can't believe you aren't here. A few lobster boats fish out of the boat landing just a block and a half from the inn. It's a tidal boat launch so you will only find the lobstermen there at high tide. We have tide charts available for guests, thanks to Melone Madix-Jackson of Slaven Realty. This photo of the Brady Caleb is from an early morning walk--can you see why I sometimes have to resist dashing through the halls at the inn, shouting, "Wake up! Wake up! It's a beautiful day"?! One nice advantage to the inn being just up from the water--we don't awake to the diesel engines roaring out to sea before dawn.

The lilacs beside the kitchen door are heavenly and the apple blossoms came out just in time for our guest Meredith's wedding. Much of her party were staying here as well. I was so proud of the inn's garden looking so marvelous, just in time.

We've spruced up the inside of the inn, too, and thrown open the doors just this past weekend. The sun has been streaming in the breakfast room windows.

A guest asked for the recipe for Matt's carrot cake cupcakes with the cream cheese frosting (our first afternoon treat offering). Let me know if you'd like me to send you a copy, too. They work well as muffins without the frosting... Or as muffins with the frosting. Who says a muffin can't be frosted?! We often make mini muffins. I figure, if you like it, you can have another (or two, or three). If you don't care for it, there's very little waste. This is a photo of Matt, working on hors d'oeuvres we served at our open house. We also served Maine shrimp ceviche from the Blue Hill Co-op at the open house. I had their scallop ceviche recently. Both are amazing and just another example of how lucky we are in this gorgeous town--we get great food, too.

There is so much to tell you! Jill Smith, from Millbrook Bakery, is becoming an ice cream lady! She'll be scooping right downtown Blue Hill, near the Chamber of Commerce, across from the post office (where I go every single day. It's a very good thing the inn has a lot of stairs to climb and grass to mow). She'll be opening this very weekend.

Elvers may not show up on our menu but they do get flown to o la la restaurants like the French Laundry and Four Seasons. Folks around here have been fishing for these little eels for generations.

"Had an absolutely wonderful time" wrote some guests, former innkeepers themselves, as they checked out. They were heading through Belfast on the way home, hitting the fun stores and Chase's Daily.

You know we only have the nicest guests here--this week it's been Meredith the bride, Fischer the groom, and all their friends and family. And, John and Vera, guests from last year, called to check in. They wrote a lovely review of their stay on TripAdvisor--very thoughtful! We really appreciate the compliments and kind words. Thank you thank you!

The season blooms this month!

2009-05-05T21:07:00.003-04:00

May finds us deep cleaning the inn and preparing to open the newly-painted red doors to another season. Our Cape House accommodations, the Suite and the Studio, are available year-round but from May to November, the inn's 11 rooms welcome guests.

I have another book to tell you about! I think it must be in the water here--Blue Hill is chock-a-block full of talented folks. Marjorie Kernan might look familiar to you as she is often in her antique store right down the street from the inn (it's the one with the incredible French items). Her novel, the Ballad of West Tenth Street, is all New Yorky, though, and just a great read. In a small town, everything is connected--Marjorie's partner Andre Strong, an amazing cook, used to prepare dinners at the inn.

I'm often suggesting guests stroll through the cemeteries in town. We have the Seaside, which is... on the water, and we have the Early Settlers Cemetery, which is full of... early settlers, and we have the Mountain View, which... ! The photo above is from earlier this spring, at Seaside.

We're still sad about the Oakland House closing--and still worried about the lack of lodging to be found in this area. Please, please, if you know you're coming and will want to stay here, call ahead! We are already sold out for a number of weekends. I hate to say no but we can't make more rooms the way El El Frijoles sometimes has to make more food (I went out there tonight to celebrate Cinco de Mayo only to discover the early worm gets the special chocolate menu. Latecomers didn't leave hungry, though. I had a great quesadilla. With their salsas--the corn and the mango are my favorites--I didn't miss the mole sauce at all).

Another sadness is that the Wescott Forge has closed its doors. We really would be devastated but Cleonice, a favorite restaurant in Ellsworth, has a plan up its sleeve. I believe it will be called Table. More details to come.

I love a silent auction and recently won 15 pounds of lobster at the local elementary school. I bid over Bob Stephens, boat designer extraordinaire, so felt it was only fair to share the goods with him and his family. He did the cooking honors. Lobster is just soooo delicious. And this was for a good cause.

Maine Built Boats has produced a great video about... Maine built boats. You really have to watch it--beautiful boats and great scenery.

I hope you're planning your summer vacations, packing the binoculars and the bike helmets, the beach books and the car snacks. We're getting ready for you.

March has been amazing

2009-03-09T13:51:00.011-04:00

Check out the April issue of Town and Country Magazine! It's their special travel issue and I am thrilled that the inn is included in an article beginning on page 73.

Looking ahead to May, the Wings, Waves, and Woods Festival, May 15-17, has even more great activities this year. You can go on boat trips, join master birders in a variety of locations, and even learn about making bird sculptures from Peter Beerits (most known at the inn for Nervous Nellie's Jams and Jellies).

I bought a field guide, Birds of Maine, from Blue Hill Books, to loan out to guests. While I was there, I bought Bobo and the New Neighbor, by Gail Page, and Underwear--What We Wear Under There, written by Ruth Freeman Swain, both local authors.

I am so lucky to be living in a place that feeds all this creativity. I recently attended A Terrible Beauty, a collaboration between Paul Sullivan, pictured here, and Peter Behrens. As Peter explained, "This project began in January when Paul phoned me and said, 'Let's do a show about Ireland and the Great Hunger!'... We both live in Brooklin. It was snowing. Planning a show for the first day of spring felt like a hopeful, even defiant, gesture." Paul created and played music to accompany Peter's novel, the Law of Dreams. Scenes were read by Amy Grant, of Peninsula Metamorphic, and Rosie Upton, a 13-year-old with an amazing voice, sang. The packed audience left so fulfilled. The very next day the Blue Hill Concert Association's final winter show featured America's Dream Chamber Artists. Ahh. I also had a friend read a bit of E.B. White's Here is New York aloud to me. I've decided that in April, that cruel cruel month, I will challenge myself to find live music or spoken words to listen to every single day. What a treat to have people play and read and recite.

I received a lovely note from guests who recently stayed in the Cape House Suite: "Most comfortable bed in recent memory." They liked the area, Deer Isle and Castine in particular. Even this time of year, when the snow piles can look a bit tired... It's maple syrup time and many restaurants, including Lily's Cafe, celebrate this weekend.
A little something sweet as spring comes along. Enjoy the season!

Happy February to you

2009-02-18T15:27:00.007-05:00

Guests often wonder what innkeepers do during the quiet season. You know I read a lot. I pretend to watch a lot of movies but somehow that doesn't happen often enough. Innkeepers generally travel, update the inn, and socialize, or at least that's what I've been up to.

I got away for a weekend recently to Claybrook Mountain Lodge in North New Portland, Maine. Imagine crosscountry skiing or snowshoeing over deer tracks every day. Imagine getting to see a herd of nine, ten, eleven white tailed deer coming to feed right outside the lodge's window. Imagine finding a pile of moose poop! Our host, Greg Drummond, is an amazing outdoorsman with a perspective I found poignant and wise. Between the wildlife, the scenery, the delicious meals, the fresh air and exercise, and the good company--to say nothing of no computer or cell phone access!--I returned to Blue Hill well rested.

For Valentine's Day, I joined Noel Paul Stookey, of Peter, Paul, and Mary, in giving a valentine to the ocean. He gave a concert to benefit the Marine Environmental Research Institute (located right here in Blue Hill). He sang one love song in particular to his wife of many years, Betty, which had us all swooning.

This month also saw me celebrating International Eat Pie for Breakfast Day (the second Saturday in February). In spite of visions of pecan pie, my favorite, a lack of planning left me honoring the day with a slice of pizza pie, pepperoni, from the Eggemoggin Country Store. And then, still in the mood, I had two slices at Finelli's later in the week. They have a bianca, with spinach and ricotta, that is my favorite slice of all time. Now if only I can get that pecan pie...

February also brought new technology to this innkeeper. I'm now often answering your calls and emails on my new iPhone. And, confession time, I am right this minute flying to Baton Rouge to visit my sister and her family. With an on-plane internet connection, I can update my blog and fly.

If you are thinking of coming to this area and don't have your reservations yet, please call soon. I am very sad to report that the Oakland House, a wonderful inn and resort, family run for generations, won't be open this year. In the last few years, this area has lost many guestrooms, leaving a shortage, especially during holiday weekends or when large events are being held.

I'll be updating our calendar of events for 2009 soon but there's always something going on (Wings, Waves, and Woods festival is May 15-17, World Ocean Day is June 8, and the Lupine Festival is June 19-21).

Happy February!

Mid-Winter Reading

2009-01-27T21:03:00.008-05:00

In the last few weeks, I've been in Western Massachusetts, New York, and Blue Hill. I can authoritatively say, it's coldest here and those of us in Maine can talk about the weather lots longer than those other folks! We've had amazingly cold nights but days filled with sunshine. I finally got out on my snowshoes and will not be annoying about it as I try to get everyone else out on theirs. This lovely scene is just over a mile from the inn.

If it's that cold outside, you know it's time to be reading inside. I adored Ellen Booraem's The Unnameables.She is just such a delightful writer, as you will see in her piece about her messy desk. Kirkus Reviews says, "Booraem's debut is an ever-surprising, genre-defying page-turner." I just sent it home with Matthew, 11, Lorna, 13, and Paige, the mom, and I suspect they will all love it.

