Home At Last! with Patty Gironda

The renovations are almost complete. We have painted, updated and spit-shined a few more spaces in our wonderful old home. Some days I think it will get the best of us-mostly, we seem to be winning. What started out as an impossible situation to some has revealed a comfortable, happy home. After seventeen years, the past is slowly revealing itself. Hidden documents and online resources shed light on the company dealings, civic involvement and home life for past occupants. Many of them passed on now-but still so many stories unfolding. The Old Garden Inn Bed and Breakfast enjoyed so many guests in our first seven years. Guests from Russia, Italy, Germany, Japan, England and many from here in America have graced our breakfast table. . . each depositing their energy and creativity into our space. I can't help but wonder about the lives of future guests of Casa Bella Bed and Breakfast, our new name for our Bed and Breakfast. What will there lives reveal, where will they come fro...

Guests of Bed and Breakfasts, for the most part, are pretty easy to please. A comfy bed in clean surroundings - a few pretties, here and there, and a hot breakfast with lots of fresh coffee. That's pretty much the formula! This weekend we installed a small coffee nook to satisfy the need for the fresh, hot coffee. We're still waiting on a new countertop but it's easy to imagine the finished space. Spread around the B & B are several one-cup coffee makers; allowings guests to grab a quick cappuccino or hot tea before breakfast or after a late night in Newnan. It's been seven years since we closed The Old Garden Inn. Between learning how to operate a leased-access channel and running a Bed and Breakfast, the work load was a little too heavy. But, as the opening draws near, I find myself becoming more and more excited. Choosing the breakfast menus and adding a few new items is great fun for a "foodie". Imagining the "oohs and ahh's" from ...

        With a "honey-do list" a mile long, there aren't enough hours in the day to accomplish everything life demands! It's important for me to make a list and move items up and down. Getting the pool ready for the first hot day was suddenly moved to the top of the list... I don't have a fancy cape or anything "super hero-ish" but in the summer I'm known by family and friends as "Aqua Girl" I pretty much hang out by the pool-ready and willing to prepare light meals and cocktails whenever I am needed. My busy week didn't leave much time to cook but I did manage to bake two loaves of Tuscan bread and six roasted potatoes. I made BLT's with one loaf of the bread. (Very good BLT's) When the bread started drying out I made this scramble with the potatoes and leftover bread. My inspiration behind the scramble was from our innkeeping days. We served a wildly popular French Potato Omelet. The scramble is all the taste without the...

  "a celebration. . .to last through out the year! yeah, yeah!" I wish I could sing as good as I can cook! It is a gorgeous day in my part of the world! With the help of the macro-setting on my camera I have captured the explosion of color and renewal that takes place in my yard each spring! It's hard not to be impressed with the process. This bloom is on the holly bushes outside my kitchen window and holds a special place in my heart! I have a great memory from our days operating our Bed and Breakfast when Mama and Papa bird scooped up ribbon from bird seed favors left on the ground after a small wedding. The ribbons were found woven into their nest!

  This peach tree was a gift of a local man who stayed at our Bed and Breakast over ten years ago. After enjoying our Peach Breakfast Taco he went into the woods and dug up this beautiful young peach tree and delivered it to my doorstep with an note explaining the gift as a King Peach Tree. Now, every spring I have this beautiful tree with it's delicate blossoms as a reminder of this man's generosity and a single act of kindness! This particular type of peach is favored for pickling because of its small, firm peaches.