You deserve a break: Summer Travel

Summer travel this year is all about the bargain. You might consider a trip to a lovely, historic bed and breakfast, where getting more for less could mean you have the best room at the Inn, more personal attention, and lots of extras. Most B&Bs, across the country, feeling the economic crunch, are reacting by offering discounts, valuable packages, additional services and more. It's definitely a win win situation for travelers looking for a great deal. So, now is the time to plan that great escape!

Look for Value: We're all uneasy about these economic times and a great many of us have decided to cut back, spend less and save more. But that doesn't mean we must continually deprive ourselves of the very things that can revive and recharge our batteries. We still need that occasional manicure, trip to the health club, massage or get away. This year more than ever, travelers are looking to get the best get-aways they can afford. Bed and breakfasts, all over the country, are plugging into that need by offering affordable relaxing and fun week-end packages.

Travel in the US: With airfares still fairly high, traveling in North America instead of Europe or other far away destinations is a cost effective. Leisure travelers might consider travel by car, since gas prices have remained down. Business travelers, flying into town, may find prices and amenities are to their advantage. If you wont be traveling this summer and plan your trip for sometime in January (slowest accommodations month of the year) and February (Valentine's Day), you'll find plenty of interesting and reasonable packages and things to do.

Explore Kentucky: Kentucky is rich in history,. It is jam packed with beautiful scenery and lots of towns and cities with lovely Inns, bed and breakfasts and working farm Stays to accommodate your overnight and breakfast needs. Week-end rates are a great value and most major attractions are free or minimal in price.

Plan Your Trip with the help of an innkeeper: Innkeepers are great concierges. They know the area. They can suggest ideas for sight seeing and entertainment, restaurants and can make reservations for you. They can help you get the most for your money; a popular travel trend every year.

TEA: Where does it come from?

In my last post, I gave a little history of how tea came to America, how it became popular, and how Victorian Tea Parties developed. We are planning to host afternoon Victorian Teas here at our Inn, so I thought I should do a little research on the many kinds of teas available. I've identified various countries who specialize in tea farming and thought maybe you might like to see what I came up with...........

Tea consumption
Tea has been a popular pick-me-up for thousands of years. Black, green and other teas are made from the leaves of the same plant, Camellia sinensis, which grows in tropical and subtropical regions around the world. India, China, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Argentina, Brazil and other countries export large volumes of the dried and shredded leaf. About 2.4 million hectares (six million acres) are planted in tea, often in large plantations called "estates." Tea consumption is increasing thanks to news about its health benefits, but production has been growing even faster, resulting in an oversupply and depressed prices for farmers.

Rainforest Alliance

Rainforest Alliance certification is a comprehensive process that promotes and guarantees improvements in agriculture and forestry. Their independent seal of approval ensures that goods and services were produced in compliance with strict guidelines protecting the environment, wildlife, workers and local communities. The Rainforest Alliance launched its tea certification program in 2007. The first Rain Forest Alliance Tea farm was Kericho, an estate in Kenya owned by Unilever that supplies the Lipton and PG Tips brands.

Tropical crops
Like any tropical crop, tea raises a number of environmental and social issues, each with a cost/benefit balance that can be tipped in a positive way. Tea grows year-round, employing a lot of people, especially pluckers who carefully pick the top three or so leaves from every branch on the bush. That makes tea an important employer, and there are challenges around wages, labor organization, housing, health care and other rights and benefits.

Tea Farming
Tea farming replaces biodiversity-rich tropical forests with a beautiful, but single-species, monoculture. Soil erosion, competition for water, pollution from fertilizers, and the need for firewood to fuel tea dryers are some of the main environmental concerns. By following the Sustainable Agriculture Network standards, growers can proactively address the social and environmental challenges. The Rainforest Alliance organized multi-stakeholder meetings in Kenya to gather input on the standards, ensuring that they are as effective at tea as they have been for coffee, bananas and other crops.

(some information in this article taken from "Sustainable Agriculture", an on-line article by the Rainforest Alliance)

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And so the Saga of the Rembrandt Giveaway Continues at the Inn

In my last post I began a story told to me by one of my guests who stayed with me here at the B&B. He had been a collector of famous etchings by Rembrandt, Whistler, and other masters. Steven Block's collection was comprised of nearly 120 pieces, all etchings and lithographs, which he had started in the late'60s. Collecting is not his primary endeavor or work though, he is actually a philanthropist, a sociologist, and a community planner. The collecting, as it turns out, happened accidentally, but continued for many years. It all ended, however, when he returned to Louisville, his home town, in 2004 and made the decision to give away or partially sell every single piece in the collection!

And why would he do such a thing? For money? No, although he did get a small partial payment for some of them. For philanthropy? Well, partly, but that was not the motivating factor. For fear of having them stolen? Maybe, a little. But mostly, he was growing old and wanted to find a safe place for them, one where they would be well taken care of. And what better places than the JB Speed Art Museum and the University of Louisville?

