Brrr! Baby it’s cold outside! Bedford Landings Bed & Breakfast became a winter wonderland last week. Yes, and it was beautiful…for awhile. Today is the first day above freezing since it snowed last Friday (January 6th). When it first starts snowing, it is so pretty and exciting to see, to watch the birds at the feeders, and build a nice warm fire. But now it can melt. Please melt!

Here are a few of our winter wonderland photos from Bedford Landings.

Marie Campbell, Artist

Speaking of Winter Wonderland, there is a new painting hanging in Bedford Landings called “First Snow.” Marie Campbell, our in-house artist for the next several months is displaying lovely rural, landscape, and lake scenes including these titles:
April in Virginia, Sheepwatchers, After the Storm, Big Blue (Heron), View from Claytor Farm, Out on a Limb, White House in the Blue Ridge, and Man’s Best Friend.

Marie grew up in Upstate New York taking courses in art at St. Lawrence College in Brockville, Ontario, Canada. She then studied plein air painting under Henry Vyfinkle along the St. Lawrence River. She loves to paint nature and landscapes. She is a member of Art Visions (located on Scruggs Road at Smith Mountain Lake). You can see more of her work on her blog:
Or, just come stay with us or stop in to see what she has on display at Bedford Landings.

Winter Getaway

Jack and I welcome you to make Bedford Landings your Winter Wonderland Getaway! You can enjoy a nice warm fire, a convenient hot tub, a cozy theater room with an over 300 movie selections, and scrumptious breakfasts.

If you reserve in January, we’ll include a bottle of bubbly champagne for your enjoyment! Just say you saw it on the blog!

We are planning to take a cooking class (closed January 27) at the Culinaria Cooking School in Northern Virginia  to see if we can get some new tips and ideas. But all other days in January are open for your stay!

Think winter! Think cozy. Think get-away! Make Bedford Landings your Winter Wonderland Getaway!! Think warm!

Thanks to the 2016 Guests!
As we wind down 2016 and look forward to 2017, we want to thank the over 500 guests who have walked through our door this year. We have met people from all walks of life who were visiting family, attending weddings, looking for relaxation, romance, adventure or family time. We love hosting people, answering questions about Smith Mountain Lake, advising guests where to dine or find interesting “things to do” close by.   So thank-you for letting us serve you.

We always look forward to their visit when guests return to stay with us again and again. For the most part, this occurs when people are shopping for a home at the lake. But then they find that special place and we no longer see them, then we miss them!! We hope that after they get settled in their new home, we can stay in touch as neighbors. In an effort to inform past and future guests about happenings at Bedford Landings, you can subscribe to this blog. Just find the little “Follow” button on the bottom right of your screen.  Click it and enter your email address. You will just get an email alert when we blog (generally once a month).

What to expect in

Events for 2017
We have a few special events planned for 2017 but first to welcome the new year, we are offering a Champagne Special for New Year’s Eve. Get a free chilled bottle of champagne to ring in the new year. Just put this into the COMMENTS section of the reservation form: “Cheers to 2017!” We will also prepare some light hor d’oeuvres for enjoyment throughout the evening.  You can bask in the warm privacy of your room or engage with other guests. We will have puzzles, a warm fire, movies, football games, hottub, and merriment at Bedford Landings!

Winter Maintenance and Retooling
In January, we will be busy installing a dumb waiter. We have ordered it and once installed, we will be able to send bags up to the second floor and also send towels and sheets up and down as well as groceries from the garage below. We are excited for this new addition!

Also in January, we are set to attend a cooking class at Culinaria. They only offer a few breakfast courses but we have found one and look forward to learning new ideas!

In February, we will be attending the statewide Professional Innkeeping Association Conference in Richmond, VA and hope to pick up new ideas from this professional association.

Fun in March
March 11, we will host a Murder Mystery.  You will surely enjoy this event!  We hosted one last year and there was 100% agreement that it was fun.   You will be emailed a bio for a character you will play for the evening. The goal is to solve the mystery, enjoy meeting new people, consume food and beverage and laugh a lot! Watch for details on our website. Tickets will go on sale starting January 6^th.

Christmas Wishes
Lastly, Jack, Karen and Bella (the dog!) wish you a very Merry Christmas. We say Merry Christmas but that is not to leave out anyone also celebrating Hanukah, Kwanzaa, or those who generally wish for “Happy Holidays!” We hope that 2016 will end with peace and that we all will share great joy in welcoming 2017!

