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!

25 Years as a Bed & Breakfast Owner

All of Vancouver's downtown B & Bs have been in existence for less time or have changed ownership, sometimes several times, while we have been doing this. Guess we must love it!

I find myself full of ideas for change and innovation and improvement. My body has gotten older but the passion remains.

25 years ago, I gave up a career that permitted me to travel the world. The best trade-off made was to invite the world to visit me. Thank you to all of our guests. The surprise and delight has been mutual.

Living the B & B Dream

 

 

 

 

I hear it all the time: “Someday, we thought it would be nice to open a bed and breakfast.” This is usually one part confession and one part inquiry.

As I am nearing my 25^th anniversary of actually owning and operating a B & B, there is no quick & easy response to this. Truthfully, I would like to say: “Why someday? Life is short. Why not do it now?”

But I am not so direct. I do realize it’s a dream for many people - a rosy image of heritage home, delicious smells of eggs & bacon and interesting travel conversations over coffee. If I were to ask Why Not; the dream might just fracture into serious self-doubts and lack of planning.

So I smile and say: “Ask me anything.”

I mean it. Do you think you would like to do bed & breakfast? My name is David - ask me anything!

Vancouver in summer...

It's that time of year when everyone wants to be right here - in the downtown, West End. We have three nights of amazing fireworks set to music. This year it's the USA, France & Japan providing the "oohs & ahs!" We have multiple free concerts, both musical theatre and Shakespeare in the park. The streets are full of talented buskers and tourists trying to squeeze in the visual and culinary delights of Vancouver before boarding their Alaska cruises.

And then there is Gay Pride - weeks of celebrations and cultural events leading up to the big party and parade on the first Sunday in August. It's a wonderful thing to watch a rainbow-coloured parade against a backdrop of blue water, sailboats and mountain peaks.

Like those Alaskan cruise-ship passengers, a taste of Vancouver in high summer is sure to bring you back!

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.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

We have decked the halls in celebration of all the wonderful guests over the last year...the breakfasts, the laughs and stories we have shared.

 

We look forward to welcoming you to our home and table in 2014!

BLANKETY-BLANK Hotel Fees!!

Enter the Nelson House B & B garden and you are now in a "fee-free zone". Enjoy!

 

This week, a Reuters story carried by major newspapers worldwide, revealed the dirty little secrets of the hidden fees charged by hotels. "Hotels watch occupancy trends and change prices - and fees - constantly....Overall, nearly a quarter of hotels charge for in-room Internet access, according to a 2012 survey commissioned by the American Hotel & Lodging Association."

 

Downtown locations appear to gouge the most. "Common fees include resort usage, airport pickup, parking and gym visits along with charges for room service. Some of the more surprising charges include a fee for moving items around in the minibar (not actually consuming any), a bellman (whether you use one or not), the room safe (even if you don't stash valuables in it), checking out early, checking in early and upgraded amenities...."

 

The biggest problem with fees is not disclosing those that are mandatory. Last fall the Federal Trade Commission sent warning letters to 22 hotel booking companies for leaving details out of the price projection when consumers shopped for hotels.

 

Bed and Breakfasts really are a better way to stay. This short funny video shows you why!

 

Summer Fun in Vancouver

Summertime in Vancouver is pretty amazing. I took the photo above at one of July and August's three Celebration of Light fireworks displays over English Bay. These shows are the largest offshore fireworks competition in the world and attract up to 400,000 spectators along English Bay each evening. The pyrotechnics are synchronized to music and judged!

The day after the last of these shows, Vancouver turns its attention to the Vancouver Gay Pride Parade. This year was the 35th annual parade but the first to be funded as an accredited civic event. No wonder - the parade drew 650,000 spectators to the three hour extravaganza!

Since Nelson House B & B is just 2 and a half blocks from the nearest parade viewing point and 6 blocks from the Bay, both we and our guests have front row seats to the summer fun. Manager Michael, Assistant Lisa and myself work hard to keep the lemonade, iced tea and coffee flowing for all our lucky summer house-guests.

Here is a pic of Lisa's Pride cookies!! Keep smiling, there is lots of sunshine still to go.

Nelson House B & B Garden continued...

 

Our B & B guests are sometimes blown away by the beauty of the West End's gardens. If stepping off a plane from Phoenix or even Sydney, the green can be kind of trippy! I remind them that Vancouver is in a temperate rain forest. If you visit the depths of Stanley Park, there is moss hanging off the tree branches. We may not be hot and humid like Louisiana but we are certainly cool and humid like the foothills of the Himalayas.