The University of Louisville got the Rembrandt and a few other pieces, including a Picasso drawing, and The JB Speed Art Museum got the entire Whistler collection, the Grant Wood collection and the Currier and Ives pieces. To read more about the Rembrandt, go to: http://tinyurl.com/brl8vz.

As for Whistler, Steven discovered some of the artist's neglected creations in Washington DC in the late '70s. This interest in Whistler turned into the finest private collection of his lithographs in the world. It included over half the known works and most important ones (88 in all). They have been exhibited at the Speed Museum and have traveled around the world with the Smithsonian. The lithographs, done between 1878 and 1903, were eventually given with partial sale to the Speed by Mr Block in 2004. Also included was a lithograph of Whistler himself, by printer Thomas Way. The acquisition has made the Speed a major center for the study of this important American artist.

Mr Block attended the University of Louisville, majoring in sociology, before going off to Harvard grad school to study community planning. After working on a city planning project in Italy for two years, he ended up in Washington DC. He stayed in Washington 40 years designing and implementing a national, community service program by the name of Vista, now known as America CorpsVista. He returned to Louisville in 2004, when he was 70 years old, and bought a house in Old Louisville, 3 blocks from my bed and breakfast.

This Old House

If you've never owned an old house (100 years or more), you probably have no idea what it's like. They are beautiful, interesting, and historic, yes. But, they also require constant and close attention and upkeep. It's an old house...Right? No one really knows who did the work on it..........the rehab, the repairs, the upgrading. Or, how well it was taken care of. Upon buying an old house you can, of course, completely restore it, including all the electrical, plumbing, heating, cooling, etc., but that is pretty pricey. And the days of finding one, in a decent location, cheap enough to off-set all the expense of restoring are pretty much over.

My house was built in 1882. It's a beautiful, 4028 square foot, Victorian, 3-story brick building with 5 bedrooms and 4 baths. I bought it nearly 15 years ago and turned it into a bed and breakfast, http://www.aleksanderhouse.com/ It is situated in the 3rd largest preservation area in the US, making it a part of America's history. I had never owned a historic home before and had no idea what I was getting myself into. Not that I have ever been sorry. I love my house, every original nook and cranny of it. But, I didn't know it would need constant attention, in order to keep it in tip top shape. Now, I am ecstatic if I get through a year with no mishaps.

I've lived though the collapse of my parlor ceiling, the cracking of water pipes which sent water trickling down out of the light fixture over my kitchen worktable, while preparing breakfast for guests, and the explosion of 7 feet of water out my water heater onto my basement floor, causing the furnace to go out in January. These are just a few situations; there have been more. Remember, if you haven't replaced all the major systems, pipes, structures, and tanks, those systems, pipes, structures, and tanks might be "ancient." I couldn't afford to do so, when I moved in, so I am having to attend to them, one at a time, as life and the B&B go on.

So, this brings me to today. We have been having severe snow and ice storms for the past 3 days. One day of snow (6-7 inches), one day of ice and sleet, and a 3rd day of more snow. How has this affected my beautiful, old historic home? Well, first of all, the strong winds and ice tore away some of the roof. This sent icy water dripping down onto my 3rd floor storeroom floor (unbeknown to me), where the carpet soaked it up and dripped it down onto the second floor ceiling. The ceiling swelled and threatened to explode water all over the back hall. Knowing what to do, I poked a hole in the middle of the swelling to let the accumulated water out. Down it came in an avalanche of dirty icy liquid....all over me and the floor. I thought I was prepared, with my pails and old bath towels, but I expected it to drip out, not rush out! Finally, I situated two large containers under two different drips and went to bed, totally unaware of the leak in the 3rd floor storeroom.

Next morning, it dawned on me that this leak wasn't coming from a pipe on the second floor; it had to have originated from the 3rd floor above, where the storeroom was . I checked the storeroom and found I was right. I placed the containers under the 3rd floor leaks, which stopped the 2nd floor leaks, and called my maintenance man at 6:30 am! He lives in the neighborhood, so he was there in a flash. (Love this guy, Richard). He confirmed my suspicions, but said, because of the ice storm, it would be too dangerous to get up on the roof, until Saturday, after the storms receded.

So I'm living with the dripping ........... and the shhhhing sound of huge branches falling from my beautiful, old Magnolia tree; branches heavy laden with ice and snow, falling one by one across the old icy, snowy front walk leading to my beautiful, old house. And here I sit, writing on my blog, away from the storm, warm, cozy, and quiet, except for the constant dripping from the ceiling in my storeroom.

CookBook Caper

(continued from sidebar: Room At The Table)
...and so the committee had to do most of the work, including raising funds for the project, testing all the recipes, styling all the photographs, and writing & editing all the copy (with a little help from our friends, the publishers). In addition, we engaged in long brainstorming and planning sessions and spent hours setting up systems and contacting & talking to potential Innkeeper participants.

We hired a photographer and a publisher.

The going wasn't always easy. As a group, we bonded, we argued, we had lunch together. We agreed, we disagreed, we had dinner together. We became adamant, we acquiesced, we traveled together. We laughed together. We cried together.

There was more togetherness than most of us were used to.

Traveling through Kentucky
......working the whole time