Fresh in the Garden for Valentines!

Just in time for Valentines, our B & B garden has out done itself. Remember all the kinds of love...

...the love of gardening. the unconditional love of pets, the many, many loves between you and another. Growing up loved as a child. Realizing your love of parents and elders. Growing into the love of friends. Reaching out to the romantic love between equals. No matter the gender. Understanding your love of God and spirit and life. Giving back your love to all.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentines in Vancouver

After all these years as an innkeeper, my best advice to couples wanting to warm their romance is to keep it simple. Do something that you both enjoy and do it together.

Relax. Don't let Valentine's Day stress you out. A little getaway is more fun than a box of chocolates. A change of scene is way better than a bunch of flowers. Like diamonds, memories of a great time together, are forever.

Check out the Nelson House fun choice of rooms. That's Hollywood pictured above. Sleep in late, breakfast will still be waiting.

You will be very happy Valentines.

Home Sweet Home...

I am back in Vancouver just in time for Valentine's Day. I am wondering if the B & B still has rooms for the big weekend.

Arriving at the airport at midnight, o-so-relaxed from a month in the Mexican sun, I meet the slap in the face culture shock of returning home. Canada Customs puts their most surly(I hate my job) agent out to welcome me back. She never meets my eye, no smile, but she is full of mumbly irrelevant questions like "Did I travel to Puerto Vallarta to meet anyone?" This girl has just too much imagination and too little sense to be wearing a badge.

Waiting at the luggage carousel, I look up at TV carrying the late night local sports. This is strange because the local TV Sports Guy was actually on the flight from Phoenix with me. Of course, the big-screen is filled with a slam-bang hockey fist-fight, where nobody can land a punch as they grip each other's sweaters and swing around in circles on the ice. A real Canadian Waltz.

Someone just hardly bumps me with their luggage cart and I hear my first Canadian "Sorry!" Regrettably, we seem to use this word as much as Mexicans say "Hola!" Minus the smiles and eye contact.

I make it out to the Airport's Meet & Greet area. I told my husband to go to bed as he had work early the next day. Just warm up the sheets for me, please. I glance around not really expecting to see my Valentine. And no, he is not there. Instead, I meet the eye of BC.'s Premier Gordon Campbell, standing alone, very much by himself in the busy crowd. Like most locals, when he sees me looking, he suddenly has to check his Blackberry. Most of the world doesn't even know Blackberry is Canadian.

I am home.

Bed & Breakfast - Nestled Coziness?

"Nestled" is defined as drawn or pressed close to someone or something for, or as if for affection or protection, from Middle English to make a nest.

Bed and breakfasts walk a fine line between cloying sweetness and old-fashioned comfort. They don't always get it right. Have you ever read a bed and breakfast ad that doesn't have something nestled somewhere?! This no doubt accounts for one of the great B & B Myths, a fear most accutely felt by the male half of the species, that staying in a Bed and Breakfast is going to be like a weekend at Grandma's. You know, like back when you were 14 and Grandma seemed ancient and had nothing to offer you but ancient humbug candy. Worse - her house seemed cramped, doily, kitschy and smelled of mothballs!

Personally, I swore from the get-go that Nelson House was not going to be dressed up as Grandma's House. Let's take a breath and realize that an innkeeper is usually a professional businessperson living very much in the 21st century too. Sometimes, we just get carried away with painting a picture of relaxation, of slowing down just a bit, of stopping to smell the roses and the fresh-brewed coffee.

I was lucky enough to live in The Netherlands for two years and the Dutch have a word called "gezellig". As I tried to learn the language, I was told that the quick translation in English would be "cozy". However, English lacks a single word that captures ALL of the Dutch meaning. I think that innkeepers and bed and breakfasts are striving for that true meaning of gezellig. We are trying to create a space, an atmosphere or ambiance, something that exists in the company of others, which is friendly, fun, pleasant, cozy, and sociable. Now that's nothing to be afraid of - is it?

Valentines home-baked by Briana and photographed by Matthew at the B & B. The chocolate hearts melted in your mouth....