As always, Blue Hill Books will have autographed copies of it for you. While I was in there checking out the latest in the Maine section, I came across Days in the Life of a Fisherman's Wife, by Rusty Warren, and More than Petticoats: Remarkable Maine Women, by Kate Kennedy. Remarkable Women has great photographs and description of hard Maine living that leaves me very happy to be getting through the winter with all the various heat sources we have, including heated seats in our cars. Also on my docket is Notes from an Innkeeper's Journal. Has the book everyone keeps telling me to write already been done? I'll let you know.

Although the book pile is plenty deep enough to keep me busy, I do like to keep up with the Sunday papers. In the Globe recently was a column that answered an old, old question for me. "Make a Joyful Noise," written my Sam Allis, suggests "classical audience should loosen up and applaud at will." I came to classical music late in life, having grown up on an unhealthy diet of 70s and 80s rock and roll, Barry Manilow and Ricky Nelson, and, during those most formative years, mariachi music and folk songs played on the accordion. Allis suggests going with our instinct to clap at the end of a movement, rather than staidly waiting until the very end (which neophytes never recognize anyway, and have to wait until others applaud to finally, at long last, get to show their awe).

Although it sometimes feel as though we will never again be able to throw open the windows to the ocean breezes, we have to get out and enjoy the snow now. It really will melt, it always always does.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-07T20:06:00.006-05:00

How has it been so long since I last posted?! Those pesky holidays.

I had to write tonight to tell you about my dinner. My sister lives in Baton Rouge, LA. When she was up for Thanksgiving, she brought me a packet of BBQ shrimp sauce mix from the Louisiana Fish Fry Company. It's shrimp season here in Maine so I was in luck. This year's season is a bit longer than it was last year. PERC, the Penobscot East Resource Center, is working with local fishermen to offer a community supported fishery, where folks can buy a half share or share and receive pounds of shrimp each week. After my scrumptious dinner tonight, I might just have to sign myself up.

We were full up for New Year's Eve and with good reason. Blue Hill's last night celebration is funfunfun. Free live music starts early, around seven, in almost a dozen venues around town, all within easy walking distance of the inn. I started at the Fire House to catch the Brooklin Band, a community band playing holiday favorites (I had to watch them. I had been at the doctor's earlier in the day and the technician who drew my blood said she was in the band. I love a small town!) I danced a bit to the steel drum band and then headed to the Congregational Church to hear Rob and Becky McCall. They are an amazing couple. Rob is the pastor at the church, has a show on our local radio station, WERU, and writes a column for the Weekly Packet, Awanadjo Almanack. His wife Rebecca is an amazing artist (this is one of the books she has illustrated) and clever lyricist.

While I'm reminding you how absolutely lovely Blue Hill is, let me tell you about Stephanie at the post office. I met Stephanie at a rug braiding class I took in the fall of 2007. I have yet to finish a piece the size of a chair mat. Stephanie has made two room sized rugs! Although that was the last time I spoke with her. By now... She also knits which is how I happened to be up to my elbows in a bag full of pairs of socks the other day. I came to the post office for my mail and had to go to the window to collect some glow-in-the-dark items I had ordered for New Year's Eve. Stephanie asked if I liked socks (not too many people can say no to that). She said I could pick a pair from the myriad she had in the bag. In the end I couldn't decide on just one pair so I offered her some glow trinkets and a trade was made.

A friend sent a link to this Maine humor. You know you're from Maine when... That lead me to a very silly song, the Desert of Maine (which is a real place). A friend actually took me to the desert of Maine, in Freeport, off-season, but I can say I was there.

And speaking of friends sending things, so many guests sent cards and photos. Thank you! I love getting to read the newsletters and seeing the family pictures. As you've heard me say, no doubt, my least favorite part of innkeeping is saying goodbye to you after you've spent a lovely time at the inn being interesting and delightful. Come back soon.

I hope your winter is going well. If you want some snow and some solitude, come on up!

Wintery Weather

2008-12-06T21:08:00.005-05:00

December has been pure magic--perfect snowfalls. I had various plans get canceled but I ventured out to the Bay School Winter Faire and bought a fabulous maple cribbage board for the inn. I also got a gallon of their famous apple cider--so delicious. I bought a handful of Stephanie Eletheriou's cards, wonderful collages including a birthday card with a Scrabble board and letters spelling out Happy and Day glued on the front.

Although the musical line up was stupendous, I couldn't tarry as the Holiday House Tour, sponsored by the Brooklin Garden Club, only ran until 4 p.m. I started at Bill Petrie's home. Bill is an antique dealer, with Sedgwick Antiques, and a big help to a girl trying to decorate an inn. This Victorian side chair is now in room 6. I toured other homes with Jill Knowlton, whose husband Paul Sullivan is preparing for Paul Winter's Winter Solstice Concert at New York's Cathedral of St. John the Divine.

The Bagaduce Chorale's winter concert was standing room only. I attended Saturday afternoon and then went directly to the Holt House for a wine tasting fundraiser. One advantage of wine tastings where Maxx from the Blue Hill Wine Shop is holding court--he remembers what he serves so you can just pop into his shop and be reminded the name, in particular, of the lovely muscat he poured last. I highly recommend this event. The setting is gorgeous, the food scrumptious, and the wines tasty. I couldn't linger, though, as I wanted to wish the folks at MERI a merry one so I walked down the street to the MERI office for a lovely holiday party. As you know, Blue Hill is a small town and in the winter months the population is about as small as it gets. It felt a bit as though we were all there, enjoying delightful nibbles, lovely jazz with John Gallagher, and holding starfish on our hands (OK, so I was one of the few people at the touch tank).

Last minute gift idea? Lobsters! You can have Capt. Brendan, a lobsterman out of Cape Elizabeth, provide you with some delicious lobster. Catch a Piece of Maine has all sorts of options, including becoming a partner with a lobsterman and owning the trap! Although I favor a simple steamed lobster--in ocean water--here are some recipes for other tasty preparations. And lobsters--being red--are perfect for Christmas or Valentine's Day...

And with the winter solstice upon us, the days will get longer. It may still be winter but it will be brighter. I promise.

Sunsets and spelt...

2008-11-30T19:04:00.003-05:00

We have had the most beautiful sunsets lately, even if they are coming at the absurd hour of 4:30 p.m.! The view from Caterpillar Hill, here caught by Julie Jo Fehrle, is always spectacular, always. And now there's a sweet trail just below the scenic pull-off and a great gallery at the very top, and even mini golf just down the road. And El El Frijoles is a short drive away.

I love the New York Times on Sundays. When I'm in the city, I love sneaking a peek on Saturday or early Sunday morning. In Blue Hill, I have to wait patiently until the papers arrive around 10:30 a.m. This week's magazine brought a mention of a local bakery, the Tinder Hearth. Tim Semlar and Lydia Moffet and their delicious artisanal spelt-flour breads were mentioned. I suppose the band wasn't mentioned because it was in the food column, The Way We Eat, but that was a tremendous oversight on the part of Heidi Julavits, the Maine-born author. (Read her famous essay, in which she suggests reviewers shouldn't be so mean, here.)

The music of the Living Daylight, a collection of local--and some bread-baking--musicians who play myriad instruments and all to a very danceable beat, is as delicious as any spelt product (Shine on Your Darkness is my fav).

I also have to wonder if Heidi has had the Barncastle's spelt-crusted pizza? Delish as well.
At the inn we have our festive wreathes up, this year made by us in the big kitchen. The Cape House, next door to the inn, now has two spaces for rent year round so we've been able to say yes to more guests. The newest space, the Cape House Studio, has a kitchenette and sitting area, a bedroom with a four-poster king-sized bed and arm chairs, and a full private bath. It's a more modern accommodation than rooms in the inn but is a comfortable combination of antiques and modern conveniences. In the kitchen area, photographs by Terrell Lester adorn the walls, whereas in the bedroom, it's artwork by my aunt, Ky Wilson (daughter of the man who painted the sunflowers and kitchen scene in the breakfast room of the inn).

I hope you're enjoying your sunsets and sunrises, too. It's the perfect time of year to catch them both.

Those incredible candy cookies

2008-11-14T14:52:00.005-05:00

When I took over the inn in July 2007, it came all set up as an inn. In fact, the guests were the previous owners' responsibility in the morning and mine in the afternoon. The inn was "turn key" which means that it came ready to go, equipped with everything needed--beds and towels and cookbooks, like the Silver Palate. One of the author/illustrators, Sheila Lukins, had signed it for the inn in 1995. It is a well worn cookbook. At the inn, we often make the coffeecake on page 321 (it's so decadent! don't be put off by the recipe on the facing page: sauteed chicken livers with blueberry vinegar) peach cake (p. 300), and lemon black-walnut bread (p. 252).

This fall, head o' kitchen Matt had been using the chocolate chip cookie recipe on page 262 as a starting point. The results were amazing. In addition to the pecan mini muffins (recipe included in the October 4, 2008, blog entry), I offered these to visitors to the Foliage Food and Wine Festival. I was very popular!

Here's the basic recipe. Matt likes to add all sorts of extras like white chocolate chips, toffee chips, butterscotch chips...

1/2 pound sweet butter (2 sticks), softened
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F for giant cookies; for regular cookies heat to 350. Grease a cookie sheet.
2. Cream butter and both sugars until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla and mix well.
3. Sift dry ingredients together and stir in, mixing thoroughly. Add chocolate chips to batter [and any extra delicious bits]. Form cookies [they suggest making giant cookies. I always tell Matt, "Smaller, smaller" so that you can try a small one to see if you like it and so you can always have a guilt-free mid-afternoon treat. We bake lots--there are always more]. If you're making giant cookies, use an ice cream scoop and, with a wet hand, splat the dough into a 5-inch round.
4. Bake on the prepared cookie sheet, on the middle rack, for 15-17 minutes for giant cookies; 8-10 minutes for regular cookies. Remove from oven while centers are slightly soft. Cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to rack to cool completely.