Don’t you love Fall?  The air is crisp and clear, the colors are popping, and we can wear sweaters! We have been so busy this fall, that our blogging has lacked. But we are back home at Bedford Landings now!  After a lovely vacation to the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone National Park, then attending (one of our) daughter’s wedding in Blowing Rock, NC; followed by a visit to an old home place (Emory, VA), then a family reunion in Nashville, TN, we are happy to be back home at Bedford Landings! We even took a few aerial shots of the colors but they are even more colorful now. You should really take it all in by air!

 

Back Home
Because the B & B is more of a seasonal business, we generally do home repairs and projects in the fall and winter. One of the first tasks we wanted to tackle (after 3 years of living in our house), was to finish the ceiling on the screened porch. There are probably lots of photos of the unfinished ceiling but I didn’t have one. Basically, it was the back of the floor to the star gazing deck above it. So I snapped a photo once we put on the waterproofing plastic before the final finish work. Jack did a wonderful job fitting and trimming to complete this and now I don’t have to remind him so much! That job is done. The list is getting shorter!

 

Barn Square

Last week, Jack and I had the pleasure of flying into the Virginia Highlands airport in Abingdon, VA to attend a Cooperative Extension retirement luncheon hosted at the Southwest Virginia 4-H Center. Some of my old (well not that old) co-workers were there and it was great fun getting reacquainted and remembering our years together when I was an Extension Agent in Wytheville, VA. While there, the Director of the center described a fund raising effort selling painted barn quilt squares. I was totally considering purchasing one but in the fun of chatting and finding a ride back to the airport, I forgot to inquire. However, I was inspired. I thought I would try my hand at painting one. It was harder than I thought in that the geometric patterns must be rather exact and not free handed! I may do more, but I did complete one and hung it on the hangar shed!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Home is where the Dog is!

Ever since our sweet Kramer died (this past February), coming home has been pretty quite. No friendly dog was there to greet us! We had been thinking about a dog and negotiating about what type of dog we would get.

Our B & B is not pet friendly. Why? We figure if people must travel with their pets, they want to sleep with their pets; and who wants to sleep in that bed next (even with clean bedding) after a dog has been in the bed? When we were researching starting a bed & breakfast, we located pet-friendly places and took Kramer with us to a few. There was generally one room designated as the room where pets were allowed. And why? Because, that’s where the other dogs had soiled the rug, and that’s where any subsequent dogs would sniff out the best place to go. Kramer was totally house broken but went straight to the scent and added his to it!

Our home is still relatively new and so we just made the decision- no pets with guests. But this is also our home and it was missing the patter of little feet! Petfinder.com is a great site to search out rescue pups by zip code. And look what I found! Yes, I know she is very similar looking to Kramer. She is smaller than Kramer and is a shih tzu- pug mix. She is perhaps 2-4 years old (according to one veterinarian). She was in foster care, having given birth to 6 puppies that all died. She has now been spayed and we are enjoying making her comfy with us! So welcome Bella, new princess of Bedford Landings!

 

Halloween Soup Recipe

Fall always makes me think of comfort foods-and soup is one of those. Yesterday, I made a crock-pot soup that was warm and yummy:

• Just pile this stuff in a crock pot for 4 hours—2 chicken breasts, a cup of wild rice, a cup of chopped celery, ½ cup of chopped carrot, half chopped onion, 4 cups chicken stock, rosemary, 2 garlic, sage, salt, pepper. Break apart the chicken once cooked, stir and enjoy.

I found another good recipe I plan to share on All Hallows Eve with friends. Here it is for your to enjoy!

Cheese Tortellini Soup

2 large garlic cloves, minced

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 (10¾ ounce) cans of tomato soup

¼ cup sun-dried tomatoes, chopped or 2 tablespoons sun-dried tomato paste

2 cups half-and-half

2 cups chicken stock

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 tablespoons Italian seasoning

½ teaspoons salt

½ teaspoons pepper

1 (9 ounce package) of cheese-filled tortellini

½ cup shredded Parmesan cheese

Sauté garlic with the olive oil in a large stock pot over medium heat until golden brown. Be sure to keep an eye on it so it doesn’t get too brown or burnt. When the garlic is done, add tomato soup, tomatoes, half and half, chicken stock and spices, and bring to a simmer. Add tortellini and top with cheese.

Enjoy your Fall!

Coming soon…hunting season, Thanksgiving with the family, and Christmas with Mama.

September was a great month for Bedford Landings. The guests were great, the weather was good, we started preparing for the fall with yard work and trimming.  We aerated the lawn, planted grass seed and fertilized.  We even did a couple of projects before we took off on a 10-day vacation to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons. Photos below.