 

 

I joke that I am something of a Darwinian gardener. I mean by that I am a firm believer in flowering shrubs and perennials. The photo above shows some of our camellias and rhododendrons. I stick'em in the ground and let the toughest survive! It gets a bit jungly at times but then it also creates a feeling of privacy and escape right in the centre of the city.

 

 

The hydrangeas are lovely this year. We have several mature specimens along the front fence and I must have missed adding garden lime to one. With our winter rains, Vancouver has a naturally acidic soil, so now we have blooms in a lovely range of pinks and purples. I will try to take some more pics as the heads grow. The roses, by the way, are "bonica" and always happy bloomers.  

 

 

Nelson House Heritage Garden

A gardener must be an optimist - always planting for the future with the eye of one's imagination. As often happens in life, the future might not work out as planned or, let's face it, we just might not be around to see it happen.

One of the delights of a mature garden is the chance to see those loving plans come to beautiful fruition. Nelson House B & B, a century-old house, has such a garden. It is small - a city garden only - but it has been planted with excellent "bones" and tended with love for generations. A visit to our little urban oasis is a step back in time. Several of our trees, shrubs and roses are truly heritage specimens, planted when the House was young, circa 1905-10.

The photo above shows the "bones" of an astonishing pieris japonica - described by garden sources as growing slowly with an elegant, upright and layered habit. What is astonishing is that this very slow-growing shrub, a native of rainy, shaded mountainsides in Japan and China, is expected to reach no more than nine to twelve feet - ours is fifteen to twenty! Even in Vancouver's well-watered, shady environment, this specimen is undoubtedly one of the oldest on the West Coast.

Blooming through much of March and April in Vancouver, the pieris japonica graceful, dangling bell-like flowers are matched in their day-time charm by the old-fashioned lily of the valley perfume - especially on a mild spring night.

Vancouver's Roof-Top Tree

Do you like trees? For the first-time, the roof-top tree overlooking Vancouver's English Bay is stunningly trimmed in lights. The 40 foot Pin Oak is perched above the 19th floor penthouse at Eugenia Place, directly behind First Beach, and is visible through much of the West End.

As imagined by the architects, the oak has now reached the 250 ft. height of the old-growth forest of cedar and fir that originally stood on this spot. Vancouver's highest tree has become a local landmark and now a living all-season wonder.

Memories of a B & B

 

 

Our guests (God love 'em) say the darndest things. Recently, two of them surpassed all expectations and wrote two poems about their experience of Nelson House B & B and the Shangri-La suite.

 

Since it is Christmastime, I would like to share their gifts with you. Both poets have kindly extended their permissions but please accept my apologies for any damage done in selecting from the whole. For those of you who have stayed with us, these poems may stir some memories.

 

The following is an excerpt from a piece entitled The House by Don MacLean.

 

" Confidently sitting like a pampered prince, The grey-blue wood frame home, shoulder to shoulder with the towering high-rises, three stories of Victorian splendor, our writing retreat in town for the weekend, on the top floor....

We passed through

a black wrought-iron double gate.

Wide steps rose

to a carved oak door,

and a protective

grey and white cat

challenging us to come forward.

 

...Second floor, a thousand miles

away from the first,

water chimes by a vine-adorned window,

captivating to my partner,

who stops for three minutes meditation, I watch her watch the floating chimes, and

feel warm at her stillness.

Old photos of old people,

sepia images in one dimensional poses,

stories of the past imagined for a minute, there on the second floor, carpets everywhere

to absorb the city noises.

 

Third floor is though a smaller attic door, steeper stairs, narrower staircase, slightly mysterious, very quiet."

 

And by Lisa Shatzky, a small portion of her beautiful poem, The Room at Nelson House.

 

"But for a moment there was nothing else

but the memory of the room where we stayed, walking up the long narrow staircase to an open attic hideaway, a chamber extraordinaire burgundy walls and east Indian books and a bamboo sofa and two paper dragons hanging from the ceiling facing us with their fire eyes and wild tongues.

We spent the day writing...

And the room became an inner journey

to a sacred place

revealing the hidden labyrinths of being and we stayed by the fire sharing the poems over wine and chocolate...

 

The room then gathered us in her arms

and danced us into the night

and the poems grew wings

and joined the dragons

flying..."

 

My best wishes for the holidays and may the new year bring you all much peace and happiness.

 

David

 

What does "people-friendly" mean?

 

Back in 2010, I commented on the meaning of the term "gay-friendly" in the hospitality industry. Although the majority of folks will never encounter it in their own lives and therefore not give it much thought, discrimination against the GLBT community is still with us!

