Mr Jim Webber, seen here with his mother Helen Webber of Hurley NY. Mr Webber lives in Texas and came to stay this weekend whilst visiting his mother who lives nearby. After he had booked Mr Webber realized that he lived in this house as a baby! His mother had rented one side of the house in 1951 just after he was born. Here we see them standing outside the "Groote Kamer" side of the house.

Sam's Paintings

 

The Stone House Bed and Breakfast is also an Art Gallery. Dedicated gallery spaces throughout the 18th Century building show the abstract paintings of Sam Scoggins, who is the owner together with his wife Nadia. Guests often comment on how well the colourful modern abstract oils contrast with the whitewashed plaster walls and wideplank floors of the 300 year old house. Many of the paintings are also for sale and sometimes guests fall in love with a particular work and leave with a larger momento of their trip than they were expecting!

New York & Hudson Valley Cider Week

Many events worth checking out up and down the Hudson Valley in Cider Week http://www.ciderweekny.com/

When Nadia met Nadia

Nadia and Arie

This is a photo of a lovely couple who stayed with us back in August for a week's vacation. Nadia and Arie were drawn to our house partly because of its Dutch architecture and origins. Coming originally from Suriname, they said some of our house's features seemed familiar to them, like the steeply pitched roof. Suriname is near the equator on the northern coast of South America, the only country on that continent with Dutch as an official language. In fact Suriname and New York are intimately linked by the Anglo-Dutch wars in the 1660s....In 1667 England offered to give the recently conquered New Netherland (now New York) back to the Dutch in return for Suriname, but the Dutch declined.... if they'd agreed, perhaps we'd still all be speaking Dutch! 

Nadia, Nadia and Arie

The colors of Fall are coming ....

So up in the Catskills this evening, just above Woodstock and about 11 miles from here, the trees are beginning to turn gold and red as Fall approaches. Looks like we're going to have beautiful colors for the next six weeks or so......There is usually more color earlier on at higher altitudes, with valley foliage taking longer to develop, so there's always something to see.