Yesterday, 12/7/08, Annville Inn was on the annual tour of significant structures (homes and some business buildings) in the Lebanon Valley. This is a Christmas Tour held every year to help raise funds for the historic Cornwall Iron Furnace. Between 250 and 300 people toured the Inn, Rosalie created tasty refreshments for visitors, and everyone enjoyed seeing most of our 7,000+ square feet decorated from top to bottom for Christmas.
The task is so large, Rosalie begins decorating in October, and finishes by the end of the first week of December! We have a space the size of two and a half garage bays filled with rows and rows of shelving upon which the decorations are stored. It all comes out this time of year, and the Inn is gorgeous all decorated for the holidays.
Some unusual features are 5-1/2 foot nutcrackers weighing nearly 100 pounds each, a "Christmas tree chandler" made of an upside down Christmas tree, hung from a ceiling, an elegant tree decorated in all white and crystal (which took eight hours to decorate) and new this year, an inspiration Rosalie had for a stunning hand rail decoration on our main staircase. Check back on this blog later tomorrow to see some photos!
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Monday, December 1, 2008
Connecticut Horticulture Society visits Annville Inn
We have returned to our blog! Back in the late winter, while we were snowed in, it was easy to keep our blog up, but once spring
hit and our three acres of gardens started gobbling up Craig's weekend and evening time, we had to relax our blog postings. We are now going to get all our postings caught up, and are starting with a story about the Connecticut Horticulture Society's visit to the Inn!
In late March, we were honored to be named as a select private garden to be toured by the society. The Connecticut Horticulture Society toured from Connecticut, through West Virginia, down to Virginia examining exemplary gardens. For their return trip, they chose a stop at Annville Inn's Private Guest Gardens, and we were honored that we were chosen as the final two-hour stop of their tour! We were worried that their huge Peter Pan tour bus would make it up our lane, and it managed to make it part of the way in. They disembarked, Craig gave them a horticultural tour and discussed gardening methods with them, suggestions and ideas--and inspirations--were shared all around, and after a little over two hours, the group happily climbed aboard for the trip home.
Fast forward from March to December: Have you found the perfect gift for the holidays? Give a gift certificate good for a two-night stay at Annville Inn! Call Rosalie to find out details--we are presenting a special offer just for the Christmas season! You can reach Rosalie at 717.867.1991.
hit and our three acres of gardens started gobbling up Craig's weekend and evening time, we had to relax our blog postings. We are now going to get all our postings caught up, and are starting with a story about the Connecticut Horticulture Society's visit to the Inn!
In late March, we were honored to be named as a select private garden to be toured by the society. The Connecticut Horticulture Society toured from Connecticut, through West Virginia, down to Virginia examining exemplary gardens. For their return trip, they chose a stop at Annville Inn's Private Guest Gardens, and we were honored that we were chosen as the final two-hour stop of their tour! We were worried that their huge Peter Pan tour bus would make it up our lane, and it managed to make it part of the way in. They disembarked, Craig gave them a horticultural tour and discussed gardening methods with them, suggestions and ideas--and inspirations--were shared all around, and after a little over two hours, the group happily climbed aboard for the trip home.
Fast forward from March to December: Have you found the perfect gift for the holidays? Give a gift certificate good for a two-night stay at Annville Inn! Call Rosalie to find out details--we are presenting a special offer just for the Christmas season! You can reach Rosalie at 717.867.1991.
Friday, March 28, 2008
Still HOT TUB Season!
Shawn & Becky, repeat Annville Inn guests. Our guests love hottubbing out under the stars, during a softly falling snow and even during ice storms! Some of the most popular times are late fall, early winter and early spring--our current season. With nighttime temps dipping down to the 30's and 40's, it is the perfect time for a romantic, torch-lit experience, complimented by a sky punctuated with stars slung from horizon to horizon. Hot Tubbers enjoy being out in the cold night air, wrapped in a 104 degree water blanket--nice and cozy! Even though our swimming pool opens in May, we have had guests opt for the hot tub even in warm weather, albeit with water substantially lower than 104!
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Welcome back, Spring!
We say goodbye to winter this time of the year, and prepare our three acres of lawn and gardens for spring, summer and fall glory. To the right is one of the last remnants of winter, the arils (fleshy covered seed pods) of Burning Bush (euonymus alatus), which we keep contained to keep from becoming invasive. In designing our outdoor landscape, we look at each garden as an outdoor "room," which helps us to design the landscape around different themes. Our "Ashie's Garden," for example, is watched over by two life size cow statues, symbolic of the dairy business here in the lush Lebanon Valley, where the Inn is located. We think these scarlet arils foreshadow the trusses of hanging red and pink blooms of the bleeding heart (Dicentra spectabilis) that we grow in the same garden.