I recounted the news story of a B.C. bed and breakfast that refused to accommodate a gay couple and were taken to the BC Human Rights Tribunal on grounds of discrimination under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms(a crucial part of Canada's Constititution). It promised to be an interesting case as the B & B owners defended their action on the basis of their Christian beliefs.

At last, the decision came down today and as reported on CBC and Huffington Post, the B & B owners were found to have illegally discriminated against the gay couple. They were fined $4400 for the "indignity and humiliation" suffered by their prospective customers. In the judgement, it is clear that even though the B & B owners were free to hold certain religious-based beliefs in their own home, the fact that they opened their home as a public business required them to comply with laws that prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation. I have read elsewhere that they decided to close their business soon after the discrimination suit was filed.

I say hooray! Yes, this case was a sad, drawn-out legal mess that neither party probably wanted in their lives. However, if hospitality businesses want to live up to the very definition of "hospitality", they cannot discriminate against anyone just for who they are!

We have always described Nelson House B & B as "people-friendly". We think it meets the dictionary definition and underlines the kind of religious beliefs that we share: practice "kindness in welcoming strangers or guests".

Boating in Vancouver

One of my favourite recommendations to our guests is to see Vancouver from the water. First-time visitors quickly discover that Vancouver's downtown is an arrowhead-shaped peninsula with water on three sides!

To get out on a boat and look back at the city's face gives one a whole new perspective. This is true on any of Canada's waterways but in Vancouver, BC, it is especially easy and especially pleasurable. Why drive to Granville Island Market when the colourful Aquabus will deliver you to it's dockside for as little as $3.25?

If you want to check out North Shore attractions like Capilano Canyon's suspension bridge or nearby Grouse Mountain, the scenic route is not by car but by taking public transit's SeaBus across Burrard Inlet. When looking back on downtown Vancouver from the SeaBus terminal or taking a tourist cruise on the paddle-wheeler Constitution, you might think that you were gazing at the Manhattan skyline.


If being Captain of your own "ship" is more your style, Vancouver offers easy rentals of anything from kayaks to sail and motorcraft of every description. Be responsible, obtain a boat licence. It's easy and it's the law.

Vancouver Marathon

Vancouver loves to run. And running in Vancouver is a beautiful thing. It's like spring. It gets your juices flowing.

First up is The Vancouver Sun Run on Sunday, April 15. It is the run for absolutely anyone at any level of fitness. Last year, it attracted over 49,000 happy runners, walkers and strollers. Vancouver's cherry blossoms will be in full bloom and along with the endorphins, sure to put a smile on every face!

Next is the Vancouver Marathon and Half-Marathon on Sunday, May 6.  Last year was it's 40th anniversary run. It is your chance to test your mettle against the world's running elite. Many out of towners are already in training for this one and the runs attract many thousands of foreign visitors. Quite an experience - book early!

Last of the really big runs is Scotiabank's Half-Marathon and 5K Run on Sunday, June 24. This popular run benefits some fine local charities and attracts the best of the amateur running community.

All three runs are laid out along some of the world's most scenic shorelines. Vancouver's fresh spring air is just one more reason to breathe deep.

Stay with us in our downtown West End location and you will be within easy walking distance of all three runs' Start and Finish lines. If you miss out on our jacuzzi-equipped Shangri-La Suite, be sure to let us know if we can help to arrange an after-run professional massage. No kidding!

Vancouver - rated the world's most liveable city!

For the fifth straight year, Vancouver has topped the Economist Intelligence Unit’s survey of the world’s most livable cities. To do so - Vancouver scored 98% on a combination of stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure.

The report's editor Jon Copestake explained that, "Mid-sized cities in developed countries with relatively low population densities tend to score well by having all the cultural and infrastructural benefits on offer with fewer problems related to crime or congestion."

The Top Ten of 140 cities rated is as follows:

1.Vancouver, Canada
2.Melbourne, Australia
3.Vienna, Austria
4.Toronto, Canada
5.Calgary, Canada
6.Helsinki, Finland
7.Sydney, Australia
8.Perth, Australia
9.Adelaide, Australia
10.Auckland, New Zealand

While online commentary is buzzing over the rights and wrongs of these placements, it should be remembered that The Economist was not ranking the weather! Hometown pride is one thing but this is designed to be an objective, fact-based report, sold at $500 a pop, to multinationals that post their executives around the world.

On Huffington Post and elsewhere many Americans were surprised to learn that the top US city this year was Pittsburgh, at 29th place. In terms of "world cities", London placed 53rd and New York 56th. They were apparently let down by low "stability scores" for the perceived threat of terror and rates of petty and violent crime. The top Asian city was Osaka at 12th. At 140th, the bottom of the list, was Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe.

