COME ONE, COME ALL, FOR A GREAT TIME, SATURDAY, MARCH 17, 2012, 6:00-10:00 PM TO CELEBRATE ST. PATRICK’S DAY!

AS ONLY JEFFERSON CAN DO, AN OLD FASHIONED IRISH SING ALONG, AUTHENTIC IRISH MUSIC, IRISH BUFFET, AND GREEN BEER! LIVE MUSIC THROUGHOUT THE EVENING WITH A SILENT AUCTION, THE CARNEGIE LIBRARY BALLROOM.

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS:

5:45-6:30 – IRISH MUSIC FOR GATHERING FEATURING
TOM MOSS AND JOHN NANCE

6:30-7:00 – AUTHENTIC IRISH MUSIC FEATURING
TOM MOSS AND JOHN NANCE

7:00-7:30 – TRADITIONAL IRISH SING-ALONG

7:30-8:30 – IRISH BUFFET, DINNER MUSIC BY DAN SMELSER

8:30 – CLOSE SILENT AUCTION

8:30-10 – MUSIC FOR DANCING & RELAXING BY DAN SMELSER

PLEASE PLAN TO ATTEND FOR A FUN FILLED EVENING. THIS IS ALL FOR A CHARGE OF $25.OO PER PERSON. YOU MAY ALSO BRING YOUR OWN REFRESHMENT OF YOUR CHOICE.

Come on down to the KnightLight Theater and enjoy some Irish Mead from both the Enchanted Manor Winery and Red Road Vineyard & Winery.  Not sure what Mead is?  Mead is an old Irish Traditional Wine and is one of the wines and it is being offered to taste only at the Knight Light Theater on St Patrick’s Day.

Tickets  for the St. Patrick Day Party are $5.00 and can be purchased from 1PM to 7PM.

While you are enjoying your Irish Mead, sit back and enjoy the original comedy skit featuring “Lucky the Leprechaun” from 7pm to 8pm.  Later, dance the night away with live  music from Borderline.

Don’t forget to put on your green for the costume contest!

$15.00 at the door for first available seating or show your wristband from earlier that day for $10.00.

Concession bar is open with desserts and food available.

Contact: 903-665-8546 or 903-445-3966 to reserve tickets.

Email: richard@knightlighttheater.com

The ART Event At The Bakery Restaurant, 201West Austin, Jefferson, TX, 903-665-2253

‘Tis no blarney. The Friends of the Library are putting on a great show to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.   Join us for a fun-filled evening on March 17, 2012 at 6:00 p.m. for authentic Irish music and an old-fashioned sing-along. Irish music will be performed by Don Clampitt, Tom Moss, Johnny Nance, Don Oatman and Don Smelser. Bring your friends for a night of fun including an Irish Buffet and Green Beer provided by Historic Jefferson Railway.

You’ll enjoy the warm Irish hospitality, fun and laughter at the best Irish bash in town. The party will take place at the Jefferson Carnegie Library Ballroom, 301 W. Lafayette, Jefferson, Texas. Tickets are $25 per person and seating is limited so advance purchase is recommended. Reserve your own table for 8-10. BYOB. Tickets are available at the library.

With a little bit o’ Irish luck, you could be the big winner in the door prize drawing. Bring along some Irish Green to participate in the silent auction, benefiting the Friends of the Library. There will be plenty of time for conversation and dancing to the music of Dan Smelser.

Many Americans first entered the worlds of information and imagination offered by reading when they walked through the front doors of a Carnegie library. One of 19th-century industrialist Andrew Carnegie’s many philanthropies, these libraries entertained and educated millions. Between 1886 and 1919, Carnegie’s donations of more than $40 million paid for 1,679 new library buildings in communities large and small across America. Jefferson’s library, built in 1907, is one of only five Carnegie Libraries serving its original function in Texas today.

The Library ballroom is a great place to dance in the New Year. The Original Greek Revival architecture was awarded a Texas Historical Commission plaque and a National Trust Register of Historical Places plaque.

Operating as a non-profit organization, the library board is committed to the preservation, maintenance and full usage of this historic landmark. The library depends on donations and the fund raising efforts of the Friends of the Jefferson Carnegie Library. All proceeds from the party will be used to support the library and to preserve a part of history.

Corned beef, soda bread, Irish stew and GREEN BEER. Buy your tickets now and catch the Irish spirit.

210 West Austin Street

Jefferson, Texas 75657

Let’s Celebrate

MARDI GRAS !!!

OPEN FOR LUNCH & DINNER

SATURDAY

February 18, 2012

Gumbo

Jambalaya

Red Beans & Rice

Crawfish Pie

&

More !

Offering Wine, Beer

&

New Orleans’ Famous

Bloody Marys & Hurricanes

Laissez les Bon Temps Rouler !!

visit our website for more info:

www.visittheblackswan.com

Historic Homes & Ghosts

Richard Collins, author of The House of the Seasons and Cheryl MacLennan, author of Historic Homes of Jefferson will be speaking at the Jefferson Carnegie Library at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, February 16, 2012.  The public is invited to attend, free of charge.  Complimentary dessert and beverages will be offered.

Come meet the authors and learn more about these two books featuring local Jefferson historical landmarks.

Cheryl MacLennan is a Texas native and has been practicing photography for more than 25 years.  John Scheyd of Pelican Publishing says “Her enthusiasm for history, architecture and culture serves as inspiration for her work.  Historic Homes of Jefferson features the finest landmarks of Jefferson.  Through stunning photography, MacLennan captures the architectural details of more than 25 historic homes and buildings, built between the years of 1850 and 1880”.