Bake these and you will be o so popular, too.

The Foliage Food and Wine Festival was a fabulous weekend of deliciousness. From events at the Arborvine, the Wescott Forge, the Barncastle, the Co-op to our collaborative dinner with El El Frijoles and Maxx, from the Blue Hill Wine Shop, to the food and wine extravaganza on the final day, we nibbled and sipped our way through the weekend. Fairwinds Florist even featured a foliage-inspired treasure hunt. If you want to join us next year, plan now. We are sure to book all our rooms and our Friday night dinner event.

I hope your fall is as gorgeous as ours here in Blue Hill. If it isn't, call us up--we have our two Cape House units available all fall.

Guest Column from Matt Jurick, Head of the Kitchen

2008-10-13T11:12:00.005-04:00

As I drove home from work recently, taking the particularly scenic albeit longer route, the realization hit me that autumn is, indeed, here. I've anticipated it, spoke of it, and even planned new menu items in the spirit of it, but the acknowledgement of its arrival came unexpectedly. It's been several years since I last played witness to a New England autumn. Falls in the Midwest, where I've been living, are, to say the least, considerably less sensual.

Autumn, for me, has always come in the form of the calming taste of hot mulled apple cider, the scratchy comfort of a freshly-raked leaf pile, the smoky fragrance of an old wood-burning stove, the melodious wind-chime-like sound of the chilled wind through the trees, and the spectral glow of an arbor-covered country dirt road. True to form, all my senses are tingling once again which tells me it's here.

Fall indoors is just about as pleasurable as fall outdoors. Long-sought opportunities for cozy fireside chats with friends over warm, comfort food are here once again. Refuge from the growingly colder nights under soft down blankets and the familiar dry-heat scent of the furnace, just awakened after a half-year hibernation, is welcomed like an old friend come to call.

The year, no doubt, is coming to a close. With just a few more weeks left, we start looking ahead to next season. One of the blessings and woes of our work here at the Blue Hill Inn is the dear relationship we have with so many of our guests; they come and visit, but soon after depart once again. One compares it to those childhood years of summer camp, where for just one small span of time out of the year old friends come together at a special place, leaving behind the schedules and constraints they find themselves governed by the other 51 weeks of the year, to share in something special and memorable—a much-needed recharging to save ourselves from the inevitable burn-out from monotony.

When you feel you’re in need of a break, when you need that brief recharging, we’ll be waiting with a warm bed, a hot meal, and a glowing smile on our faces at the sight of old friends.

We look forward to seeing you again next summer.

E.B. White at the Blue Hill Inn

2008-09-27T16:05:00.003-04:00

Had you been with us last night, you'd have been in front of the fire in the parlor, nibbling on Ducktrap salmon spread and Smith's Smokehouse chorizo, laughing as guests from Maryland, Connecticut, Florida, and New York were teasing yours truly. I had fun show and tell as I had the 1979 reservation book out. I had been looking up records of guests who were here on their honeymoon. They're on their way back and I wanted to research the previous visit.

As I was looking for their name, I came across E.B. White's name. There is much anecdotal evidence of his having come to the inn many many times--and having sold eggs here, too, at one time, but this is the first I've seen his name on the guest list. He came with family and alone on an almost weekly basis for months. I'll have to research more about his visits and let you know what I find. The book says "Andy White & us, 3" on February 20, when the menu was pea soup, salad, oatmeal bread, baked scallops, baked stuffed potatoes, broccoli and apple crisp with ice cream. The "us" in 1979 would've been the Wakelins, who owned the inn from sometime in 1975/6 until 1983/4. I have a pamphlet from the time of the Wakelins ownership. Rooms were $30 a day for single occupancy during the season. I'm not sure what E. B. White's dinners would have cost. Another pamphlet in our history book says that "complete dinners" in the 1960s were from $1.75-$3.50. A reservation for a dinner party for Ellsworth Building Supply (still in business in town today!) was listed at $5 per person.
It appears that in 1979 rooms were named Captains, Boat, Deck, Fern, and Hamabe (Francis Hamabe was a popular artist who had a studio in Blue Hill beginning in 1950). I'm not sure how the eclectic names were decided upon (or if fern is based on plant or a person) or which room is which. Every time I answer one question about the history of the inn, three more appear!

A guest was asking about a handsome tree outside the breakfast room the other morning. I had to admit I didn't know what it was but said I would find out. Two guests overheard the exchange, saw Forest Trees of Maine at Blue Hill Books and presented it to me--gift wrapped!--that very afternoon. Can you understand why I keep saying I have the nicest guests?

One thing and another lead me to an article by E.B. White's stepson Roger Angell (if you haven't read his work in the New Yorker, or seen his memoir, Let Me Finish, I highly recommend you do).

I best wrap this up and pop the tarts in the oven for hors d'oeuvres tonight. I made blueberry sage ones, with sage from the garden, and sundried tomato ones with chives from the garden. The rain has guests gathered around the puzzle table and enjoying pots of tea along with the chocolate chip cookies Matt made this morning--somehow they'll still be hungry for savory tarts!

TripAdvisor (wow!) and the full recipe

2008-09-21T11:30:00.006-04:00

OK, OK. Here's the recipe for the Nut Butter Crunch I mentioned in the last post. Guests loved it (Nikki, you were so sweet to actually give Cindy the pieces you asked for on her behalf. I'm sometimes more devious myself!).

Nut Butter Crunch
2 sticks butter
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
1/2 cup chocolate chips
2/3 cup finely chopped nuts (I used toasted almonds)

Melt butter over low heat in medium saucepan. Add sugar and stir until melted. Add water and syrup. Continue cooking over low heat until syrup, dropped in cold water, becomes brittle (320 degrees F). Don't undercook. Remove from heat. Pour onto greased platter. This should be thin. Cool until hardened. Melt chocolate over hot water. Spread on crunch. Sprinkle nuts over top and pat it. Break into pieces. This is quite similar to a Heath bar. You must hide it if you expect it to last at all! Mrs. Laurence Siegel, from the River Road Recipes cookbook.

What the recipe doesn't say is that it takes a good long while to reach 320 degrees and you shouldn't start the recipe when you have guests checking in and other tasks to pay attention to, unless you have kitchen helpers. If you have questions about it (or need me to stir while you do something else), give me a call.

TripAdvisor®
You know only the nicest people stay here. Then, they write the sweetest things in our guest book: "Our stay here was so amazing" L&N, New York; "Sarah (and the entire staff) is first class" S&M, Ohio; "We loved the personal care and all the suggestions you gave us. This is what a B&B should be!" M&G, Florida. And those are just some of the comments from this week.

I use TripAdvisor when I travel but imagine the delight of an innkeeper when she finds sweet comments from guests about her very inn!

P.S., You know guests are reading your blog carefully when... Catherine just arrived and noticed my earrings right off, recognizing them from my Aug. 29th post.

Nut Butter Crunch, or the story of the empty cookie jar

2008-09-20T20:50:00.002-04:00

I had this morning off (which is how I came to be at the farmer's market buying root veggies and Indian lunch). When I came in this afternoon, Maura filled me in on the comings and goings of the guests. Those who were here for Jerry and Gail's daughter's wedding (congratulations, Jill!) were so sad to miss hors d'oeuvres because of wedding festivities, we decided to do two hors d'oeuvres hours. I love wedding guests--whenever I see them all dressed up I think the Blue Hill Inn ought to have a dress code! I love the fancy clothes and in Blue Hill and our mostly rural life, there's so little reason to dress up. As a friend of a friend said, "Maine's a great place to live. You don't have to wear pantyhose--not even to a funeral!"

I noticed, just after starting my shift, that there were only three cookies left on the plate! On a cool fall day, three cookies were not going to last long with a full house. I looked for cookie dough but there was none already made. I didn't think I'd have time to mix some up so I looked for a quick and easy recipe in a cookbook a sweet guest gave me last year, River Road Recipes, "the textbook of Louisiana cuisine." I make glazed pecans, p. 212, almost every week. Tonight I thought I'd try Nut Butter Crunch, p. 213 ("You must hide it if you expect it to last at all!"). The recipe is short: butter, sugar, corn syrup, chocolate, and nuts. The directions were short: melt, add, stir until 320 degrees, spread, harden, break. What the recipe didn't tell me is how long, at low heat, it would take to get to 320 degrees!

I only had two more guests checking in but of course they arrived at about 232 degrees! Dennis and Judy, from Massachusetts, were great sports and found their room on their own. Dennis came back wondering about a key. He willingly stirred while I got the key for room 11 for them. Then, at about 276 degrees, Lynn and Neil from New York were ready to head out to Deer Isle. I really wanted them to see the Settlement Quarry overlook so Lynn willingly stirred while I pulled out the map and the yellow highlighter. Finally, we reached 320 and I poured it out into my greased pans just before serving hors d'oeuvres to the second group of guests.

I just offered the first bits to guests from Colorado and Massachusetts and got rave reviews! Lucky for me, some of it crumbled as I was breaking it. I can't put out Nut Butter Crunch crumbs so I had to try it. Pretty yummy...

Fall and the farmer's market in Blue Hill

2008-09-20T13:54:00.002-04:00

One of the great things about Blue Hill from May to October is our farmer's market. I went two weeks ago to pick up our bacon order from Libby of Smith's Smokehouse. All business, right? It was the samples of the pecan sticky bun that got to me. I decided I could have a second cup of coffee so stopped to get one and got waylaid by the toothpicked samples of the sticky buns. And such a waylaying... I had to get a whole one--so big and sticky they serve them with a fork.

