Valentines Weekend is here. Reserve now for NEXT YEAR!

Valentine's Weekend is always a special time at Annville Inn Bed & Breakfast. This weekend, we have guests staying here from as far west as Los Angeles, California and as far east as the Philadelphia suburbs. One couple, David and Samantha, are here for their fourth weekend with us! We love our guests and appreciate the many guests who return to us time and again, such as David and Samantha. We have two Inn photographs on today's blog posting. The first shows how Rosalie set her table this morning for Valentine's. The china she selected is used only two times a year, Valentines' Day being one of them. It is over 100 years old, from her Grandmother, who brought it from Europe (it was made in Great Brittan.) The other image is one Craig made late this summer of the Inn all socked in with fog, which rolled down from the Gap in the Blue Mountains and cradled the Inn in its mist until the sun came out and evaporated it shortly before breakfast. Rosalie got to enjoy it when she rose early to fix breakfast. Her guests slumbered quietly as the fog slowly rolled in, enveloped the Inn and the surrounding fields and barns, and then as quickly left--it was quite magical.

Annville Inn's Piano Tuner Extraordinare

The piano in our music room gets tuned several times a year by an expert piano tuner who comes here from Philadelphia. Meet Bob Haymes, piano tuner for famous performers! Bob, who is a tuning technician for Jacobs Music, the Stineway dealer in Philadelphia, has tuned concert grand pianos for many orchestras and performers. Bob has tuned pianos for Aretha Franklin, BB King, The Four Tops, Roy Clark, Dave Brubeck, Wenton Marsalis, and The Philadelphia Orchestra to name just a few of the well-known artists who trust their performances to Bob's perfectly trained ear. Bob and his beautiful wife Grace are also frequent guests of the Inn. This weekend they were here celebrating Grace's birthday!

We have been burning our wood stove in the conservatory practically non stop! Guests are enjoying the outdoor hot tub (at 105 degrees) in the midst of snow and ice! Others are snuggled up in our theatre room enjoying a movie on a cold winter's night. Four of our guest rooms have fire places--perfect for a romantic evening. This is the place to be! Don't forget that every February, we are drenched in chocolate...we bring out our chocolate fountain and all kinds of goodies to drench in rich chocolate all month long!

Late Arrival (smile)

Here you see some late arrivals at Annville Inn. The larger bulbs are hyacinths, flowers that shoot up early in the spring following the crocus. Hyacinths (hyacinthus orientalis) are extremely sweet smelling. Normally, Craig plants these in early fall, October to November. These, however, were late arrivals, going to bed in late December. They will still come up. The photo of the smaller bulbs is of two varieties of tulips that went to bed at the usual time in November.

These bulbs are only a few of the over 3,000 spring bulbs planted in our three acres of gardens! Need a get-away, a respite before spring hits? Then call the Inn and book a cozy room to snuggle in during these cold days of winter. Today, we have guests curled up in the theatre watching old movies and other guests enjoying the heavy snow that is coming down--they are in the conservatory, surrounded on three sides by glass, sitting in rocker chairs in front of a roaring wood burning fire.

One couple is putting together a jig saw puzzle at the conservatory's puzzle table, located only inches from the winter storm, but they are warm and snuggly inside, and sipping hot cocoa...just as I am while I write this. Winter is fun at Annville Inn!

Christmas Open House Tour Huge Success

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!

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.

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!