Kitchen Gossip
2025-2026
2025-2026
Our 2025 season was a year of surprises as well as our new guests and activities.
Due to the extremes of the weather, we made the difficult decision to be closed from December-March.
However, we continued to help with community activities such as the weekly Lego League at the library for the children and this year a new Winter Book Group and Craft Workshop.
Another fun event was the Plants and Pastries Sale and the annual Easter Egg Hunt. I make sure I have some cuttings from the historic Bellmard Inn Christmas Cactus which is now over fifty years old. Both events are planned for this year in March and April.
Doug tried again with our garden. Lots of deer make it necessary to put up net fencing surrounded by an electric fence. We did get plenty of tomatoes but not much in zucchini squash.
Then in May we helped with Parks & Recreation’s town clean up day.
In June we were pleased and happy to serve meals to our returning guests for their annual spring fishing trips.
July always is a month with many activities. There is the 4th of July celebrations in Grand Lake Stream, Calais and Eastport. Then this year our Princeton Parks & Rec. had a very successful community yard sale, with which we always help out. It will be happening this year as well. As always the last week is the annual Grand Lake Stream Folk Art Festival now in its 32nd year. Vendors and guests stayed with us and we took time off to attend the event for ourselves. Last year was truly special. Doug has for the past thirty years purchased a raffle ticket for the quilt that is donated every year. We were shocked and thrilled when we learned he had won it. The quilt was especially treasured as it was based on the festival. It is queen size and truly a historic item to preserve.
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.
Also there were returning guests in the spring going to and in the fall coming back from Canada, staying over for a night.
Sadly, in August, we lost our toy poodle, Muddy. She was 18 years old. Then unfortunately in early September Frodo, our 9 year old Pembroke Corgi came down with an infection and we lost him. Both Phoebe and Doug were missing him so much that we looked for another Corgi and in October found Ella. She was 4 months old and has a tail and she has taken over our entire daily life.
The fall brought fishermen to get in that last fishing trip and vacationers for the foliage and extraordinary crimson colors on the blueberry barrens.
Once again, in December we volunteered to put the lights on the tree in Legacy Square. The tree is so tall that it becomes more difficult every year but we keep doing it. The celebration was a cold night but clear. 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 everyone went back to the fire station for cookies, cocoa, and a visit with Santa.
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.