As a Vancouverite, I submit my two "thousand words worth" - these two photos, both taken from the same downtown viewpoint today. Enough said.

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.

January is for the birds in Vancouver...eagles, snow geese & more!

Since childhood, I have taken an interest in viewing wild birds. The feeder at the B & B may be marked "bird & breakfast" but honestly, it is a constant battle with the neighbourhood squirrels, cats and raccoons. In December, I put up a hummingbird feeder for the first time and the regular morning visits of a tiny female black-throated hummingbird like this one has delighted me and our guests.

The hummer's visits reminded me that this January marks the 25th Anniversary of the Brackendale, BC., Winter Eagle Festival & Count. This little town, just an hour north of Vancouver, has earned world-wide recognition as one of the greatest congregations of American Bald Eagles anywhere. The eagles are drawn by the annually varying numbers of chum salmon that spawn in the Squamish and nearby rivers. In 1994, a world record count of 3766 eagles was counted on one day along a ten mile stretch of river, outstripping any numbers in Alaska or the "Lower 48". It is truly a spectacular sight to see dozens of those white domes perched in a cottonwood and set against the rugged coastal mountains. I am happy to see one or two nesting and raising their young out at Wreck Beach in the summer!

The winter is also one of the best times to visit the Reifel Bird Sanctuary, conveniently situated 30 minutes to the south, between downtown Vancouver and the border. As our city's shores are underneath the great Pacific Flyway, literally millions of birds follow the west coast in their annual migrations. The Sanctuary offers them 850 acres of managed wetlands, natural marshes and low dikes in the heart of the Fraser River Estuary. For example, visitors can easily view the very large, dense flocks of up to 20,000 Snow Geese which feed, rest and fly over the Sanctuary. These dazzling white birds have flown 4000 kilometres from their summer home in Russia!

Just bundle up, dig out the binoculars and get some really fresh air this winter.

Vegan Vancouver

Vegan "turkey" anyone?

My last post on breakfast at the B & B got me thinking of all the special dietary requests that we are glad to receive(in advance, hopefully). Some have presented us with something of a learning curve.

Vegetarianism, veganism and raw food are diets that I can respect but not personally embrace. I have, however, discovered the motherlode of vegan food lore in the Vancouver scene. And I am glad to share it with you. This article on a great local website lists and describes over thirty(!) of Vancouver's best vegan restaurants. Readers' comments add many more. Plus - scan down to the bottom of the piece and find super links to five more vegan/vegetarian guides and links to answer questions like "Why go vegan?".

You can start thanking me now....

How every B & B can help: Recycling Soap. Saving Lives.

Early in the career of every Innkeeper, you ask yourself: "What am I going to do with all this leftover soap?" This week, after twenty years in this business, I found the answer. And found a wonderful way to help the less fortunate.

 

Nelson House B & B is now the first bed and breakfast in Canada to partner with Clean the World Foundation, a Florida not-for-profit corporation that is rapidly expanding north of the border.

Clean the World has a straightforward two-part mission:
1.Reduce the waste created by discarded soap and shampoo products.
2.Prevent the millions of deaths caused by hygiene-related illnesses every year.

Did you know that the two biggest killers of Children under the age of 5 can be greatly reduced by soap intervention? According to the World Health Organization, 34 per cent of these children die from diarrheal diseases and respiratory infections that are preventable with simple, basic hygiene. The problem is that a family earning a few dollars a day will put food and shelter needs over the purchase of a "luxury", like a bar of soap.

Since its beginnings in 2009, Clean the World  has hundreds of hotels and many B & Bs tossing their partly used soap and shampoo bottles into recycling bins for local pick-up. Here in Vancouver, CTW has just opened a recycling and processing centre employing women at risk, who reside in Vancouver's downtown eastside. A second Canadian centre will open soon in Toronto. At these Centres, the more heavily used soaps are cooked to remove impurities and rebatched into 2-ounce bars. The majority of only slightly used soaps are put through a patent-pending sanitization, steam and pressure process. PH levels are tested and the soap is repackaged to go out to those most in need.

In the last year, reputable NGOs like World Vision have helped to distribute over five million soap bars, and 250,000 pounds of shampoo and conditioner in countries such as Haiti, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Swaziland, Mali, Mongolia, Uganda, Honduras, Romania, the United States and soon, to the needy in Canada too.

I personally encourage every hotel and B & B innkeeper reading this to stop sending your guest soaps and shampoo to the landfill! Use your good business sense - go green, give back, help others!  If you stay in B & Bs, please ask your innkeeper if they have heard of this simple Win-Win solution. Here is the Clean the World link to get going.