The House of the Seasons is a children’s book based on historical facts, characters and GHOSTS taking place at House of the Seasons during the Civil War.  Collins is president of the House of the Seasons, a historically prominent manor located in Jefferson.  Illustrations for the novel were produced by Dan Kuenster, Emmy-award winning animator who worked on popular animation films.  Co-author, T.J. Kuenster, is the Musical Director of the Glen Campbell Band.  Ms. Shirley Reiman, General Manager of House of the Seasons, says “their input has really added to the creativeness of the novel.”

This event will take place in the upstairs ballroom at the Jefferson Carnegie Library.  Many Americans first entered the worlds of information and imagination offered by reading when they walked through the front doors of a Carnegie library. One of 19th-century industrialist Andrew Carnegie’s many philanthropies, these libraries entertained and educated millions. Between 1886 and 1919, Carnegie’s donations of more than $40 million paid for 1,679 new library buildings in communities large and small across America.  Jefferson’s library, built in 1907, is one of only five Carnegie Libraries serving its original function in Texas today.

The Original Greek Revival architecture of the library was awarded a Texas Historical Commission plaque and a National Trust Register of Historical Places plaque.  Operating as a non-profit organization, the library board is committed to the preservation, maintenance and full usage of this historic landmark.

One of the challenges you have when you live in the swamps and wetlands of East Texas are Mosquitoes.  We grow ‘em big here and when when they bite, you know it.  It is a shame too!  So many pretty nights our guests here at the Carriage House Bed and Breakfast have been ran back inside from the pests.

We have tried everything to combat them.  We have burned citronella candles.  We ran the little Off fans and finally we just started putting cans of bug spray around the property for the guests to use.  Nothing says a romantic evening, then the smell of DEET.

So last summer, I began a campaign to get a bat house.

We have 32 native species of bats here in Texas, and as we all know, they LOVE to eat mosquitoes.  In fact, the Little Brown Bat can eat between 500 and 1000 mosquitos an HOUR!!

So for Christmas, Santa brought me a bat house and today Santa put it up for me.  It is outside the Ruth Lester room in the Garden Courtyard.  We positioned it in a place where the bats would be happy roosting and our guests can watch them at dusk.

So, now all I need are some bats.

Before

After

Like everyone else, we have a project list about a mile long.

One of our many projects is to get some awesome breakfast photos for our website.  So I commissioned my favorite photographer, Tom, and we had a photo shoot this morning right after breakfast.  The Pasta Frittata was colorful and really did photograph well!  As is not unusual for us, we were  quickly distracted by cleaning and giving directions to the guests.  When we walked back into the kitchen we had a surprise.  The plate had been licked clean and The Bug was looking very guilty!!

It ain’t easy being an innkeeper.  The hours are long and the laundry never seems to end.  There is always one room that needs to be cleaned or needs some sort of repair.  You live your life in a constant state of being one project behind where you should be.

However, there are some real pluses to the job.  We LOVE our guests (really do!).  We get to experiment in the kitchen a lot (not always with good results) and we get to live in a beautiful old home full of stories and charm.  One of the other big pluses to the job is drinking awesome coffee…every morning.

I did not realize that I had become a coffee snob until last week.

Tom and I went to the Professional Association of Innkeepers International (PAII) Innkeeping show in Little Rock, AR.  It was awesome!!  I got to see some friends I only see once a year and learn some amazing cool things (watch for some new stuff to come).

However, the coffee in the hotel and at the show was AWFUL.  I mean really AWFUL!!  I mean rot gut!  Blech!!

We have been ordering our coffee from a roaster in Shreveport called Jelks Coffee for some time now.  We change the flavors for the season and order whole bean so that we grind fresh coffee every morning.  Right now we are working our way through Mardi Gras/ Valentines Day flavors.  We drink what the guests drink and I forgot what bad coffee tastes like.  YUCK!!

We spent a lot of time at this year’s show talking about why bed and breakfasts are a “Better Way to Stay” then hotels.  Well here is one reason.  We will NEVER serve you a bad cup of coffee ever and we will ALWAYS serve your coffee in a fabulous mug (think a Deneen Pottery Mug) not a Styrofoam cup.

A good cup of coffee to start the day really does make us a Better Way to Stay!!

I was so excited to hear the news this week that the highly anticipated Port of Jefferson Riverfront Project had begun this week.  The heavy equipment was delivered on Wednesday and work began in earnest on Thursday.  Woo Hoo!

This project has been in the works for decades and is something that we have needed for generations.  The Big Cypress Bayou area has been altered and degraded from hundreds of year’s of boats and man’s influence. Many of the native species of plants  have died out and native animals no longer come to the shores of the water or are even in this area.  This project will return this wetland back to it’s original state and re-introduce many of the trees, plants, animals, and fish that once populated this unique swampy area of Texas.  The Army Corps of Engineer’s estimate the entire project to take anywhere from 18 months to 2 year to complete.

For more information about this project, please visit the project website at http://portjeffersonrestoration.com/.

Please enjoy this video of the first day’s work.  The first work effort of the project is to move the current boat ramp (located at the Polk St bridge) down Austin Street right next to the Historic Jefferson Railway depot.

I hope you enjoy this update!  I will be making more as the project moves forward and milestones are achieved.