May 4, 1998.

We have had 14 seasons of meeting wonderful, wonderful (I know, I sound like Lawrence Welk) people from every corner of the world. We have travelled vicariously through our guests.  Countless conversations, giving us insight on how others live, cultures, etc.  We have had couples stay with us, get engaged and  married.  We have even had wedding ceremonies in our living room!  So many pictures of first, second and sometimes third babies being sent to us.  Many of our guests children were young when they started staying with us (you know, grandparents happily babysitting, while mom and day have a little getaway).  Now, we hear about the colleges they have picked or weddings being planned!  So many milestones and memories.  We have been blessed with making many new friends from all over the United States and the world.  Pretty cool!!

We ex-New Jerseyites learned very quickly what big snowstorms were AND how valuable the snow blower and roof rake are.  We now know what a long, winter can be like.  Best of all, we have gotten to live and work in this New England quintessential village!  Woodstock is a terrific community that cares.  Whether you live here or are just visiting, you have an amazing feeling of graciousness, kindness and caring.  Summers are magnificent and words can’t describe the beauty of the fall foliage.

Now, I would be lying if I said that there weren’t days that we wanted to pack our bags and run REAL fast.  You know, the days when toilets overflow, washer stops working and there are six more loads of towels to wash by the next day!  Another favorite….no electricity in the winter.  Even a damaging tropical storm (yep, THAT was a REALLY BAD time).  We have experienced a broken heel, knee replacement, and a bit of breast cancer.  (okay, Bob is looking over my shoulder saying……not him, me!!)  I had all of these things happen to me, but Bob was certainly affected…..he was “Mr Caregiver”.  Through it all, our Canterbury House guests, were instrumental in getting us through all of our ups and downs.  Of course, we have tried to keep a sense of humor.  Laughter always helps, right?

I think you get what I am trying to say……What a wonderful life we have had so far, and look forward to many more years on this journey.  We thank all of you for touching our lives, and a vault full of memories. and we feel honoured that you chose The Canterbury House to experience Woodstock and in fact, Vermont.

For those of you who have visited us once, or several times, we look forward to seeing you again.  For those of you who are considering coming to Woodstock….we can’t wait to meet you.  Happy Anniversary to us!!

Now, I am not complaining, mind you, the vacation “glow” just added to the anticipation for the holidays, ESPECIALLY in Woodstock.  I quickly got the dirty laundry washed and put away and out came the decorations.   My Santa collection is out, tree is up and decorated, wreath is hung, lights are up….WE ARE READY!  All over town, holiday spirit is appearing.

In  a mere 4 days, WASSAIL WEEKEND will be in full swing, starting off with the Vienna Boys Choir concert, Friday night.   Saturday brings SO MANY  events including the fabulous horse and carriage parade and finishing up on Sunday with the Messiah concert.  Whew, so much for just one week-end!

The holiday season doesn’t end with Wassail Week-end, Woodstock is wonderful right through to the New Year.  Come visit us, we have “decked the halls”, so we would love to see you.  Give yourself a special present this year….The Canterbury House and Woodstock, Vermont.  Rest assured…Santa will find you here…..he has visited The Canterbury House many, many times.  Call us, to book your room.

Happy Holidays!

PS  In January, I will post details and pictures of our trip.

This week the paper had a whole page layout on a fact that most “Woodstock locals” and “ghost followers” only know…….The 1981 movie GHOST STORY was filmed right here in Woodstock.   The movie starred Fred Astaire, Douglas Fairbanks Jr, Melvyn Douglas, John Houseman, and Patricia Neal.  Oh, for the fans of the television series Thirtysomething, Ken Olin  was also in it.  According to the paper this is the 30th Anniversary of Ghost Story.   To commemorate the event the Woodstock History Center will present two showings of the film on Saturday, Oct 29th.  This is the centerpiece of the second annual SPOOKY WOODSTOCK festival, held at the Dana House on Elm Street.

Lots of entertaining and fun facts were highlights of the article…For example, more than 1200 people applied for the 300 folks needed for stand-ins, photo doubles and other extras.  (Remember, Woodstock town and village combined is only about 3200 people!)  The Woodstock Inn had 45 rooms reserved for movie personnel and personalities.  The Masonic Hall (right up the street from the Canterbury House) was reserved and was used as a cafeteria for the film crew.  Woodstock residents were quite excited to see some of the most famous stars of the silver screen strolling our streets.  Although, there was quite a bit of excitement about the film, one thing the citizens of Woodstock DID turn down, was a request to film a scene in the River Street Cemetery.  Many scenes WERE filmed on the Iron Bridge on Elm Street.

