Brewster Ma innkeepers discover horse apples

Happy Thanksgiving friends! I still am pinching myself that the holidays are fast approaching! It’s my all time favorite time of the year with some new decorating ideas to transform the inn the day after Thanksgiving- pictures to follow!

We just returned from a great trip to Dallas where we had the opportunity to spend time with our family! We were especially excited to meet our new grandson Josh! We are known as Nanny and Poppy and spent the last week playing, laughing, helping with homework, fixing a few things around the house, making a few Nanny meals and loving every minute we had with these two guys!

Our daughter Jenn is a former teacher and is especially organized. It was just so easy to glide into their lives and experience what it’s like to be with young children again. For those that don’t know us- we have three children and up until 2 years ago we did not have any grandkids. Jennifer and Darin decided to adopt three years ago and our lives have been forever changed- Trenton (shown on the right in the above picture) is 10 years old and was adopted 2 years ago. Josh is 8 years old and just joined the family 5 months ago with the adoption finalizing in December.

Simply put- I have been in heaven this past week! At one time I thought I wanted to be a librarian and took many children’s reading classes in college. It was a high priority for me to read to our children and a total joy to read every night to Trenton & Josh.

The kids school is just across the street from their home and each day we walked them to school at 7:45 and picked them up at 2:45- no after school programs while Nanny & Poppy are visiting. We ate lots of ice cream….

and on the weekends, visited some really fun places-

A new popular attraction in Dallas is an extraordinary ice exhibit at the Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center. … ICE– a walk through holiday attraction kept at a chilly 9 degrees featuring two million pounds of hand‐carved ice sculptures and five ice slides. It was hard taking pictures inside as both Byron and I did not want to take off our gloves:( Suffice to say it was spectacular and VERY cold.

Afterwards we went out for barbecue- ohhhhh my goodness- it was delicious! Only in Texas!

We also visited the Dallas Arboretum

where there was a huge pumpkin patch complete with a fun petting zoo. Trenton especially liked the donkey.

Nanny loved the Twelve Days of Christmas exhibit which was sprinkled throughout the park.

All of the plantings were really well labeled and Byron and I got some great ideas for our gardens at the Captain Freeman Inn.

We loved this Elephant Ear planting and decided we definitely need to add more Salvia plants. They were sprinkled throughout the park.

On Saturday we spent the day walking around  the Magnolia Market at the Silos.

I was quite impressed with the whole affair. Byron and I both enjoy watching Fixer Upper over the years and what this couple has created for the lovely town of Waco is humbling with a simple design of bringing families together with a little bit of eating and shopping sprinkled in:) I found some great new vases for the tables-

 

and loved the gardens.

They are one creative couple! Hats off to Joanna and Chip. #milestomagnolia

One morning Byron and I drove to Denton, Texas. Just loved this college town and found the perfect Christmas present for our son Nathan in a antique store. Also enjoyed a great burger and adult beverage- in the middle of the day- guess we can since we are on vacation:)

Last but not least- we loved Erwin Park in McKinny. It was a short drive from the kid’s home and was a wonderful place for the kids to run around, collect pecans and hike the many trails. Byron and I were both taken with the many “horse apple bushes” that were around the park.

What in the world is a horse apple?

It’s formal name is Maclura pomifera but many common names include Osage orange, hedge apple, horse apple, bodark, bow-wood and mock orange. This bush/tree is commonly used as a tree row windbreak in prairie states and was one of the primary trees used in President  Franklin Roosevelt’s Great Plains Shelterbelt WPA project  launched in 1934 as an ambitious plan to modify weather and prevent soil erosion in the Great Plains states.  By 1942 over 220 million trees were planted that stretched for 18,600 miles. The sharp-thorned trees were also planted as cattle-deterring hedges before the introduction of barbed wire  and afterward became an important source of fence posts.

The heavy, close-grained yellow-orange wood is very dense and is prized for tool handles, fence posts, and other applications requiring a strong dimensionally stable wood that withstands rot.

My mind immediately went to decorating purposes as the fruit would be beautiful sprayed gold and placed together in a wooden bowl.

Byron and I are rested, happy to be home and filled with new energy for some painting and decorating projects. Today is a busy day as the queen bed from our Brewster room is going out to a new home and a new King metal canopy bed is coming in from Pottery Barn.  Also have some new leather chairs being delivered for our Truro room. Donna is very excited and Byron says- “Oh dear-not more moving!”

To all of our Captain Freeman Inn family- many Thanksgiving blessing.

We are looking forward to our upcoming Brewster for the Holidays festival and still have rooms available.  What a wonderful opportunity to see all of our festive holiday decor at the inn and to think about unique gifts for that special loved one.  At the Captain Freeman Inn, we are always here to make your stay on Cape Cod extra special and have many shopping tips!  Our historic bed and breakfast is just a short stroll to our treasured Brewster General Store and Breakwater beach- perfect for that morning walk or to see our spectacular sunsets. Choose from many of our comfortable accommodations, enjoy our luxurious artisan amenities and our popular homemade breakfasts and afternoon tea.

This innkeeper if off to make pie shells for next week’s festivities.