Kitchen Gossip
2023-2024
2023-2024
Our 2023 season was a year with many new guests and activities.
The spring was busy with cleaning and upgrades of a new kitchen refrigerator and freezer.
In April, we helped Parks & Recreation with the annual Easter Egg Hunt held at the Princeton Fire Station.
We continue the challenges of having a garden. Once again putting up the net fencing surrounded by an electric fence. The deer are in the yard but only once in a while make it into the garden. We purchased some new irrigation hoses but unfortunately the season was a wet one. There wasn’t much to brag about for sure. However, our blueberry bush continued to produce.
May brought in contractors for the Woodland Mill in Baileyville to do improvements. Also, we helped with Parks & Recreation’s first town clean up day.
In early June we were pleased and happy to serve meals to our returning guests for their annual spring fishing trips.
July is a busy month with 4th of July celebrations in Grand Lake Stream, Calais and Eastport. The last week in July is the annual Grand Lake Stream Folk Art Festival now in its 30th year. Vendors and guests stayed with us and we always take time off to attend the event for ourselves. Also we helped out and participated in the Parks & Recreation’s new community yard sale event.
Throughout the summer we continued to have many groups of families and their friends stay overnight and have dinner and breakfast before launching on their canoe trips on the St. Croix River.
We are certified by the Maine Bicycle Coalition and also had guests who were on bicycle trips stay a night or two. They were grateful that they could put their bikes under cover.
In August, we had a surprise visit from Maine writer, Alice Arlen. She has written books about Maine Sporting Camps. As one of the early members of the Maine Sporting Camp Association, I also had written a history section for their brochures. So Alice contacted me and our long discussions inspired her to write a total of 3 books on sporting camps. Her latest project is to follow-up on the sporting camp owners she previously wrote about.
Also there were returning guests in the spring going to and in the fall coming back from Canada, staying over for a night. The border is back to normal, just requiring a passport.
The fall brought fishermen wanting to get in that last fishing trip and vacationers looking for foliage and extraordinary crimson colors on the blueberry barrens. Also we had some bird hunters with their dog. They reported the dog did fine but they were not so fine.
In November, the weather was unusually warm and we are able to do a bit of catch up on outside chores including some landscaping.
In December, we once again volunteered to put the lights on the tree in Legacy Square, but needed to purchase more strings to cover the added growth. The night of the celebration was cold but clear and the Princeton Fire Department helped out with the ladder truck for Santa to put the star on the top of the tree. Pastor Ernest Carle of the Christian Advent Church, led the carols. Then all went back to the fire station for cookies, cocoa, a visit with Santa and an old fashioned game of musical chairs for the kids.
For genealogy research and information on local families, the Princeton Library is open four days a week. The library offers wifi and use of computers and printer as well as a good selection of books and dvds. The Spring of 2021, the library set up a Book Shed to sell donated books that the library already has or cannot use. It has become very popular and all funds go back to the library. With a recent grant, in 2024 the library added a new collection of dvds that highlight Maine and the area’s history and culture.
Our Veteran’s Monument in Legacy Square, is maintained by volunteers, and continues to be a special place to sit and appreciate our veterans as well as enjoy the garden area. This year we had some youngsters helping out as well. Also the large pine tree is the main feature of our Christmas Tree Lighting event.
We have our own Bellmard Cottage Museum. In 2013, we became aware that there was no one place for historical items within the Town of Princeton. Behind the inn is a small cottage which we did not use very much. So, We began the project throughout that spring and summer of gathering personal items that we had saved over the years and designing displays. Sue Story donated a buffet, which Doug repaired, and we refitted cabinets and tables. Also the Friends of Princeton found a trunk in the town building that had photographs and other memorabilia that we put on display. Our own items include variety of vintage tins, enamelware, dishes, furniture and photography equipment. Also Willis Butler, the previous owner, gave us a framed document that included Albert Belmore. Our latest donations from friend, Brad Potter, was a rope bed and a wooden shipping box labeled for peanuts and to the Bellmard. Our little museum is now a permanent part of the Bellmard and is open to guests from June-September.
Open by request, is the Passamaquoddy Cultural Heritage Museum on Indian Township. The displays that this little museum has are sure to earn the visitor’s interest and respect. There are all types of native baskets, items of birch bark, paintings, photographs as well as items for sale.
September and October here are the prime scenery months. The views from Route 9 with the endless changing shades of red throughout the blueberry barrens is something even we take a ride out to see. Last year a museum opened in Washington County to share the wild Maine blueberry history. Another day trip follows Route 1 to the Million Dollar View in Weston and then moves on to Houlton, all of which makes it well worth the drive.