In addition to yummy things to sample, the market includes artists displaying their work. I met Katy Allgeyer, who has a wonderfully eclectic pile of talents--fashion designer, feng shui expert, fine artist. She's been traveling, though she has a studio in Stonington part of the year now, and has incorporated themes about location into her most recent work.
And the jewelry I am so often wearing? The gorgeous sea glass pieces? Made by Tammy who has a booth at the market. She'll even do special orders.

Today I went and got fabulous Indian food for lunch--and they'll be at the Foliage Food and Wine Festival! On Saturday of the festival weekend, the farmer's market will be held at the Blue Hill Congregational Church's parking lot, walking distance from the inn.

If you know Maine at all, you know there isn't a month that isn't fabulous. Soon Jean the amazing handywoman and gardener will be putting in mums and I'll look for the perfect pumpkins for the front stoop. We haven't had a frost yet so our herb garden is still incredible. The sage is so plentiful I could serve my baked brie with blueberries and sage--with a blueberry vinaigrette, of course--every night. We had our first fire in the parlor with hors d'oeuvres last night--fabulous!

Our smallest waterfront park is a mere two blocks from the inn. At high tide, a few lobster boats come in and unload. At low tide, all the water is gone! We warn kayakers to watch the tide carefully. It's no fun at all to pull a boat through the mud.

We are so excited about the fall. Between the fall harvesting, our festival, oatmeal and mulled cider on the menu, sweater season, the smell of woodsmoke, what's not to love?

I hope your September is fabulous, too, wherever you are.

Summer's winding down

2008-08-29T22:34:00.003-04:00

And the fair is over for another year. I went Thursday night and got my fill. I ate great French fries with vinegar, Italian sausage with peppers and onions, and a funnel cake. I got a big bag of cotton candy, which came home with me. The biggest surprise for me was the alpacas. I lump them together with llamas in my mind but alpacas make the most horrible noises!

I also have show-and-tell about the bracelets I just bought. They are Donna D'Aquino's work. Aren't they fabulous? I've barely taken them off since I bought them at the Turtle Gallery. I also just discovered Blossom Studio. I do love the beach glass looking earrings. I bought frosted blue ones and wore them immediately. I wanted to see Elizabeth Sawyer's work, up at a gallery next door but the sign said, "Gone sailing" so I have to go back.

We are well into September, which means the traffic is lighter, the days are a bit cooler and the conversation circles around where you can see the best foliage and when the peak season will be. Maine's Official Fall Foliage Website is fabulous! This area traditionally peaks between October 8 and October 21. We have already seen the odd limb here and there. I haven't had that afternoon yet where it's a full on sunny day but not hot and the breeze has a fall football feel to it. School's have started and George Stevens Academy, that gorgeous white building across the street, has welcomed 28 international students this year.
I snuck away from the inn and had lunch at the Cockatoo with some old friends. As I tell guests, it has the prettiest dining room view of any restaurant in the area. (The Maritime Cafe, in Stonington, has a pretty great view, as does the Lookout but the Cockatoo, adjacent to property owned by the Nature Conservancy, is my favorite.) I got out to the Lookout finally, too. I have to admit, I don't love mussels. I do always try them, though, and at the Lookout, they were incredible!
I had lobster cakes and a great soup, too. Everything--from the bread basket to the bottle of wine we selected to the coffee crème brûlée--I can't believe I waited until the end to tell you about dessert! I love crème brûlée but this was beyond any I've had--so creamy, so delicate crispy, and so smoothly coffee flavored. I wonder if I can get it to go... I've tried to figure out how to serve crème brûlée at the inn but since we only serve breakfast and crème brûlée would make a messy pillow chocolate, I think I have to keep dining out. Aw, shucks, right?

If you're planning to come to our amazing Foliage, Food and Wine Festival in October, call immediately! We got mentioned on CNN Friday and have been fielding oddles of inquiries. Did I tell you we're collaborating with El El Frijoles? They do amazing dinner clubs in the quiet season and Michelle is an amazing cook. We all adore Maxx at the Wine Shop and he'll be pairing wines for us. Have you met him yet? He's just brilliant about the grape. We all need friends like that.

So I've gone on too long and didn't get to mention the latest crop of amazing guests--I continue to struggle with my Italian (OK, struggle is generous. I don't speak Italian. Some day I will.) as the write up in gli itinerari di DOVE has made us a popular stop for traveling Italians (seriously, how long do I have to spend in Italy in order to get some of their style? Really, do you think I could? Pick up style like picking up a language?). Just America travel agency continues to send us Brits with great senses of humor. And September is always Georgia month as southerns escape the heat. But please, if you already know you're coming, whether this year or next, call and reserve your room. Between weddings and reunions and special events, we're already holding lots of rooms and I want you to have the room you want the nights you want.

I have to resist having a second strawberry muffin. Two are left from breakfast this morning but Assistant Innkeeper Maura, who will be on soon, and Venice, one of the housekeepers who keeps this place spotless, haven't tried this new recipe of Matt's. Resist, Sarah, resist!

Update: I then remembered Maura doesn't eat flour things. I saved the bigger of the two for Venice. Well, at least I haven't eaten it yet! They are sooooo good.

Final update: Venice came and got it. Whew!

How is it late August already?!?

2008-08-25T20:54:00.010-04:00

Summer is flying by in a whirlwind of boat rides, art, and the best guests ever.

You should plan to be here on August 21 next year. Our garden party has become an annual event because it's just too delicious not to have it each year.

The theme--polka dots! Matt, head-of-kitchen extraordinaire, made the magical cake. All of the staff pitched in to make a great party and the weather held and the moon came up and there were stars, in my eyes and in the sky. The inn's orchard is a great place for a party. We have a fire bowl for some extra heat and light (and s'mores), plenty of seating, and even a Twister board to set up. We've wired speakers and hung lights. It's idyllic! You could plan your party here---a small wedding, a cocktail party, a special event, a family reunion...

Yesterday, Jetsun Penkalski had an art opening at the Turtle Gallery in Deer Isle. We already love Jetsun because he works at Blue Hill Books and doesn't mock your selection, ever, but now we love him because he's an amazing artist, too. Above is Shadows in the Forest #4, oil on canvas, a painting from this year. Below is Golden Pool. I especially like the Turtle Gallery because Elena has a broad range of art--glass, paintings, sculpture, jewelry. I managed to escape yesterday with just two bracelets, but the images aren't on the website so you'll have to visit me or the gallery to see them.

I have gotten a good share of boatrides in, in case you were wondering why I haven't been blogging more. I had cocktails aboard Anna, who happened to be built at my favorite boatyard in Brooklin. I've been in a rowboat or two, I was on a kayak on Toddy Pond, and I was taken out mackerel fishing and swimming on a lovely Boston Whaler. Tina, who works at WoodenBoat publications, captains the Whaler and brought lemon, a baggie, a fillet knife, and cocktail sauce. We had ceviche on the beach! I had also brought some smoked salmon and cheddar cheese from the farmer's market so we had quite a picnic. This is my sort of August.

Guests have gone on boatrides, too, with all my favorites--Capt. Bill, Karen, the MERI eco-cruises, Beth and Peter, and Capt. Lee.

Capt. Carey and his crew stayed here to race his Atlantic at the nationals at the Kollegewidgwok Yacht Club in Blue Hill. Julie Jo Ferhle watched from aboard Anna and took this picture. That's Blue Hill in August.

My latest favorite thing? The homemade pickles at the Birdwatcher's Cafe. It's new, right down by the water not two blocks from the inn, and sweet as all get out. I took a friend there for a birthday lunch and fell in love with the pickles. We had a BLT and a chicken salad sandwich and shared. Both were yummy but a BLT is especially decadent.

I hope your August has been summery and decadent, too. Are you ready for the fair? Labor Day Weekend is always fairtime around here. Did you know that the Blue Hill Fair was fodder for Charlotte's Web? I just found out from a previous innkeeper that E.B. White actually sold eggs to the inn for awhile!

A Day Trip to Deer Isle

2008-08-09T06:57:00.007-04:00

August is getting away from me! So much has been happening at the inn and in the area. Matt and Don have been making the best breakfasts. My current favorite is the Cinnamon Raisin French Toast, made with bread from Jill Smith at Millbrook Bakery. Luckily it's not on the menu every morning! (Jill has a booth at the farmer's market on Saturdays. Beware the pecan sticky buns!) Here's a picture of Matt in the kitchen at the inn in the early hours, preparing fruit plates.

In the meantime, guests are so enjoying the Nervous Nellie's Jams and Jellies that we serve with breakfast and with hors d'oeuvres, I had to make a quick trip to Deer Isle to replenish stocks. I took Julie Jo Fehrle with me because, although she has lived in Blue Hill forever, she hadn't seen the wonders of Peter Beerits sculpture or gotten to sample one of the seventeen flavors Nervous Nellie offers. Lucky for me, I can hand the camera to her. Any trip to Deer Isle and Stonington ought to include a visit to Jill Hoy's gallery. Her work is in a big barn just up the hill from the harbor in Stonington.
A minute ago we were celebrating early spring and now the gardens have that August feel to them.

For lunch, a great option is El El Frijoles, a fabulous Mexican restaurant and art gallery just waiting to transport you to Mexico. Michael and his crew do an amazing job with favorites like fish tacos and empanadas. You must try the corn salsa! In the winter they put on supper clubs, often giving a Mexican twist to another nationality. You have to be on the secret guest list or you'll never get in. Go here to get on.

We had another couple get engaged!!! We had been brought in on the secret with the question, "If the weather isn't good for watching the sunrise at Cadillac Mountain, where would be another great place to propose?" Luckily, the weather held, Debbie said yes and you can see their glow from across the peninsula. Poor Debbie was asking, "What kind of vacation is this? We have to get up how early?" but she agreed it was all worth it.

