In our gardens, peony, sedum, and astilbe are well on their way, and the tulips are juuuust shy of blooming.  We’ll keep you posted.

And that’s fine, if you’re into things like suntans and drinks with rum.

But we’re not quite ready for those things up here in Vermont.

We’ll stick with whisky and windburn for a while yet.

For as long as the snow holds.

A wood-fired, cedar Snorkel hot tub is, in fact, the perfect way to pass a wintry afternoon.

Gentlemen, soak on.

The horses and riders are decked out in grand style.

Look, unicorns!

And snowmen!

And the big man himself.

Wassail Weekend  - a great way to celebrate the holidays in Woodstock, Vermont.

Today is the first quiet day we’ve had in a long time.  Though I love making armies of gruyere biscuits and towers of cornmeal pancakes, this morning my breakfast preparations were limited to microwaving a bowl of Grape Nuts (delicious with a dab of honey – try it!) and while sorting through the mementos of Snowtober.

Luckily, I was able to take a stroll through Pierre’s gardens last week, little thinking it would be my final snow-free visit.

Though we didn’t don Halloween costumes this year, we were able to have fun with the Snor’s sartorial statements.  Here he is as a jester:

And here he is as Monkey:

And here’s Monkey in a gender-bending ensemble:

Snorri also found a new girlfriend this October.  Her name is Daisy. She’s not so sure about Snorri’s romantical overtures.

But who wouldn’t want kisses from this handsome devil?

We’ve enjoyed our surprise snowfall.

While it’s a smidgen on the early side, I’m pretty much a snow enthusiast until mid-February.  And P.S. – some of the runs on Killington are OPEN!!!

Snow on pumpkins!  Festive!

And, just so I won’t succumb to BHI breakfast withdrawal, here’s a shot of yesterday morning’s dessert breakfast – cardamom french toast with gingered Grand Marnier apples and maple whipped cream.  Enjoy!

Though I value my extremities too much to get near a machine designed to pulverize and squish, the menfolk found the whole shebang terribly exciting and quickly developed a new language that sounded like, “Shorten the hydraulic and flatten the apple bladder, layer up the slats, the mash is ready, so open the valve, bashimba!”

You may be a trifle disconcerted to know that when your juice line clogs, the universally approved method for unclogging is simply to suck on the line until the juice flows again.  Very sterile stuff, this.  Messy too.  Here’s one of the intrepid pressers, the good Dr. Mark Knott, pleasantly spattered with mash.

Danger and contamination aside, the results of our (ahem, their) efforts were gorgeous and delicious.

Fresh cider was the perfect ending to a lovely fall day in Vermont.

For instance, you may be curious about how much butter we’ve used this week.

Answer: Over twelve pounds, my friends.  Wowza.

And you may be wondering what Ben and Snorri are doing.

Answer: They’re being lazy.  Incurably, predictably, cutely lazy.

Or perhaps you really need to know about our egg consumption.

Answer: The chickens are exhausted.

Mostly, though, I’m sure you want to know about the foliage.

Answer: It’s gorgeous.

Thanks for stopping by to see what’s going on at the Blue Horse.  If you’d like to follow us on twitter (It’s easy!  I promise!), click here to sign up.

It’s a gorgeous autumn day here, which is fitting, since Boston Magazine just named Woodstock, VT one of ten Great Fall Getaways. We’re delighted that our little village got a shout-out, and we’re positively tickled that the Blue Horse Inn got a mention as well.  Thanks, Boston Magazine!