FAREWELL TO THE YEAR OF “THE VID”!

As CHRISTMAS approaches after celebrating one of our favorite Holidays, THANKSGIVING, we are grateful to God for sustaining us through the Year of the Pandemic.  Our hearts, thoughts and prayers go out to the many individuals and families who have lost loved ones or have endured the virus themselves or have lost their jobs and a reliable income.  Our country has yet to see the tidal wave of evictions and foreclosures to come as protections are lifted and many lose their homes.  These are tough times, indeed.   We are beyond thankful for good health and record-breaking occupancy at St Francis Cottage during this difficult year, yet we constantly think about and pray for those who did not fare so well and that 2021 will be a year of recovery and hope.

Read on and we will introduce you to some recent guests; a couple of industry awards for the cottage; a few of our new breakfast items; great harvest news; local hiking; some family trivia; and some must-see holiday events near the Cottage.  

COVID-19 and SPRING PROJECTS at the Cottage

COVID-19 and SPRING PROJECTS at the Cottage

 

Spring 2020 changed all of our lives forever as we slowly learned to live with the devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.  As everyone’s lives came to a fearful stand-still by the end of February, we learned to appreciate each other more and to limit our lives to the essentials as much as possible.  Since business at St Francis Cottage slowed down to accommodate Florida travelers returning to their homes in the North, we had time to reflect and adjust to the “new normal” of our personal and business lives.  

EDIBLE GARDEN TOUR!

We would love for your to join us in person, but considering the current situation, we want to give you a tour of our property and the many areas of edible plantings.  Hope to inspire you to do more of the same at your place.  We are currently open and taking extra sanitizing precautions and distancing requirements for all our guests.  ENJOY!

Click on YouTube at bottom of the video after you click play to see the full HD version!


THANK YOU for joining us!  We pray that you are making good choices to stay healthy and safe.

-  Wallace & Nancy

Looking back on HOLIDAY HIGHLIGHTS for 2019-2020 while in the midst of Uncertain COVID-19 Times

This vibrant display of blueberry bushes spiked last November, creating a natural welcome for the then upcoming Holidays:

Here we are in the second month of uncertainty because of the Coronavirus and COVID-19.  The only certainty is that every day brings some new challenge for us and for so many that are truly struggling with this pandemic.  We pray for all of you - family, guests, and friends - as you each face different challenges.  We pray for your well-being and health and safety.  We also pray you'll quickly be reunited with everyone you love and have missed.

So far, we've been able to stay healthy and keep the Cottage open.  We've seen a number of folks moving back home, across the country, as well as some more local folks still wanting to get away to a trusted environment.

Per the CDC directions, we have implemented additional sanitation routines and as much "social distancing" as is possible.  All are still welcome as long as we remain open.

We wanted to share with you some of the joys of this past year, thus this blog.

SPRING CELEBRATIONS!

Spring rains brought this welcome sign of promise over our entrance driveway.

Spring 2019 descended upon us screaming, CELEBRATE!  We’ve had fun times witnessing our guests’ various celebrations, for which we are honored and grateful.  During one recent weekend, we had guests celebrating a 30^th birthday, the upcoming arrival of a first baby, a wedding night, a fifth wedding anniversary, a Berry College graduation, and two students receiving their master’s degrees, so we popped some champagne and served mimosas with breakfast.  All of these wonderful happenings deserved a toast!

When you’re almost 4,000 miles from home and celebrating a birthday, it’s fun to pull out some cake and sing “Happy Birthday” with our lovely guests, Andy and Linda, from Anahilt, Northern Ireland.  Laughter is indeed the best medicine, and we greatly enjoy and appreciate when people choose St Francis Cottage as a celebration point for their special life events.  

ELEVEN DAYS TO OPENING!!

Getting ever closer!!

Our first guests arrive April 14th, so we’re working non-stop to be ready to roll out the red carpet!  We’re making progress on bringing the rooms together although we’re also taking extra time to focus on each guest room’s detail.  We hope you will choose a room that best suits your style and personality during your stay at St Francis Cottage.

GLIMPSES OF SPRING

Although winter 2016-17 has been extremely mild in Southeastern Tennessee due to global warming (that doesn’t exist, but really does), we’re seeing the gardens awaken from winter rest.  The daytime temperatures have ranged from the 30’s to high 70’s during February and March, and the plants faithfully roll with the punches.

August Harvest and Late Bloomers

2016 Tennessee Area Drought Map, origin: droughtmonitor.unl.edu

According to the National Drought Mitigation Center, Hamilton County, Tennessee has endured extreme drought conditions this summer, presenting significant challenges to establishing our gardens surrounding St Francis Cottage.  As Shunryu Suzuki wrote, “A garden is never finished,” which is especially true with such limited rainfall.  So, we continue to plant, water, sow, and pray for rain. We are beginning to gear up for the fall planting season with hope for consistent rainfalls to enable spring bulbs, plants, shrubs and trees to bloom for our first guests to enjoy.  Fortunately, our first hard frost doesn’t hit until around mid-November, so we have time to plant once the summer heat subsides a bit.

A Bird Bath for St Francis Cottage

Brown Thrasher cooling off in our present birdbath.

We absolutely love watching and listening to the many native bird species that dwell upon, or visit our property, from the Eastern Bluebird and the preverbal Cardinal, to woodpeckers, owls and hawks.  What a wonderful way to begin our day by watching the smaller birds feast at the bird feeders or splash around in the bird bath.  

It’s a Miracle . . . GOGI Berries Bushes are blooming and producing fruit!

Well, we think it's a miracle.

We’ve been experimenting to see if GOGI Berries, also known as the wolfberry (Lycium barbarum) would grow in Tennessee since they are native to China.  We were skeptical about any significant progress since we’ve been experiencing extreme drought conditions this summer. 

Thankfully, we had a couple of good rainfalls this past week, and we couldn’t contain ourselves upon inspecting our gardens after work on Thursday.  The delicate branches are full of beautiful purple blossoms, and there’s a speck of red, indicating the growth of our first gogi berry! 

They are a nutritious super fruit, full of antioxidants, beta-carotene, Vitamin C and fiber, and we look forward to cultivating our seven bushes into bountiful berry harvests and sharing them with our guests, who will dare to try them. Gogis have an interesting flavor with an herbal aftertaste, but oh so good for you!

Summer Garden Goodness!

After harvesting pounds of organically-grown Natchez and Apache blackberries in June, we’re now transitioning into the July blueberry season, so that means hours of picking from our 40 bushes.  We can’t wait to share them with you next summer through a variety of recipes we’ve been collecting, from blueberry bars and muffins to pancakes, syrup and jam.  

We’ve had great success this summer growing White Cherry Organic Tomatoes from seeds purchased from Johnny’s Selected Seeds, which are as sweet as candy!  We’re also enjoying our harvest from Johnny’s Alexandria (F1) seeds, a Mid-East Hybrid Specialty Zucchini Squash that’s absolutely scrumptious, and their Dunja (F1) Organic Hybrid Zucchini.  We made loaves of zucchini bread for our son Michael’s road trip, who recently visited from Berkeley, California.  Eating from the garden during these hot summer months is such a special treat!