Our Romance Garden will have a new feature this spring, a beautiful fountain, which we have been working on over winter to prepare for its debut. Later this summer, plans are for a special garden wall for this area. Craig is hoping for a garden scale railroad for his birthday, which will be installed in one of our twelve specific garden areas. It will probably not go into the butterfly garden, as we don't want to scare away any of the hundreds of butterflies in that area.
At left, one of the first signs of spring in our gardens (in addition to the tulips, which have pushed up three inches of growth in the last two weeks (except for the ones dug up by our resident squirrel.)) This is a branch of silver maple (Acer saccharinum) in our Romance Garden showing buds getting ready to set its famous "helicopter seed pods," which are somewhat of a gardening issue, but managable!
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Well Known Author Selects Annville Inn
Author, Photographer and Adventurer Cindy Ross with model Jo Ann Micklusky, working on an article at Annville Inn . Readers of this blog, and guests at Annville Inn (http://www.annvilleinn.com/) who are fellow adventurers in life are probably very familiar with prolific author Cindy Ross, adventurer extraordinaire, who has written over a thousand newspaper and magazine articles for such luminary publications as the Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, Backpacker Magazine, Outdoor Life, Harrisburg Magazine, Pennsylvania Magazine, every boating magazine and every motorcycling magazine you can think of as well as countless travel magazines.
Cindy stayed with us this past week, and brought model JoAnn Micklusky with her in order to use Annville Inn Bed & Breakfast as a backdrop for one of her upcoming articles!
Cindy is also the author of four books, one of which is Scraping Heaven, published by McGraw-Hill, and the book currently on our bedside table. We highly recommend it. Hailed by the San Francisco Chronicle who said, "This is both an epic adventure of the first order and the heartwarming story of the family who accomplished it," her book is definitely a page turner.
The book's dust jacket proclaims, "On the high rocky mountain slopes the line between heaven and disaster is razor thin, yet it was there that Cindy Ross and her husband were irresistibly drawn with their two small children. This is the story of their five-summer 3,100 mile trek over the rooftop of North America--a rousing adventure with a powerful message for parents. "
The first two pages immediately brings the reader into one of the family's nightmares in paradise, leaving the reader wondering whether or not they will live--a question raised by one of their children.
They do, in fact survive, and learn many lessons along the way. We felt privileged to have Cindy Ross (and her sister/model, JoAnn , who has children who are also adventurers, one who is about to have the Scouting adventure of a lifetime--going to Philmont, New Mexico) here at the Inn.
Craig, who along with his buddies has hiked much of the Appalachian Trail and ancillary trail systems, and who has had many adventures (bear attacks, near drownings, run away fires, explosions) while camping, found much in common with Cindy. Both Rosalie and Craig are certain they have made two wonderful new friends in Cindy and JoAnn. Their sentiment regarding Cindy and all their wonderful guests: "What a blessing it is to have our Inn!"
www.annvilleinn.com
Monday, February 25, 2008
Guest Information & one visitor's experience this past Sunday
About The Guest Experience
In our short life here, we have had many guests that would fit into the status of "celebrity." We have had a famous actress, an Admiral that commands an aircraft carrier, politicians, musicians, and wonderful people from all walks of life who would never consider themselves celebrities at all. Yet, we do consider each and every guest our VIP, our celebrity.
Our policy is to neither publish nor publicly acknowledge anyone staying at the Inn. For example, an actor that recently stayed with us wanted to get away from publicity and relax. Therefore, if a newspaper, or anyone for that matter, would have made inquiries regarding the actor as our guest, we would have not acknowledged the visit, guaranteeing their anonymity.
In some special cases, after a well known guest has given us permission, we will tell their interesting story here in the Inn's blog--but only after they have checked out and only after they have given us the go-ahead!
Vicariously Enjoy Our Guest's Experience Here Last Sunday Morning
On occasion, we will have an interesting guest that will not mind *not* being "incognito." That happened this past weekend when two important cultural events happened in Hershey. World famous model and violin virtuoso, David Garrett, performed at Hershey Theatre. At the same time, renown cello virtuoso, Dennis Parker, who has performed in Europe, South America (Brazil) and North America performed at Lebanon Valley College (LVC) along with violinist Karen Bentley Pollick (also just back from a European concert tour) and clarinetist Justin O'Dell (Acadiana Symphony Orchestra's principal clarinetist) presenting "Six Wooden Blocks: A Trio for Clarinet, Violin and Cello" by Dr. Scott Eggert, music professor at LVC. Dennis was our guest at Annville Inn for two tremendous nights.
