Letter from Vermont

Every September, one of the highlights for our family is spending a couple of days at the Vermont State Fair in Rutland.  There are two very distinct sides to the fair, and a little brooklet runs through the middle of the fairgrounds, separating the two.  The fairway side has the amusement rides, the food concessions, the grandstand for the ticketed entertainers, the games of chance, and generally a little bit more rough-and-tumble atmosphere.  Cross the brook, though, and you feel like you’ve found a completely separate event, with the agricultural contests including a thousand pound pumpkin this year, the fiddling, the maple sugar shack with all its delights, the Grange exhibits, the barns to walk through and meet dairy cows, draft horses, a mother pig and her piglets, and hutch after hutch of rabbits.  You can probably tell which side of the river tends to hold our attention as a family with young children.

The Fair runs for several days at the beginning of September, often when the weather is still pretty mild.  About mid-month, though, things turn quickly to autumn.  The early-turning swamp maples begin to exchange their shades of green for brighter hues of orange, gold, and scarlet.  Foliage starts in earnest the last week of September and classically holds through the first half of October in our part of Vermont.

These are the days of frost on the pumpkin outside the door, of woodfires burning in the hearths, and of the innkeepers’ bellweather, the capacity crowd in the dining room each morning (and many evenings!).  This season, as in past seasons, we have been hosting guided group biking tours operated by Bike Vermont as well as guided group hiking tours operated by REI Adventures and Country Inns Along the Trail.  At this point, foliage has a little under two more weeks to run.  What happens then?  Some other time, perhaps.

The recipe for the Churchill House pancakes?  Very simple (this serves 2 or 3 people):

1 cup cottage cheese; 4 organic eggs; 4 tablespoons butter; 1/2 cup flour.

Melt butter in glass bowl in microwave.  Stir in cottage cheese.  Break eggs into mixture and incorporate.  Add flour and mix; batter will be lumpy.  Cook on lightly greased 350F griddle until bubbles break on top; turn and cook until golden both sides.  Pancakes will be tangy and creamy inside and slightly crispy outside.  Serve at once with warm Vermont maple syrup.

This season, we have been given quite the feather in our cap:  the well-known touring company Bike Vermont has selected us to host nine of their weekend bike tours this summer and fall.  We had two wonderful trips here in June and are looking forward to a fun season with these guests.  When the inn has just one couple as guests, it is special and quiet, and so serene.  When 16 or 18 bicyclists are swapping stories around the dinner tables, it is more like a house party — what fun to be around so many folks with a shared interest.  The atmosphere is more excited than is usually the case, and it’s a neat change of pace for us.

Here is a photo I took of Olya at her naturalization ceremony in May. 

Who is that fine-looking soldier whispering in my wife’s ear?  Some other time, perhaps.

More time has passed since my last letter than I intended … chalk it up to getting the inn ready for the season.  We’ve had a busy April: having a chimney taken down and a new one built in its place, as well as installing the last section remaining to complete the new roof, were two of the more visible projects.  April gave us exceptionally wonderful weather this year, very mild and dry, and good for that outdoors kind of work.  May has been cool and damp thus far, but a large bed of tulips that Olya planted last fall has come up, and the flowers should open when the sun returns to us for a bit.

The gift that Olya was given at her citizenship interview was a very lovely book called “The Citizen’s Almanac.”  It is just such a thoughtful collection of anthems, poetry, symbols, speeches, and landmark documents, enhanced with some beautiful artwork, historical photos, and very straightforward and traditional editorial comments.  This gift to my wife was so compelling to me because it is so fundamental.  You hear so much about America in decline, America divided, America disintegrating; this little book which our government gives to those who have earned citizenship, is a heartfelt testimony to America triumphant, America united, and America coming together around the shared values of her people.

We had our first guests of the season on May 1st, a young couple from New Jersey starting their inn to inn bike trip.  While the weather has not been the most dazzling, the scenery is still lush and picturesque, and the pace is still relaxing and carefree as they cycle their way from one country inn to the next.  Klara, our two-year old, and I spent some enjoyable time in the car together, singing her favorite songs as we transferred our guests’ luggage to the next inn on their itinerary while they were out riding.  Olya and I joke that it will be so nice to have our children help us at the inn when they are old enough, and this was a little practice for that day, still so far in the future.  At any rate, it gives Olya a little time alone with Agatha.

The first guests of the season on May 1st means the first breakfast of the season on May 2nd.  So how did we kick off the season?  Some other time, perhaps.

We’ve had quite a few visitors lately.  Yesterday, the couple who owned our house from 1982 to 1998 stopped by.  Roy and Lois are a wonderful couple who still live in town.  We went around the house with them and shared a lot of their fond memories.  Might be a good time to introduce our house, since it is such a part of our lives:

The “house” is actually an antique country inn in Vermont.  The family who built it in 1872 was named Churchill; the house is now the Churchill House Inn, and it is the reason a classically-trained Siberian violinist (Olya) came to live in a small Vermont village.  On our honeymoon, we had stayed near Bar Harbor, Maine, at a very pleasant bed and breakfast called Oceanside Meadows.  The innkeepers’ lifestyle seemed very attractive, and when I had the opportunity to change jobs, we decided we’d like to try innkeeping.  We wanted to spend more time together, and three meals a day with each other, working and living in the same house seems to qualify. 

We took a seminar for aspiring innkeepers, and followed that up with a month-long car trip around a good part of the United States, leisurely looking for the right fit.  We looked from Maine to Minnesota to Georgia and back up, and finally chose an inn just three hours from home, in Rutland County, Vermont, where my great-great-grandfather Lyman Taylor was born and raised.  We’re in our fourth year here, and it continues to be a wonderful experience. 

This year, we decided to close the inn for March and April.  And, wouldn’t you know it, we had a “walk-in” couple come to the door this afternoon looking for a room.  We rarely have walk-ins because of our out-of-town location at the Green Mountain National Forest.  We were able to send this couple (hiking around Vermont from Germany) to one of the B&Bs in the village that we knew would take care of them wonderfully.   

So why have we closed the inn for two months?  Some other time, perhaps.