Another sweet story from the inn involves Brian, who must be up for the best son ever award. He called to say his parents were coming to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary. He wanted to help make their stay special. Dan of Dan's Flower Farm brought in a gorgeous bouquet and Brian ordered a fun box full of memorabilia. The couple's room looked great and Brian did a great job keeping the surprise. They were tickled.

The Blue Hill Fair is coming right up over Labor Day and we're starting to hammer out the details for our big wine festival in October. If you haven't done something really summery yet--like walking barefoot in the soft grass--get on it!

Breakfast is included

2008-07-24T14:15:00.003-04:00

and so are afternoon treats and our evening hors d'oeuvres, and the pillow chocolates, and the bottled water we send with you on your hike, and the fruity iced tea we serve you when you arrive, and the coffee we offer morning, noon, and night. So don't worry about extras being added to your bill (other than the wine or drinks, as per our liquor license, but we have some nice choices to offer you, with reasonable price tags).

But let me tell you about the breakfasts. They're served in our sunny breakfast room (OK, I can't guarantee it will always be sunny. But on foggy days--and in a seaside village, we get fog sometimes--we light the candles). This photo shows two paintings of my grandfather's. Thanks to my mother and Aunt Sal, I get to have them welcoming you to the dining room.

We begin breakfast with a fruit course, fresh and local when we can, and juices, followed by our bread course. My three favorites are the apple tarts, the pecan mini muffins, and my own pecan coffee cake. You'll have to decide among our entrée options. (I took a friend to a B&B once--a tall, big guy who happened to be a vegetarian. We were served sausage and a very sweet French toast concoction. He was miserable.) The Blue Hill Inn always has choices for you--the blueberry pancake recipe has been served at the inn for decades and many many guests have told me they are the best they've ever had! We offer waffles some mornings with a fruit sauce or a special syrup or French toast with a raisin bread--my favorite so far this year. It's bread from Millbrook Bakery, in nearby Sedgwick.

And eggs! Ruth is our egg lady. She drops by every Thursday and brings her gorgeous eggs into the kitchen. Her chickens must be sunshiny happy--their yolks are bright and beautiful. We'll make omelettes with yummy fillings or scramble them with cheeses or poach them with local organic tomatoes. This morning, Head-of-the-Kitchen Matt added local organic scallions, too, that added purple and green to the red and yellow. Add an orange nasturtium from the garden and it was art on a plate. Why didn't I take a picture to show you?!

We offer toast from breads Kathy at Blue Hill Hearth makes for us. And don't forget bacon from Smith's Smokehouse or the organic chicken sausage from Island Acres Farm. Don't worry--you can hike Blue Hill Mountain, walk out to the Seaside Cemetery, or go for a swim. You'll be hungry for a cookie later.

"I fell asleep in the hammock"

2008-07-22T16:33:00.002-04:00

We have a portfolio of techniques to help you relax: our fruity iced teas we deliver to your room or to the garden or to the library, the wingback chairs with reading lamps, the waterfront park two blocks from the inn, our heavenly mattresses, pressed luxurious sheets, fluffy duvets, and pile of pillows; afternoon snacktime (not unlike kindergarten, though you don't have to nap on the floor), the day spa two blocks away that has two practitioners, one for you and one for your partner who also needs to relax--or both for you! We can send you off to the salt water, to swim or boat or just sit with the salt breeze in your hair. We have bubbly and bourbon and bonbons. We'll print you out driving directions, wherever it is you're heading, we'll help you with the GPS, we'll carry your bags up and get them situated on the luggage stands for you. It would be silly to call it "the very relaxing, wonderfully calming, deeply satisfying Blue Hill Inn" but we could.

I realized I hadn't shown you the red doors yet. I've been making small changes throughout the inn as I settle in (one year on July 17th!). I can't tell you how many guests have asked me to take their pictures in front of the new doors.
I'm always adding more books to the library, including three very Mainey books this week alone: Linda Greenlaw's latest, Fisherman's Bend, Blueberries for Sal (not sure why I hadn't had a copy of that one) and Yellow Boatie (which I first read this winter but now have two signed copies--one for the Cape House and one for the library). Helen Sylvester, the author of Yellow Boatie, had a book signing at the Lobster Crate, the marvelous giftshop and seafood shop on the road to Brooklin. I could pick up books and lobster for breakfast at the same time! I'm not usually on the schedule to cook breakfasts--I'm on in the afternoon making cookies and in the evening making hors d'oeuvres--but I filled in the other day and got to make the pecan coffee cake from the Silver Palate cookbook. Mmm, mmm. I hope your July is going as deliciously as ours.

Perry's Lobster Shack

2008-07-17T06:49:00.007-04:00

Now you know I sacrifice a lot for the good of the guests. Last night, I had to go to Perry's Lobster Shack in Surry, down Newbury Neck Road. I could hardly continue to recommend it to guests without trying it myself, could I? I know I gush too much but... The sun setting, the almost full moon rising, the breeze mostly keeping the bugs at bay (and I was with Don, the inn's photographer and sometimes breakfast cook, who is apparently sweeter than I am. He got the bug bites. Remember this when dining al fresco with friends!). It's BYOB, and I brought a bottle of bubbles, Jules Bertier, a blanc de blanc we've been serving at the inn to great response. I've always been opposed to drinking out of paper cups so send guests to Perry's armed with the proper stemware. Don, his family, and I had pretty much what Perry offers--fresh lobster, mussels, and corn on the cob. So, so heavenly. Perry himself is a delight. Try to resist asking him the obvious questions--here's the answers to help you: he and his wife have been doing it for about ten years, yes, they do live in the little building all summer long, yes, he is here seven days a week, no, he doesn't advertise much (he doesn't want people to have to wait too long for one of the three picnic tables on his pier), no, he doesn't make the ice cream sandwiches but he buys then from a farm which makes the ice cream from milk from their cows, the corn is only local during the season but he can tell you where it's from (and it was soooooo good. Next time, I'm going to be piggy and order two or three or four ears). The moonrise photo was the view from our table!

We've just made it easier for you to have a game of tennis at the courts right across the street. We now have a supply of great rackets and balls for you to use. The courts are public, first-come, first-serve (I am ridiculously amused by puns). And, just like climbing Blue Hill Mountain--exercise means you can have a bigger lobster at Perry's and more dessert or an extra afternoon treat at the inn. Treats at the inn the other day were chocolate chocolate chip cookies, yesterday a plum cake, today? Who knows--something delightful, for sure. If you were here, you would know.

Speaking of being here, it breaks my heart when you call for reservations and we have no room for you, especially returning guests. I always wish I could just make another room, like we make another plate of canapes during hors d'oeuvres when we need to. The fall is a great time to visit Maine and we do still have rooms for the Foliage, Food and Wine Festival, October 16-19, always a magical weekend of great wines and food and fall walks and the smell of woodsmoke from the fireplace in the parlor.

And, happy anniversary to me and the inn! Today marks one year since I took the title, Sarah Pebworth, innkeeper at the Blue Hill Inn. Thank you for a fabulous, wondrous year!

Fishermen's Family Fun Day

2008-07-11T10:43:00.003-04:00

Have you ever watched a cod fish relay? Ever tried to row a boat blindfolded, depending on the navigations of your sighted sternman? Is your fish face prize-worthy? July in Stonington brings an opportunity to try or watch all of these and more (there's live music, knot tying, and rope splicing, too). July 20 is the 19th annual Fisherman's Family Fun Day. Louie, one of the waitstaff here at the inn, and I tried out our fish faces. Clearly, he wins. Strangely, we couldn't get others to join us.

If you need earlier entertainment, the Lobster Boat races are held July 13. Last year, 88 boats ran in 11 different classes including the lady skipper race, wooden boat race, and work boats under and over 24 feet.

July in the garden

2008-07-08T08:58:00.004-04:00

What to do with all the fresh strawberries I can't resist? Daiquiris! So far this week we've had two drink specials to accompany our wine list--mojitos as the mint in the garden is thriving and strawberry daiquiris. The evenings have been so delicious we've been enjoying drinks and hors d'oeuvres in the garden. Last night the steel drum band played in the town park, just two blocks from the inn. Live music, the water in the bay, the moon coming on... I hope your July has been as summery and lovely.

On your way to Blue Hill, you could stop in Yarmouth and meet Eartha, a three-story tall scale model of our planet. Eartha, the world's largest revolving/rotating globe, awaits your visit at the DeLorme company.

Talented Guests

2008-07-03T21:58:00.004-04:00

I've always said I have the nicest guests. I also have the most talented. I had the nicest time with guests Carol and Carlton during hors d'oeuvres in the garden the other night but I wasn't able to be here to say goodbye when they checked out this morning. Carol left me the most beautiful card. She makes etchings, but also quilts pieces of her work together in collages. Carlton, meanwhile, is taking photographs and doing interesting things with color. You can get to know them better at their website (or by visiting them in Connecticut before Christmas to pick up a tree).

July!

2008-07-01T11:28:00.008-04:00

Barbara, of Gallery 66, loves sheep as much as I do. She also likes cows and one of her compilation works is hanging in the Chamber office in Blue Hill. You wouldn't want to miss going to the gallery proper, though, as other artists have work there, including Margaret Whalen, whose fabulous October Wine, Food and Foliage poster image will adorn the area in the fall.

One of the most beguiling features of the Blue Hill Inn is its in-town location. Guests can enjoy a sparkling blueberry cocktail at the inn during our hors d’oeuvres hour and then walk to a lovely dinner and not worry about having to drive home after a nice bottle of wine.