One reminder, if you can take time, please vote for Best of at Smith Mountain Lake before November 6^th. Bedford Landings B & B for Best Place to Stay Overnight; and Bedford Landings Air Tours (write it in) for with Best New Business (first category) or Hidden Jewel (Last category). Thank-you!

The rest of today’s blog features a few of the September occurrences at Bedford Landings through photos.

Baking

I have only ever made four of these peppermint red velvet cakes but this is one great three-layer cake.  Gotta be pretty special to get one of these!

 

 

 

Do-it-Yourself (DIY)

I decided to unpack many of my academic books that had been packed away for several years.  I needed a bookcase.

So I kept my eye open for an inexpensive one that would suffice.  This little jewel from Goodwill would suffice just fine.

 

First it needed kilz to be sure there was no mold/mildew. I sprayed and painted on the kilz that I had left from another project.

Then as I am often guilty of, I added paint that I had on hand.  It would be full of books.  I really didn’t care about the color.

And Voila…a few hours later.  loaded up with books!

Sadly, I didn’t take any photos of Jack working hard to aerate the lawn and plant grass seed.  In the meantime, I trimmed the ornamental grasses.  It’s that time of year and in the winter, nothing looks worse than scraggly untrimmed tall grasses gone to seed.  This was their first year of growth and my first year figuring out how to trim them.

First I got a bungee cord, then loppers and gloves.

We rewarded ourselves for the great year of inn-keeping with a little trip out west late in the month.  Enjoying as much as we could see of Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons, we hiked, rode horses, ate, fished, saw wild animals, ate, met people, watched geysers, smelled sulphur in hot springs and mud holes, walked, ate, shopped, took pictures, learned about the volcanos, and more…then finally we flew back home (commercially).  A great time, just the two of us!

We are home for the winter and expecting guests who want to experience the fireplace or the fire pit, watching the snow fall outside, eating some comfort food, walking in the leaves, and coming for the chili fest and the other fall activities at Smith Mountain Lake!

 

 

Artist in the House
We are more than just a pretty breakfast at Bedford Landings! We serve as wall space for artists to display their works of art and are delighted to share our space with local talent! We are most pleased that for September and October, we are featuring the work of Shelley Koopmann. You can also find her on Facebook. 

I just love her whimsical style in some paintings.  But others are simply a beautiful mix of colors. Here are a few shots of what is on our walls and a link (above) to her website and facebook page. Please drop in to view her art or better yet book a room and look at it while you are waiting to be served breakfast at Bedford Landings!

 

From Bees to Chickens
We have kept honeybees for nearly 10 years. And we have enjoyed serving and selling their honey.  But this summer, while harvesting honey, Karen was stung a few times and had a pretty bad reaction (swelling, heat at the site). Later in the summer, she was stung again and experienced a similar reaction. The doctor prescribed an epi-pen, which we are keeping just in case the reactions elevate to that necessity but we decided to give the bees to Matt the Beekeeper and no longer keep them. Sadly we said goodbye to our little girls.

BUT- breakfast at Bedford Landings isn’t just about the honey! It’s about the use of eggs too! In the spring, we are going to get chickens!

We use at least 3-dozen eggs per week in cooking breakfasts for guests so hopefully this will be beneficial. We understand that they also can eat breakfast scraps so we are doing away with the compost pile in favor of chickens devouring leftovers! Besides a little squirrel has been enjoying breakfast at Bedford Landings too and has been snatching from the compost pile and making a mess with it!

Stay tuned for more on the chickens! And if any readers have advice or laying hens for sale, contact us!

Massage Therapy
Sometimes guests inquire about getting a massage while staying at Bedford Landings. We have several therapists that we refer people to so be sure to ask. They will bring their table and we have a nice quiet (dimmed lights) theatre room where we can set up a therapy session. We will put guests right in touch with the therapist as opposed to putting ourselves in the middle. That way times can be worked out between the guest and the therapist. Just schedule it around breakfast at Bedford Landings!

Fall at Smith Mountain Lake (SML)
It has been a busy summer with many new events added to the local social calendar but the 50^th Anniversary celebration for SML continues into the fall with still more activities. We look forward to the Charity Home Tour (October 7-8) and the Chili Fest. (November 5), a new event called a Brew Fest (November 12).   The fall should be very colorful with the wonderful rains we had in July this year. Don’t forget that Jack does sightseeing rides and this would be a cool way to view the foliage!