Garden at Camai B&B

The weather has been so great for gardening this spring. I've got all twenty-three of my hanging baskets planted and hanging. They are beautiful and full of promise for increased beauty.

I had more than the usual dead perennials in the rock garden this spring. Almost all have been replanted. Certainly everything is doing well now. The picture shows the blown glass flowers that my son gave me for Mother's Day. I think they go very well in the rock garden.

Robin nesting

This year we have a robin building its nest on top of our low pressure sodium light fixture on our building. I was slow in figuring this out and just thought that the dead plant material on our deck was stuff that we didn't get picked up when doing yard clean-up.

I am eager to watch this cycle of nature play out with eggs, baby birds and their first flight.

Last year we had a nest of dark-eyed junco. This nest was in our strawberry bed against the house.

Springtime at Camai B&B's gardens

Wow! The weather has been fabulous! Yesterday we watered the lawn, and today it is turning green.

Craig purchased some pink delphiniums for our raised bed next to the garage. He was told that pink is a double recessive gene. Since we have no other delphiniums they will breed true. The promise of their beauty excites the gardener in me!

If you are staying with us this summer, please ask to see them. They will be right next to our plantings of canary vine.

Planning up-grades for Camai B&B

Yesterday I met with my interior decorator to work on plans for changes to the bathrooms and kitchen.

In the fall I intend to change the furnishings in the Rose Suite to antiques which were in my grandmothers late 1890's home. I had the antique bed and dresser restored. The dresser has a marble top.

Going with the marble top, plans are being made to re-model the Rose Suite's bathroom. The counters will be changed to a marble-like surface; mirrors will be changed as will the fixtures.

When it is done this winter, it will have a different look to the bedroom and bath area.

There are also changes in the planning stages to remodel the Peony Suite's bathroom and have a granite counter as well as a different sink...perhaps a vessel sink.

The kitchen remodel is the biggest of the plans and I will be talking about that as time goes on.

Since we are fortunate to have guests throughout the summer, I plan to get all the remodel plans done as well as purchasing/obtaining the parts needed for the remodel done this summer. Come fall the actual tearing out and putting in new will happen.

Church Activities - Pioneer Home

My congregation (St. Mark ELCA) partners with another Lutheran congregation and does a Lutheran Fellowship Hour on the first Thursday of each month. We do this in the dementia wing of the Anchorage Pioneer Home.

Last night's Fellowship Hour was on the theme of the Good Shepherd. I enjoy playing the hymns so everyone can sing. Last night we sang hymns, and our leader (Fran) encouraged each person there to tell what memories or reflections they had concerning shepherds.

At the close one of our congregation members (Doris) gave each person there a large hand-made cross which she fashioned using yarns, ribbons and artificial flowers. As she gave each person his or her wrapped gift of a cross, Doris said, "I made this with love for you." What power there was in that. Each resident showed true joy and let her know the exact spot where it would hang! One resident quickly left in her wheel chair, hung the cross, returned, and invited Doris to see what a great place she had for the cross.

It was a WOW moment!

Camai B&B's website & mobile site

Acorn-IS designed my new website. I am pleased with the results it is bringing us. I have a superior bed and breakfast. Guests are finding our website on-line. While some are saying travel reservations are down, I attribute our bookings to this new site.

I am also pleased to have the only mobile site for an Alaskan bed and breakfast at this time.

Almost a month ago Acorn-IS very graciously surprised me with setting aside the mobile design cost as they tried to please me. I did not realize that designing mobile sites has very new and newly developing technology. Thank you Lisa and Mark (Acorn-IS) for your work.

Spring time means preparations

We at Camai B&B are getting ready for summer with several changes to the bed and breakfast.

We are moving some of the furniture out of the common area to make a more spacious room for guests to relax. I have cleaned up a desk in the "tree house" area off the common area. It is now ready for guest use.

Later this week I will update the information books in each suite to reflect all the new DVD's Craig and I have purchased for guest use.

It is truly an exciting time of year full of promise for a great summer! I look forward to welcoming many visitors again this summer.

Spring is here!

The weather has been positively summer-like with many days of warm sunshine. The snow is gone. The flower beds have been cleaned and I'm ready for the grass to green!

I must restrain myself from planting flowers. Temperatures could easily dip below freezing at night.