Kneisel Hall is also within walking distance of the inn but the last little bit is uphill and I wanted to walk there again thinking about our guests to see what they might think. So off I went to the Sunday afternoon program of Beethoven's sonata for cello and piano in G minor, Op. 5, No. 2; Kodaly's duo of violin and cello, Op. 7; and Faure's piano quartet No. 2 in G minor, Op. 45. Jane Coop, one of Canada's leading pianists; Jerry Grossman, principal cellist with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra; and violinist Laurie Smukler, professor at the Conservatory of Music at Purchase College (SUNY) were among the performers. Magic!

Kneisel Hall, the Bagaduce Lending Library and the Blue Hill Inn are all touted in 1,000 Places to See in the U.S.A. and Canada Before You Die.The three institutions are raffling off prizes this summer in celebration. If you'd like to enter and you won't be in town, let me know and I can put your information in the raffle bowl.

Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival can trace its origins to 1902 when Franz Kneisel, founder of the first professional string quartet in America, began bringing students to Maine for summer study. It is the oldest summer chamber music programs in the United States--and walking distance from the inn! Under the artistic direction of pianist Seymour Lipkin, the 2008 season runs through August 24 with concerts every weekend and many musical events during the week.

The lending library, under the current directorship of Susan Theriot, began in 1983. It is one of the world’s largest music libraries. And more music is being added all the time. Their collection includes over 2 million copies of printed scores and sheet music. Visitors can stop by to browse the collection and search for bargains in our sale bins. For the non-musical (such as myself), they have great note cards and sheet music with fabulous illustrations that are frame-worthy.

Louise Bourne stopped by with some postcards of her paintings--I love the feel of this one. Her gallery is a short drive from the inn.

I just found out that the Woodlawn Museum, in Ellsworth, has a croquet lawn!

"Short blog entries are better." But I still have to tell you about the rock and roller who stayed here recently, and about picking berries from our very own strawberry patch (doesn't a very fresh, very local strawberry dipped in dark chocolate and finished with crushed pistachio nuts sound like the perfect pillow chocolate? If you were here tonight, that would be on your pillow!)

Cindy Bullens is the musician. She has a place on North Haven Island, which inspired her to collaborate on a musical, Islands: The Musical. After listening to a snippet of "Jellico Highway," I had to order a CD from her new band, the Refugees. Enjoy!

Romance at the Blue Hill Inn

2008-06-28T13:24:00.003-04:00

I’m the sappiest of romantics, a believer in love at first sight, love lasting through decades and difficulties, and sweet gestures of affection. Apparently many of the guests here are, too. We’ve had guests stay here during their weddings, on honeymoons, and for anniversaries. Last week was our first proposal:

I had gotten a phone call from a gentleman making a reservation for himself and a lady friend who were coming up for the weekend. “Is there anything else I can help you with?” I asked in my innkeeper voice after we had settled on a room and the dates.

“I’m planning on proposing to her,” he said.

“Proposing!?!” I exclaimed, my heart aflutter.

We discussed wonderfully romantic plans—the Arborvine for a special dinner, a boatride on the schooner the Summertime, beautiful places to hike. I hung up and jumped up and down in the kitchen.

And so their reservation sheet had “shhhh” written in large letters and we staff had to ponder in private. After meeting them, we decided he was the sort who would have a ring with him before he proposed. We thought she would likely be very surprised. When they headed out for Deer Isle Saturday morning, we wondered if the ring were in his backpack.

What we didn’t know is that he had his bagpipes (bagpipes!) in his backpack (and he did have a ring tucked away, too)! “With a name like O’Shea, what did you expect?” he explained later.

And so after their sail, they hiked out to Barred Island. He serenaded her and then surprised her with a beautiful question and a lovely ring.

Did she say yes?

Of course she said yes. You can see the aura of affection, tenderness, and sweetness when the two of them are together. Did we have fun getting him to introduce her as his fiancée? You bet we did! Are we still celebrating on their behalf? Yes, secure that true love lives on. Awwwww.

Congratulations, T and S!

The Glamorous Life of an Innkeeper

2008-06-28T06:07:00.007-04:00

If you ignore the fact that I’m writing this while sitting at the car repair shop, life as an innkeeper at the beginning of the 2008 season is gorgeous. Researching new restaurants and recipes and wines is a hard job, as they say, but someone has to do it and on behalf of you, I’ve stepped up.

Most recently, a friend Cara and I met at Three Tides in Belfast. People have been telling me for months to go there, but had described it as a martini bar. Not being a huge martini fan, I didn’t make it a priority. Big mistake. Back in Wisconsin, along the Mississippi, casual summer bars pop up along the riverbanks so boaters have destinations. Three Tidesreminded me of that, but with a fabulous Maine twist—a lobster pound right next door. Right on the water, you know the seafood they serve is fresh fresh fresh. And, and!, they brew their own beers! They have eight on their list right now and are developing a ninth in honor of the Celtic Festival. Cara and I sacrificed on your behalf and ordered the beer sampler tray—five beer samples for $5. My favorite was “Wrecking Ball Baltic Porter,” big and bold and sweet with molasses. When they described the offerings as “craft brewed,” they’re serious. Two are on nitro, some are dry hopped, and some are wheat. Dazzled by their choice of bubbly wines, I had to save sampling the Maine organic blueberry vodka for next time. Lest you think it’s just a bar, let me tell you about the delicious pear and goat cheese salad (pine nuts make a dish, don’t you think?). We also had mushrooms stuffed with crabmeat, artichoke dip with crostini, and an amazing carrot cake with a caramel filing (Cara is a great dining companion—she’s enthusiastic about drinking bubbly and leaves 99% of the dessert to me!). The great selections of food and drink and the magic location right on the water would be enough to warrant a swooning recommendation but there’s more! We ate our dinner on an outdoor deck, and then moved down to waterfront, fireside seats. And, Three Tides has the best, coolest bathrooms (well, the ladies room, anyway) this side of Francine’s in Camden. Owners David and Sarah are marvelously friendly, as all the staff seem to be.
I also had lunch recently, at the Cockatoo, on my way to hike to Barred Island (my favorite place in the whole world, as you know). My friend Sue was visiting from Brunswick, Maine, delivering a set of brandy snifters (note to self: sample brandies). I’m a sucker for a homemade French fry and the Cockatoo delivered. The view is the best ever plus you can hear the fog horn from Mark Island lighthouse. Pure Maine bliss—and that was without trying their lobster roll, which is fresh cooked and full of butter but no mayonnaise. I’ll try one next time and let you know.

This is my first spring at the inn and I’m marveling as each new season—not spring, summer, and fall, but the tiny seasons in among them like firefly season. This beautiful painting is by Robin Street-Morris. It's titled Firefly Watching II. You can call them lightening bugs. If you live in the big city, I’m guessing you haven’t seen them this plentiful since you were a kid. And on a clear night, the backyard is full of twinkling lights and so’s the sky. This is Maine in late June.

Lupine and Lilacs!

2008-06-12T20:08:00.004-04:00

And kayaking! I had some friends come visiting from western Mass. and we rented kayaks from the Activity Shop, right here in Blue Hill, and went kayaking in the bay. Gayle and Dana got us set up with boats, life jackets, and information about where to go and how to be safe. We were a mixed crew with a variety of experience and the bay was a great place to paddle. We stayed fairly close to the shoreline and even got out on an island for a stretch.

So much to do this summer. A volunteer from the Jonathan Fisher House stopped by with information about the Antique Show, held at the fairgrounds Aug. 16. The Fisher House was designed and built by Fisher in 1814. He was the town's first minister and a very handy man--he made most of his own furniture and was an accomplished painter and writer. The house is open Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays in July and August.

The Schoodic Arts Festival is July 28-Aug. 10 this year and the line up of activities looks great.

And the Lupine Festival is June 20-22. How about a schooner trip? An airplane ride? Art? Music? Crafts? Eagle watching? I love a festival with a bit of everything. And the maps show where to spot big stands of wild lupine.

I'm leaving the inn in Assistant Innkeeper Maura's capable hands this week as I head to the Rusticator Restaurant at the Oakland House. The Littlefields are collaborating with Rich Hanson, from Cleonice--I have no doubts the results will be astounding. The location is gorgeous and Rich is an amazing chef. Again and again, guests tell me how pleased they are with the choice of restaurants in this area.

The newlyweds, who had been with us three nights, just checked out today, pink cheeked from a hike on Barred Island and sitting at the new deck at Lily's in Stonington yesterday. I mentioned the inn's game shelf didn't have a cribbage board yet--they bought one for us and said they'd play with me next year. So sweet!

We've been taking some photos for various ads (by "we" I mean Don Radovich of Downeast Dimensions). This is room 10, one of our first floor rooms with a fireplace.

And have I mentioned the tarts?! Matt is making these amazing fruit tarts with fresh strawberries or apple. Good thing Blue Hill Mountain is such a great hike.

Have you heard of the Maine Birding Trail? Check out this great birding resource. A guest from Florida told me about it.

I hope your June is going well, too, and that you'll visit us soon.

The opening of the inn for 2008

2008-05-23T07:43:00.006-04:00

The magic of it all continues. The lilacs opened just as the inn did. Beautiful, fragrant, and purple, they are a full week earlier than most around here. Every day I wonder around the garden to see what's come up and marvel at it all.

Lupines are just beginning to flower in the warmest spots, on schedule for the lupine festival, June 20-22, on Deer Isle.

We've had guests in from England--Wayne, Sally, Kerry, and Jazz; Italy; and Canada, as well as Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan, Massachusetts, and even Maine. As I tell my Wisconsin guests, go visit my brother's place in Cassville, WI, Whitetail Bluff Camp and Resort, and tell him his sister sent you and said to put your drink on her tab.