On occasion, over the years, the Canterbury House has had a few guests who were REAL fans of this movie and they knew EVERY place in town that was in the movie.  So, although we weren’t here in 1981, we found it neat to say we had a movie with BIG name stars filmed here.  I readily admit, I am not a spooky/horror movie kind of gal……I think I have issues going back to when I was a teenager who babysat for many of our neighbors kids, and it never failed…..THERE WAS ALWAYS A VINCENT PRICE MOVIE ON LATE AT NIGHT!  Nothing like being 15 years old, in a strange house, with The House of Wax on television…..scared me to death!!!

So, if you are a fan of scary movies, you might want to  rent the movie or  Netflix has GHOST STORY to rent or for  streaming.  Halloween IS approaching.  If you have been to Woodstock, see how much of the Village you recognize, or if you haven’t…watch the movie and then come to Woodstock to check out our “movie locations”.  You might also want to check out the Vermont Standard article and pictures  at www.thevermontstandard.com.

The trees and their leaves appeared to have a stubborn streak this year.  Peak was much later than the norm….we saw brillant color in Woodstock and central Vermont, Sunday of Columbus Day Week-end.  We had a good hard frost the Wednesday night before Columbus Day week-end and by Sunday the colors popped.  After 14 foliage seasons, I find it really cool watching the colors evolve.  I swear it seems like they change right before your eyes!  We did have a bunch of rain early in the season, but the rain gave way to some absolutely spectacular warm and sunny days.

As the season winds down, Bob and I are able to catch our breath and reflect on how blessed we feel to be innkeepers.  Does the busy foliage season mean lots of laundry, grocery shopping, and all the other chores that having a full house for five weeks straight, brings, you betcha!  More importantly, it means 5 weeks of amazing guests from all over the world, pass through our front door.  I know that we might be a tad biased, but it is true….We have THE BEST GUESTS !

This year, 40th wedding anniversaries, milestone birthdays, and even a proposal of marriage, all were celebrated at the Canterbury House.  We had several newly retired school teachers, giddy with excitement to be experiencing a fall vacation…. for the first time.

Some of the countries and states that Canterbury House visitors call home were…United Kingdom, Ireland, Switzerland, Germany, Australia, New Zealand and Italy, to name a few.  In the States, visitors pretty much came from coast to coast.  Interestingly, we saw a real increase of folks from Oregon.  If we check back through the years, very few people have visited us from Oregon, so we were delighted to host your stay.  It is fun for us to track where our guests call home.  It does change from year to year….last year South Carolina and Texas were front runners.

Even though the leaves have lost their color, and are falling to the ground, these remaining weeks of October still have their beauty.  Just because the color is gone, it isn’t to late too plan an autumn get away.  You know you want to hear the crunch of leaves under your feet as you walk from the Canterbury House to Billings Farm, shopping or dinner.  You can walk through them and not have to worry about raking them up!  We are here…give us a call.

Here we go……..Simon Pearce Restaurant, Open for lunch  and dinner.  The retail store is open, unfortunately, no glass blowing in Quechee. But… You can go to the factory and watch glass blowing there!  At the Quechee site they have some amazing pictures all around to show what Irene did.  Now, if you are planning to have dinner at Simon Pearce….RESERVATIONS ARE A MUST!  You don’t need a reservation for lunch.

Red Rooster and the Tavern @The Woodstock Inn are opening  Friday, September 30th.

Calvin Coolidge Homestead in Plymouth is open.  Great news because we thought it may not be able to open at all.

Gondola @ Killington is open daily starting Oct 1st to Oct 10th from 10:00am to 5:00pm.  So if you want to ride the gondola into the clouds to see the magnificant foliage, Go for it!

ROADS, ROADS, AND MORE ROADS!  Route 100 is open from Route 4, West Bridgewater ALL THE WAY into Ludlow, Weston,etc.  We were able to travel Route 100 South, down to Manchester.  By this week-end two temporary bridges are scheduled to open and once in use will provide UNINTERUPPTED TRAVEL along Route 100A in Plymouth and Route 100 in Pittsfield.  Opening the bridge in Pittsfield allows you to travel freely along Route 100 between Stockbridge and Killington!  In Bethel Route 12 is scheduled to be open by October 7th.  Whew…..so many OPENINGS.  There really are too many for me to list them all, but you get the idea.

