Trees are starting to turn. Those small moments.

I drove back and forth today between Southampton and Owen Sound, and I noticed on the return trip West that some of the smaller trees were starting to change color. Autumn is fast approaching despite the lows at night near the lake not having gone much below 50 degrees F. It was strikingly beautiful. I may need to start carrying my camera to capture these little treats I see while buzzing down Highway 21. This is something I might not notice if I was zooming around a larger city, but today my mind was wandering a bit and happened upon these nice little clumps of trees.

It reminded me of another trip near North Bruce earlier in the summer when my young son had to demand an emergency roadside stop to relieve a certain pressure. While he stood on the side of the road doing his business, an entire small herd of cattle rather quickly started tracking straight for him. Apparently the rancher/farmer that tended these critters gave them such a good treat that they were hoping we might have something similar. Another one of those remarkably beautiful events that could easily be missed just by being preoccupied and not living in the present moment. We still laugh about the cattle that spontaneously jostled their way toward my small son, who was paying them no attention at all. Seems like I am experiecing some Zen moments.

Watching the season ending episode of CSI tonight was such a sharp contrast to my experience earlier in the day. Both real and surreal. I think this B&B thing may be a good thing, even though I grew up in a small town in the mountains of Colorado during a time when a B&B was a fairly foreign concept--at least to me. My wife is a very intuitive woman, and trusts that sense consistently. It seems to be paying off with some nice dividends, as it was her drive to try the B&B lifestyle that has us moving forward in this current modality. Bravo my love!

3:56 am and I am at work. Sort of.

Being the owner of a B&B makes for odd hours. We don't have guests tonight so things are much more quiet than usual, perhaps too quiet. I keep thinking about guest comments from this summer, what people liked and what they would prefer to see more or less of. I just need to figure out how to shut off that thinking while trying to sleep. Part of the motivation for this blog is to have a place to file late night/early morning thoughts for review and comment.

Hmmmm. I have discovered that the blog editor will pretend to let you keep zipping along savings things, when in fact it is not saving anything! Ouch. I guess if the little draft autosaved message does not come up, it is not saving anymore. Lesson learned.

The web page for the B&B is in a third version stage, but not published yet. The current site is a bit scary, having been dumped straight out of one of Dreamweaver's templates without any editing at all---not a good idea. Fortunately the new signs for the Inn are in slightly better shape, but are still in the basement awaiting the application of paint before being mounted on the yet-to-be-installed post(s) in the front yard. The lights for the sign are down there somewhere too, hiding in a blob of Home Depot bags on the floor.

Here is a view of the front of the house. I have grand plans for a new white picket fence in the front with a nifty entry gate, along with a new garden and a place for guests to sit down and relax. Perhaps in the Spring of '08.