Barbara and Bridget, up from Natchez, Mississippi, needed a ride into Stonington so I offered to take them and, shucks, I ended up kayaking with them at Old Quarry Ocean Adventures. We had a perfect Maine day to be out on the water. We toured around Camp Island, Devil's Half Acre--where we stopped for lunch and met some clammers--and Grog Island. We saw bald eagles and a baby eagle in a big nest, double-crested cormorants, and black guillemots. We saw at least one rock full of sunning seals. So often a bobbing seal turns out to be a buoy instead. Rj Miller and Linda Miller kayaked with us. He's a photographer and she's an amazing paddler who, from the bow, kept their tandem kayak still and in a good position while he snapped shots. We--our guide, Brigid, the Mississippi gals, and I--got to be kayaking models. Those of us in wetsuits were happy to have skirts on. The Millers are from Wisconsin so I got a nice fill of the Midwest accent and conversation with people who know what delight a fried cheesecurd is (is putting pictures of fried cheese on your blog a silly thing to do? They aren't very photogenic, are they?).

The eggs in the nest by the Cape House door hatched! I've seen at least one little fuzzy head. I thought I'd give them all a few days and then try to sneak a photo with a zoom lens and a step ladder. Recent guests left me the nicest note: "This is one of the most charming cottages we've ever stayed in--complete with a nesting bird at the entryway!"

I can't believe I haven't told you this yet! All last summer guests would ask about the safe in the main parlor and I would say it didn't open and hadn't been opened in years and the combination was lost and we needed Geraldo to help us. Then! Matt, the grandson of the previous owners, Don and Mary Hartley, came back to work and mentioned that he knew the combination! I actually jumped up and down I was so excited. It turns out that Don had kept the combination in his wallet, which got picked one year. Fortunately for us, Matt had memorized the combination long before then when he was just a kid. We're going to keep our extra secret recipes in there.

We have so many sweet spots to enjoy in the garden. On a warm day it's the perfect place to bring iced tea and a cookie. Yesterday they were the browned sugar cookies, which used to be my favorite treat. Now Matt's been making tiny tarts--this week with fresh strawberries. And guests are loving the crabmeat quiche...

The local land trusts

2008-05-19T19:24:00.003-04:00

I tell all our guests to visit Barred Island (shown here), Blue Hill Mountain, the Tennis Preserve, Caterpillar Hill, the Good Life Center, Settlement Quarry. What do all these places have in common? Island Heritage Trust, on Deer Isle, or the Blue Hill Heritage Trust have helped protect them in some way. These organizations are dedicated to conserving land that makes this area what it is, places that are "essential to the character" of Downeast Maine.

The Blue Hill Inn is offering guests a deal--when you visit us, from June 1-June 20, and take part in the Land Trust Special, room rates are $125 a night, with $25 going to the local land trusts. Plus, the inn will match the donation so Island Heritage Trust and the Blue Hill Heritage Trust will receive twice the donations. We'll give you directions to our favorite spots and we'll all feel better knowing we've done our part to help protect them. Call us to make your reservation or for more details.

The inn opens May 21!

2008-05-10T11:10:00.004-04:00

Two eggs! Shannon, of Mountain View Painting, reported seeing two eggs in the nest at the Cape House. He has been very busy making the inn look fabulous--shutters are up, clapboards are washed and painted--the inn looks great. Tomorrow he'll be painting the front doors red. Spring is looking mighty good at the inn. This photo is looking out from the Cape House living room area onto the private deck, draped in willow tree.

One of the trees in the orchard is already flowering--I'm eager to see what type of apple this early bloomer produces. July will be my first full year as innkeeper here at the Blue Hill Inn so I'm still getting to know the yard.

The lovely hosts at the Hartstone Inn, Mary Jo Brink and Michael Salmon, invited innkeepers from around the area for a party. Michael is an amazing chef--we had a dinner of hors d'oeuvres, my favorite. You know someone special is in the kitchen when guests are raving about the grilled vegetables, not to mention the Thai beef salad, the chicken satay, the potstickers... For dessert, I had to try his truffles with pistachio nuts. If you're stopping in Camden on your way to Blue Hill, consider stopping off at the Hartstone, if just for a meal.

New assistant innkeepers and I took a field trip to Deer Isle to see Nervous Nellie's Jams and Jellies and to pick up some jam for the inn. What a fabulous playground of amazing sculpture (by husband Peter Beerits) all over the property. And the jams! You can try a wide selection on crackers or get a scone in the little, very colorful cafe, and enjoy it with lots of jam.

Do you remember the fabulous bread we have for morning toast? It’s from Blue Hill Hearth, Kathy’s bakery that shares space with the North Light Book Store about two blocks from here. Guests would sometimes happen in for one of her sandwiches or great pizza slices--or a decadent dessert--and Kathy would discover they were staying at the inn and send home the bread order with them! I saw Kathy at the grocery recently and we got talking about Earth Day. Turns out she and her husband have had solar panels for over 12 years.

I just started Man Bites Log, by Max Alexander. My favorite line so far describes a real Mainer: “They speak slowly but are hard to understand, and drive slower but are impossible to pass.” He lives in an area with many fewer curves—it’s the come-from-aways who dawdle around here, or maybe it’s just me.

Head-of-the-kitchen Matt has been busy preparing for our open house on Tuesday. Chocolate covered orange peel, red pepper tarts with feta and scallion, mini carrotcake cupcakes... Wish you were here.

Plenty of Live Music

2008-05-04T09:03:00.005-04:00

I’m always wishing you were here to be a part of all the great and crazy things the inn and Blue Hill have to offer. This weekend is the 18th Annual Pan New England Steelband Festival—there are pan players everywhere and I went out last night to dance to Steel Sensation. Today bands from all over New England play a range of music in a five-hour panorama concert. All summer long, our local pan band plays benefit concerts and street dances.

On the way home I stopped in at the monthly contra dance—who was filling in but Gary Bushee, an old friend who helped out at the inn last summer. Perhaps you had the singing waiter if you came to the Blue Hill Inn last fall.

I didn’t admit just how long I left the Christmas wreathes up. I did remove the red parts, telling myself that that made them just decorative wreathes, but eventually down they came. I hate that bare look and had been keeping an eye out for something nice to put in their places, especially at the Cape House. I recently found a lovely wreath made of twigs at Silkweeds in Searsport. Apparently a pair of birds find it lovely as well. At first I thought the mess of broken twigs beneath the wreath was from a bird pulling out bits for its nest—this morning I realized the wreath was home to the nest. It’s the first time I’ve wished there were fewer guests coming to the Cape House! I hope the happy couple either like the idea of living in a lively place or decide to relocate to a nearby tree. The irony of May being our benefit for Habitat for Humanity wasn’t lost on me either.

The magnolia is still looking so pretty. The willow overhanging the Cape House deck is leafing out as are most of the bushes around the yard. The tulips are plump but not blooming yet. In the herb garden, Jean, the handywoman (who is just back from a winter gardening in Hawaii!), unburied the mint and lavendar. She and I have big fruity dreams—raspberry bushes, blueberry bushes, a peach tree. I do need to confess that, though I live in a low-bush blueberry state, I prefer, dare I say it, the high bush variety. In my defense, high-bush berries are much easier to pick—you don’t have to bend over and rake them like the lowbush. They can be huge—big as a quarter—and they’re sweet. Give me a year or two and we can have taste tests and you can see which you prefer. What I do like better about the Maine blueberries is the gorgeous color in the fall. Scarlet blueberry barrens… Photographer Terrell Lester does a great job catching those.

Now I’m off to breakfast at Chase’s Daily in Belfast.

My spring reading

2008-04-19T10:28:00.002-04:00

Have you decided you can trust my judgment in books yet? I hope so. I have another to suggest—I’m only partway through but it took unseasonably warm weather and full on sunshine to get me to put it down this morning. Mary Chase, an author born in Blue Hill, wrote extensively about Maine and the Blue Hill area. In her book, Mary Peters, she writes about a seafaring family. Written in 1934, the book chronicles the change from sailing ships to steam powered and the effect on the coastal towns. Islandport Press reissued it in 2005 so you can find it. Check our their other listings, as well, if you need a Maine fix before you get here.

The kitchen garden is starting to come up--we'll have eggs with herbs from the garden from day 1! Matt, head of the kitchen, will be back in town soon to get set up for the season. Here he is last year, serious at the Garland stove.

It's almost time for the bird festivals! A friend participated in an owl count a few weeks ago--she was looking a bit sleepy as she told me about her middle-of-the-night adventure, listening to the sounds of nature in the dark. On Deer Isle, Wings, Waves, and Woods is held May 16-18. In Cobscook Bay, the festival is May 23-26. On Mount Desert Island, their 10th annual festival is June 12-15. You can see what local birders are seeing and hearing at this link.

We have all been grinning like fools over the weather. At the inn, we’ve gotten a good bit of outdoor work done--a powerwashing of the inn's brick end has it looking fabulous.

Spring!

2008-03-27T12:42:00.009-04:00

We've had day after day of sunny weather and that lovely smell of spring, enough to get a person excited about spring cleaning. The crocuses are coming up--never mind that the twinkle lights I put in the bushes in the winter remain stuck in icy piles in places--it's spring! The apple tree pruners came by and tidied up the orchard. We should have huge apples and pears this year. I’m not sure when the cider pressing will be but I’ll let you know.

Guests have been in and out of the Cape House, checking on properties, working in the area, visiting family. A couple from Europe stayed almost a week--"This will be a great memory that we can bring back home to Sweden!" Soon we'll have members of the Western Mountain Trash Can Band staying as they take part in the 2008 New England Pan Festival here in Blue Hill.