We were thrilled when Dennis agreed to present a short concert before breakfast Sunday morning. That warm, memorable experience will be furthered by a CD Dennis left behind, which we shall often play as background music in our conservatory.
Here is a mental snapshot, for you, of one guest's experience here that morning:
Imagine yourself in his place: Before breakfast, in the conservatory, curled up in a big Mission-style rocking chair in front of the crackling wood fire, a wall of glass all around you. The room is warm, filled with plants of all kinds. Outside the glass wall, which surrounds you on three sides, is a winter wonderland, filled with white snow punctuated with birds--birds everywhere. A brilliant red cardinal is cheerfully greeting you as you read...tap, tap, tappa-tapp on the window he goes as you hear the water fountain gurgling, the fire crackling, and as your senses detect a delicious mouth watering aroma coming into the conservatory from the kitchen.
At the same time, your ears pick up the melodic strains of Dennis Parker's incomparable, majestic solo wafting throughout the house. You feel cradled, surrounded by a cocoon of beautiful classical music. All is right with the world, the Inn is magical, you want to remember these sensations forever. That was the experience of a young man, one of our guests on Sunday morning, while Dennis Parker was performing in the Parlor-Music Room. www.annvilleinn.com
Dennis Parker. Past season's concert tours have taken him from Brasilia , to Nanjing, Prague, and all over the U.S.A. Early training was at the Juilliard School and subsequent degrees from Indiana University and Yale University. Photograph by Craig George, Annville Inn B&B.
Annville Inn Launches New Web Log/Journal (Internet blog)
Welcome to Annville Inn's new Journal
From Rosalie:
Every month at the Inn, since we bought "The General's House" in July of 2005, we have made modifications to the structure and grounds. At first, all through 2005, our modifications were major...removing walls, adding new ones, building doors, and resurfacing virtually every surface in the house, every wall, every ceiling, every floor, and then places you can't see--such as electrical, plumbing, hard wired fire and burglar alarm systems, septic systems, and the list goes on and on. It has been a work of love, though, and we are thrilled when guests comment that they can see all we have done, and how they appreciate our attention to detail!
From Craig:
When we entertained in our previous home in the Washington, DC area, all our guests would constantly comment on Rosalie's flair and attention to detail. They called it "The Rosalie Touch." People would ask her to come help them in interior decorating, cooking, or event planning because they, too, wanted the "Rosalie Touch." We studied B&B's for about 12 years before we decided to apply Rosalie's business acumen, her cooking skills, and her famous "Rosalie Touch" to hospitality and inn keeping. We are glad we did, because her Inn has really taken off and she has already garnered page after page (in our in-room journals and online reviews) of very favorable reviews. Even though she has been open only since October of 2006 (YEA! Her business is almost two years old!) she has received so many repeat guests, and guests that have been referred by others, that we know she is on the right track!
www.annvilleinn.com
From Rosalie:
Every month at the Inn, since we bought "The General's House" in July of 2005, we have made modifications to the structure and grounds. At first, all through 2005, our modifications were major...removing walls, adding new ones, building doors, and resurfacing virtually every surface in the house, every wall, every ceiling, every floor, and then places you can't see--such as electrical, plumbing, hard wired fire and burglar alarm systems, septic systems, and the list goes on and on. It has been a work of love, though, and we are thrilled when guests comment that they can see all we have done, and how they appreciate our attention to detail!
From Craig:
When we entertained in our previous home in the Washington, DC area, all our guests would constantly comment on Rosalie's flair and attention to detail. They called it "The Rosalie Touch." People would ask her to come help them in interior decorating, cooking, or event planning because they, too, wanted the "Rosalie Touch." We studied B&B's for about 12 years before we decided to apply Rosalie's business acumen, her cooking skills, and her famous "Rosalie Touch" to hospitality and inn keeping. We are glad we did, because her Inn has really taken off and she has already garnered page after page (in our in-room journals and online reviews) of very favorable reviews. Even though she has been open only since October of 2006 (YEA! Her business is almost two years old!) she has received so many repeat guests, and guests that have been referred by others, that we know she is on the right track!
www.annvilleinn.com
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