Living With Ghosts – Literally!

Part Two: Talking to your ghostly companions

Last time, we spoke about how to listen to your spectral roommates. Providing tools for proper communication is very important, but communication is a two-way street, so in addition to listening, you also need to be able to speak to your paranormal pals.

There are many methods for speaking to spirits, but I’ve found the best one is just to speak to them like any other person. You may be tempted to use a spirit board (aka a Ouija Board), a pendulum, a tarot deck, or some other method often advertised as a way to communicate beyond the veil, but please PROCEED WITH EXTREME CAUTION when using those. It’s never guaranteed that you’re …

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Pineapple Coconut Muffins and You!

There are a lot of awesome things about running a B&B here in Vermont (and a couple not so awesome things, tbh), but one of the best is how much time I get to spend baking, experimenting with baking, and eating baked goods. Which is why my New Year’s Resolution is to run a 5K everyday. But I digress.

Certain recipes are requested over and over again, and I’m happy to share them. Someday, I’ll even finish the much delayed cookbook (maybe 2024 is the lucky year!). Today’s recipe is for Pineapple Coconut Muffins. I almost always make these using King Arthur measure-for-measure gluten-free flour. Because the pineapple and the coconut bring structure and moisture to the muffins, that slightly …

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“Your Ghost Sucks” & Other Scary Things

So – what do you do when you find out that not only do you have a haunting, but the haunter is a perverted, homophobic, jerk? In other words, what do you do when your ghost sucks? That is the question we are asking ourselves after the culmination of the investigation by and airing of “Carriage House Creeper” on the Travel Channel show Kindred Spirits.

The first thing I must say is that Amy (Bruni) and Adam (Berry) – the chief investigators – along with the entire crew, are the kindest and most competent team we could have asked for. The investigation and research was incredibly thorough, and the filming (four whole nights and a half-day) was efficient and …

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Well, It’s been a Minute

Well, hello. How are you? Things here – well, let’s just say that time flies even when you aren’t having fun.

I’m going to get this out of the way: 2020 just sucked. For almost all of us. I hope that you and yours have had a better beginning to 2021, and are looking forward to brighter days. We are for sure.

We finally reopened fully on Memorial Day weekend, after being almost completely closed from March 15, 2020. We took the time to make some needed repairs and upgrades (yay new stove!), and to binge watch 1990’s era SciFi series. (Seaquest DSV and Stargate, if you must know).

We also took the time to grieve. Even though being closed …

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A Haunted House

The most frequently asked question we hear at the Colonel Williams is “what is the wifi password?” But running a close second is the inevitable: “is the house haunted?” Short answer – yes. We actually live in a 250-year-old haunted house. I wasn’t really a believer in such things, but over the past few years there have been several weird – and frankly unexplainable – goings-on here. Guests tell us stories: some with vivid, terrifying detail and others that are, well, not loquacious and told on their way out the door. In the much-missed (at least in our house) Victorian tradition of telling ghost stories at Christmastime, I’d like to tell you about our latest incident. (If you are interested

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Winter, Witches, and Blueberry Pancakes

“How in the world did you decide to move to Vermont and run a B&B? From Austin?!?!?!”

Welcome to the #1 question asked of us. The basic answer is pretty simple: we needed a change, Vermont offered a big one, and here we are. The truth – the whole truth – is a little more complicated.

Enter: Hermione Gingold, British actress extraordinaire, who has had a far greater effect on my life than even I realized. You probably know her as the indomitable Madame Alvarez from the classic musical “Gigi,” or as Eulalie Mackechnie Shinn in “The Music Man.” Star of stage and screen, her career spanned almost 80 years. But I digress. (You should definitely read more about her

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250 Years Strong

250 years ago, Colonel William Williams moved his family from Massachusetts to the still-new town of Marlboro Vermont and to the land that houses the Colonel Williams Inn today. The house and barn were constructed from trees felled on the property – which is kind of cool to think about. We have some trees that escaped and are now more than 300 years old. History vibrates through each foundation stone.

So – it’s pretty cool living in such an old structure. I thought that I’d give y’all a peek at (what some people think) is the creepiest part of the house: the basement. In the original section, the field stones – also probably from the property – were simply stacked …

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We Love the Snow! No – Really – We Love It

“So how do you like the snow?” is usually the first question our hardy New England neighbors ask when they find out we’re from Texas and inexperienced in the art of winter survival.

“We love it!” is the stock reply. “Texas is just so hot, that the cold and snow are a great change.”

When they express skepticism, we follow up with “Well, we don’t have to commute, so that probably makes a difference,” or some other apologetic phrase. “If we had to drive in it all the time, we’d probably have a different opinion.”

Which is utter BS. I DO love the snow (well, OK, I don’t love driving in it). I love the endless variation of blues when …

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