I pass North Country Textiles as I walk to the post office. They, like the crocus, are blooming--gorgeous rugs drape the railing and, inside, the gallery is filling up with yummy new stock.

I just finished a Maine-based book, Bride Island, by Alexandra Enders. She quotes Sarah Orne Jewett from the Country of the Pointed Firs (You can visit Sarah Orne Jewett's home in South Berwick when you're in Maine next!): "In the life of each of us, I said to myself, there is a place remote and islanded, and given to endless regret or secret happiness." Remote and islanded, endless regret or secret happiness…

Enders also quotes Dorothy Simpson, an author I'm unfamiliar with, from The Maine Islands: "If a man is lucky enough to possess a whole island--even if it's the merest speck of rock and turf, and a few spruce trees and raspberry bushes--but can only spend a few summer weeks on it, spiritually he is an islander all year round. This is particularly true of children who have had island summers. They become islanders for life at an early age." I was especially struck by this as I had just taken a reservation from a woman who knew Maine from a few weeks on an island each summer. She said that even now when she thinks back to her childhood summers, the memories are always from those weeks.

I am mourning the passing of Lloyd Capen, whose book The Price of Clams I so enthusiastically wrote about in my New Year's entry. I regret not having told him in person how I adored his story.

Rain is forecast for the weekend so it will be indoor work—inventory and interviews. The raking of rocks from the yard will wait for the sun.

Spring?

2008-03-14T22:54:00.008-04:00

Perhaps not quite yet. Still, this middle season brings so many delights--like baby goats! Sunset Acres Farm will be having hundred of baby goats born now through the month of April and they're open for visiting and you can pat and hold the babies. Visiting hours are from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. with milking time occurring in the evening. Sunset Acres Farms makes amazing goat cheese, which you've likely had if you've been here. We use it in omlettes and with Nervous Nellie's Hot Pepper Jelly and to stuff plum tomatoes...

So guess who's been nominated for a James Beard Award? Rich Hansen, chef and co-owner of Cleonice! And Brian Hill, chef of Camden's Francine, where everything is good but the butterscotch pudding is the best you'll ever have. And the team from Chase's Daily, in Belfast. Where, at the risk of repeating myself, everything is good but the fried potatoes are amazing. So don't worry about being well fed on your way here or once you arrive.

I always tell myself, when I'm working on my blog, "Fewer words, more pictures." But I read a lot and often want to share a lot of it with you. When a person buys something like an inn, the books on the shelves often convey, along with the high four poster beds and the silver sugar bowls and the sign out front. So all winter long I've been taking advantage of the books at the inn. Last night I picked up Lincoln Colcord's Sea Stories--From Searsport to Singapore. Colcord was born in 1883, in his father's sailing vessel going around Cape Horn. But he was a son of Searsport, Maine, and in 1936 helped to found the Penobscot Marine Museum in Searsport (add it to your list of places to visit!). According to the Fishermen's Voice, "In the 1880’s, Searsport supplied more than 10 percent of America’s sea captains. At that time, in a town of 2,000 people, 77 of them were in command of American sailing ships." Here's a great picture of his father, one of those captains.

In the Drifting Diamond, Colcord writes, "For us who are sailors, the sensations of a landsman at sea are hard to understand. Wind and water are our familiar elements; a ship is our home, the field of our endeavors, the companion of our days. The things of the sea are what we love and know--are often all we know. A seaman lying in his bunk, can tell at once when his ship is carrying too much sail; a feeling is communicated to him, a feeling that's an instinct in the sense that it's the sum and lesson of all past experience. And in a storm, he knows by the laboring of the deck under his feet, exactly how it is with his vessel; he can measure the degree of her effort to a hair. But the poor landsman is separated from the knowledge by a wide and impassable gulf. An ordinary big wave seems monstrous to him, as he compares it with the calm of the day before; and when the masts once lean from the perpendicular, it's as bad as if she'd put her scuppers under. In a storm, he goes thorough agonies of needless apprehension, as if every wave and every squall were to be his last. Yes, actually!--I've watched 'em. You have no conception of what a man suffers. His life has been bounded by the firm land--by fields that spread without motion, by hills that stand eternally changeless, by houses that wouldn't dream of leaping across the streets they stand on, by floors that never in the course of their orderly existence have tipped up on one side and down on the other." Mind you, they are in the midst of a typhoon at this point in the story, points out landlubbing Sarah.

Today will be sunny and 40 degrees here, but to quote Winnie- the-Pooh, "The more it snows, tiddly pom, the more it goes, tiddly pom, on snowing." I won't be putting the snowshovels away just yet but the apple tress will be pruned soon and it's beginning to smell like spring.

Grilled Muffins...

2008-02-23T07:04:00.007-05:00

Another gorgeous snowstorm, then another foot of snow. We have had the best snow this winter, some of the best snow we've had for years.

I am still amazed I have somehow ended up living in a place where I know I have to take my camera or I’ll be sorry. My dentist, Dr. Wendy, has her office in Stonington. If I’m lucky I time it right so I can eat at the Harbor Café before or after. I’ve always loved the small place but then they shellacked marine charts to the tabletops! What a great idea. I sat at chart #103 and had a close look at the waters surrounding Castine. And, yes, I had a grilled blueberry muffin, you already know one of my weaknesses is a grilled muffin... And bacon. One deserves a treat on a going-to-the-dentist-day, don’t you think?

I recently went to the Morning Moon, in Brooklin, Boatbuilding Capital of the World, for breakfast. They had a very lemon muffin, with pecans--grilled, of course--that was delightful. I saw Chip, from the Brooklin Inn, just down the street, eating there as well.

So then on a recent Sunday, I went to the Brooklin Inn for brunch. It's a dirty job, trying all these places for you, but someone has to do it. I do love eggs benedict and I'm afraid the Brooklin Inn's are so good I may have to indulge every single Sunday... (With thanks to Dwight for the sign photo, http://www.dpeck.info)

Brooklin, with what I refer to as Bob's Boatyard, and other fabulous spots, like the tiny handful of shops including Blossom Studio, is a must visit for every traveler up this way. I saw Rich Hilsinger, the director of the WoodenBoat School, at the Wine Shop's monthly tasting recently. Just because I'll be too busy this summer to take a class, doesn't mean you shouldn't. The school is fabulous. I took Elements of Seamanship, with Jane Ahlfield and Gretchen Snyder the summer I turned 40 and had a great time. We learned so much in a week and had a great time. The waterfront is the best you'll find along the coast. They have so many different courses--building all types of wooden boats, carving, seamanship, sailmaking, rigging, oil painting...

And I didn't tell you what I did on February 14, did I? Valentine’s Day found lucky me at the Arborvine, celebrating Margaret’s birthday with Barbara and Sissy. I met Margaret through the Blue Hill Foliage, Food, and Wine Fest, as her artwork was used for the poster and it's Barbara who runs Gallery 66. I had swordfish with an orange miso sauce—so delicious. I walked up from the inn under stars and a moon. Margaret is my second friend who turned 77 in the last year, Dr. Charlotte on Deer Isle being the first. Seems to me that’s about the luckiest year ever.

Wool blankets, rain slickers, and marathoners

2008-02-17T21:24:00.006-05:00

When I was six, we were living on a farm in the state of Washington and all I wanted for my birthday was a sheep. Even then, or perhaps especially then, I was spoiled rotten and got what I wanted. I named her Kate Greenway and have adored sheep and all things ovine ever since.

Which is why I stopped at the Swans Island store on my way to Rockland recently. I first felt their blankets' loveliness at Paradise City Arts Festival in Northampton, MA, a scrumptious art fest, should you ever be out that way. Turns out in the summer, the Swans Island folks have sheep right there on Route 1! In February they don't but they do have time to give a tour, showing off the dying room (enclosed but with a pebbled floor for drainage, which is very cool), the room with the big looms, and the gallery of blankets, throws, and pillows. They even make fancy bags for storing the blankets (with cedar sides to help keep moths away). It's a little confusing because much of the wool for the winter weight blankets comes from sheep living on Nash Island. The reason for calling the company Swans Island is that that is where the founders, umm, founded it.

Potholes vs. Frost Heaves
I'm not sure why some areas tend toward one and not the other but we are certainly in the frost heave part of the world.
Have you ever heard of frost creep? Me neither. What about frost law? We'd call it a load limit or road restriction.

If you're eager to start your 2008 charitable giving, I have a great idea for you. I have this perfectly nice friend, Joe Greenberg (of the Left Bank Cafe Greenbergs), who I have known since 1988 and my days working at the Cafe in Blue Hill. Well, I thought he was perfectly nice. Turns out he's crazy. I say that because he's in training to run a marathon June 1 in San Diego as part of a fundraiser for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. No offense to Joe, but when I saw him last, he was not looking like a marathoner! So I have been inspired to donate big and try to get others to, too, because Joe running a marathon is crazy.
Crazy. Like me running a marathon... Or SpongeBob... You can check out his site. When I last spoke to him, he was up to 8-mile runs and thinking it was pretty cool that a 5-mile run was already no biggie.

Have you been watching the crazy weather? On Monday we had a bring-out-the-rain-slicker-and funny-rubber-boots rainstorm. Since then, though, we've had sunshine and birds singing and Ken, the webmaster, says one of the geese laid an egg--spring must be right around the corner. I'm not sure how I'll recognize it here in Maine. When I lived in Western Mass, I would drive by not one but two sugar shacks on the way to work. I would love to see the billowing steam...

I'm so happy to be able to say, "Darn it! I missed the Polar Bear Dip again." The Bangor Daily News had some great photos of the swimmers.