Here are just a few “fun facts” you might enjoy…..Tropical Storm Irene closed 34 bridges along Vermont’s state highway system. VTrans has reopened 25 of these bridges, while nine remain closed to full public travel.  Of the nine that remain closed to full public travel, seven require temporary bridges and will be reopened by the end of October or sooner!  The opening of Route 100 through Pittsfield this week-end will represent a major milestone because it will allow the free-flow of traffic without detours or major impediments for the entire 135 mile stretch of Rte 100 between Ludlow and Newport just in time for the height of foliage season.

So, NOW you can see why it is time to put Irene to rest…..Vermont still has many homes to rebuild, businesses to reopen, bridges to fix, but healing is happening everyday and we won’t forget that there Still is a lot to do, but we can rejoice in what HAS been accomplished.

Stay tuned for my next post……….Foliage Season has arrived!  We can’t wait to share OUR Woodstock and the rest of Vermont with You!

One last note…..When driving on any of our roads, that still have road crews, please use caution, maybe give them the old thumbs up……The men and women who are putting Vermont roads back together have been working around the clock to give we Vermonters and all the wonderful people who visit here, something pretty special.

It is feeling like life is getting back to normal here in Woodstock….On Tuesday evening our Village Trustees (governing body) approved the permit for this year’s WASSAIL EVENTS, December 9-11, 2011.  One more sign that Woodstock is going in forward motion!  Good news.  Oh, did I mention that the Vienna Boys Choir is performing Friday (Dec 9th)  night at the Town Hall Theatre?  When they were here Wassail Weekend  several years ago…it was a FABULOUS EVENING.  We have a few rooms left….have YOU booked yet?  It is a great way to start the holiday season.

Lastly, for those who are curious as to how the folks who lost their homes or had major damage are doing…..FEMA has set up shop in Woodstock.  They have been going door to door, giving info to everyone.  Many of the hardest hit people have had tremendous help with clean-up.  The Woodstock community is working incredibly hard to get people back in their homes.  This Sunday there is going to be a benefit concert at Town Hall, with many local performers AND Joe Perry from Aerosmith.  Throughout the state, there have been amazing fundraisers, like the PHISH concert, VPR has raised tons of money, just to name a few.  Many more events are being scheduled EVERY DAY.

Oh…………almost as exciting as Route 4 opening…………….Major Frost warnings in the forecast…..we know what that means……………..great color should be a comin’ in those leaves.   Next week I will do a drive and post a visual progress report.  Think vibrant color.

A Picture is Worth a thousand words.

The Art Festival on the Green is happening as I type.  I want to wander down now, but Bob says I have to do my chores first!  I think I will persuade Bob, to buy me lunch, while on the Green.  Today is picture perfect for weddings, in fact, a local couple Kate and Steve, have their wedding guests staying with us this week-end, so we wish them well.  Couldn’t ask for a better day, or better place to tie the knot.  Restaurants, and shops are open in full swing.

So as you can see, things are coming back and humming along.  It looks like this week is going to have to include some Pumpkin, gourds and mum shopping!  Hope everyone has a wonderful week-end.

Oh, on a lighter note,  yesterday I decided to check my vegetable garden.  I readily admit I hadn’t checked it, since Irene invited herself to Vermont.  Obviously, my squash liked her visit……Check it out.

Happily, quiet news day…..

Yesterday, Bob took a drive around the area to check on road accessibility and found encouraging progress….In fact, he was quite happy he made it through Bridgewater past the Long Trail Brewery. (He knew better than to stop for lunch without me!)  We are thinking of going for lunch on Friday…Fish & Chips Day!

Mother Nature gave us some more rain, yesterday and today, …I think I can speak for everyone, the rain makes you a wee bit jittery.    We haven’t seen any additional flooding or problems, thankfully.

Final details are being attended to for the Art Show on the Green this week-end.  Looks like the weather is going to cooperate, with sunny skies.  Area schools opened today.  Subtle signs of life returning to “Normal”.

It is nice to be able to tell you that the post Irene updates will be further apart as we heal our wounds.  As the Irene updates drift away, I will replace them with foliage watches….the camera batteries are charged and ready, so stay tuned.

The biggest news for us is…..CANTERBURY HOUSE IS OPEN FOR BUSINESS. ..Water is flowing! So come and vist us….We have availability for  the coming week-end.  Check out for yourself how well Woodstock is doing…..There is the big  ART SHOW ON THE GREEN all week-end.  Fabulous artists from Vermont and all over will be here.  You know you have that one annoying spot on the wall that needs some artwork!

There is a nice article on Forbes.com you should check out, click here to read. Forbes.

We were told yesterday, there won’t be any updates until Tuesday, so stayed tuned.  I will pass on info, as soon as I get it.  Enjoy your week-end.  Again, thanks for all of your support and encouragement.