More Guests

I was telling Jesse about my last blog entry - I do not think he reads them, I mentioned to him that I wrote about some of the great guests we have had from all around the world. He reminded me that I did not brag about the English Mayor we hosted last month. This picture is of the Mayor of Doncaster, England. The Mayor and his wife are very nice people. Since then we ask any English person if they know were Doncaster is and if they know the mayor.

DONCASTER has a new non-Labour civic mayor for only the second time in 34 years.
Liberal Democrat Paul Coddington, who represents Bessacarr and Cantley, takes over as chair of Doncaster Council after being elected to the position at Friday's annual general meeting at the Mansion House.He was first elected to the local authority in 1999 and replaces Labour's Tony Sockett at the helm.After being sworn in last week, a slightly shocked Mr Coddington thanked his colleagues, family and local electorate for handing him the prestigious opportunity."I want to play my part in bringing people together and working for the common good," he said."One of the tasks of chair of council is to encourage fair debate. "I also want to do what I can to encourage people in the voluntary sector and continue working with the young people in the borough."I want to create better relationships and build bridges between communities."

So far this year, knock on wood, we have had some wonderful guests. One day we had a couple from Israel, a couple from Madrid, a couple from Spain, and a couple from Germany all at one time in the dining room. No one could talk to each other. I told Jesse it was like being at the Tower of Babel. It was funny they all ordered the pancakes. Must be an international like of pancakes (Jesse makes exceptional pancakes, blueberry and orange yogurt). In addition to all the international guests, one day we had the Mayor of a town in England. It was a pleasure to speak to him. Today at the Inn we have our first guest from Singapore.

We do get guests from the US and some even from right here in Maine. The state of Maine is launching an ad campaign for Mainers to vacation in Maine (stay cations they call it). One interesting thing I learned from one of our guests last week, they were from New Jersey not Maine, I learned what the brass knob in the middle of the dining room floor was. Let me give you a little background information on the brass knob first. When Jes and I bought the house 3 years ago, there was lots of furniture and rugs that I just did not like. We did not have enough money to refurnish the house, and as Jes says "if its not broke - don't fix it". Well I have lived with alot of stuff, slowly changing things, making the Inn more the way we like it, more our style and reflecting us. There was an old rug in the dining room, covering a beautiful maple strip hardwood floor. I couldn't understand why anyone would cover up a beautiful wood floor. I finally took up the rug and reveled the floor. The floor is in good shape and there is a brass knob in the middle of the room. I could not for the life of me figure out what that knob was for, until the man from NJ, leaned over and said, hey I have one of those in my summer cottage out on LBI. I said, "well, what is it?" I was expecting him to say it was a historic reminant of a slave door that the nice family in the house hid the slaves from the slave hunters and saved them and helped them to freedom. But his story was not as fantastic as the one I conceived in my head. He said there is a key to it and it is where you can turn on and off a gas valve that is under the floor. SO I said to him , so this is not a 1854 historic find, but probably a 1960 thinga ma gig. He said yes, it is not a historic feature. Oh well, I was hoping to have some interesting thing to talk about in the dining room during breakfast. I guess I could still fabricate some little story about my little brass knob, most of guests don't speak English and its all babel anyway.