9/15/20

When you run a bed and breakfast you have to be “company ready” at all times.  For the most part we know when guests will be staying with us and we can prepare accordingly.  With online reservations, however, guests may book a room at any hour of the day or night.  Or we get a phone call to see if we have a room available at the last minute.  Either way, we want to be ready to proudly and properly welcome guests at any time.  Every once in a while, though, a guest manages to surprise us.  It happened just a few weeks ago.  I was in the front TV room ironing sheets for the guest beds (one of the delights of staying here is sleeping in a bed with crisply ironed 1000 thread count sheets!) when I noticed a small brown bird flying back and forth by the front door.  Given the abundant bird life in the area, I didn’t think much about it initially.  But the bird kept reappearing at the front door.  I then realized that the bird – a wren – was actually building a nest in the top of the wreath hanging there.  A bold move considering how often that door gets opened!  Despite being disturbed multiple times a day, Mama Wren industriously built her nest over the course of a couple days.  Once she settled in the nest, we stopped using the front door and Mama Wren officially became an unexpected guest of the Inn.  Because of the glass panes, we all (paying guests included) had a “behind the scenes” view of the whole process from nest to eggs to hatchlings to first feathers and flying lessons.  Our motto here at the Inn is “Arrive as Guests, Leave as Friends”.  Now that includes feathered friends!