Here's neighbour Pete helping with the installation. It's a classic mid-June day in the Ottawa Valley with wispy clouds, a cool breeze and lots of mosquitos! We have lots of inn bookings already for the summer and its been steadily busy with shoppers and art buyers. So much work to do at this time of year...my gardening is not going well, as we have had too much cold, too much heat and then too much rain for my poor seedlings to really acclimatize.

Part of our new look this spring is a real red canoe atop the lovely old hand-hewn beams that John Foreman gave us. The new sign will be more visible to motorists coming down the hill and will reflect our increasingly Canadian sensibility in art, food and music...

So here we are once again, back from our rejuvenating holiday in Andalucia Spain. We arrived back in early April and were greeted by two major snowstorms. It had been our plan to reopen for Easter weekend but a combination of jet lag, cold weather and post-holiday inertia combined to delay our opening until the last week of April.

Here's Pete and Ritsuko all dressed in their finest kimonos on their way back from a social occassion. They dropped in to say hello on New Year's Eve day...Ritsuko helped out with serving on the New Year's Eve gala with Robert Yeretch and Pete kept company with Zigmund and Tomasz and various other local folk in for dinner and the music. After it was over, we all went over to the old General Store for a party and stayed out until almost three a.m.!!!It was a great evening and on New Years Day we made breakfast for our inn guests and then closed up for the season. Happy New Year and see you at Easter!!!

Another artistic event on Sunday Dec 18 saw Deedee singing and playing original tunes with Tom Martell accompanying on drums. The audience was in festive spirits and Judy, Erica, Keetch, Colleen,Mike and Liz, Joyce and Dan, Terry and Patrice enjoyed the music and the Christms snacks. We also all met Helen and Kirk Mandy who are the new owners of the Wilno General Store...now renamed Pickles and Quilts and slated to open this spring....all beautifully renovated and with a bright red roof just like ours!!

The artist and designer, Linda Sorensen (left) poses with friend and fellow "bag lady" Elsa Steenberg. It was a jolly afternoon of shopping and chatting and socializing...all the more cheerful despite the gloomy mild day outside which is rapidly melting the accumulated snowfall....oh, the weather outside is frightful...but the fire is so delightful....guests in attendance were Peter and Leslie from Combermere, Robin and Leonard, Patricia, Linda, Sue and various others, all in full Christmas shopping mode.