Bedrooms and Breakfasts (and a hammock!)

The OSF (Oregon Shakespeare Festival) is dark today because of the holiday, so I have all day to do whatever I feel like. What did I decide to do?

Well, there's a hammock out back I've been meaning to try...

so despite the fact that it's quite hot out, I picked up my book and traipsed out to the backyard.
In typical hammock-entry fashion, there was a mishap or two...

but eventually I mastered the maneuver and settled in.

When I looked up into the cloudless sky above me, this is what I saw:

I thought about napping...

but ultimately decided that it was not a good idea to stay out very long in the bright, hot sunshine.

I am leaving Ashland tomorrow, and because of a tight morning schedule I have to pack up tonight. But before I do that, let me show you around the rest of the Iris Inn (now that you've seen the backyard).

I love the front door stained glass pane. When the sun shines through it, the irises glow!

Vickie, the innkeeper, collects teapots and other delicate china and displays them on mounted shelves in the dining room.

She also keeps a bowl of jelly beans handy in the front room. I've noticed that many of them are stuck together or deformed, which tells me they are not Jelly Belly brand. How do I know? Because during the tour in Fairfield I learned that the candy goes through a sorting process that weeds out the imperfect beans. Granted, there's a huge margin for error in that process, but I'm still pretty confident in my assumption. Unless Vickie has a deal with Jelly Belly about the fate of their deformed candy!

My room is called the Jade Room. Can you see why?

PS: these blinds are not broken! They have special pull-strings that allow them to be raised up or brought down, or both! Vickie says it's so people can have privacy and still have a view!

Like my room at the White Jasmine Inn in Santa Barbara, the Jade Room came with comfy robes and cozy chairs. I decided to sit back and smell the roses

...or should I be smelling the irises??

Every morning Vickie serves breakfast in the dining room. For the past two mornings I have enjoyed chatting with two other married couples who drove up from their respective hometowns to enjoy the festival.
Jeff and Debbie are California-based lawyers and major theater lovers who have been coming to the festival for years.
Susan and Ken are "newlyweds" who seem to know everyone from everywhere (turns out Susan is good friends with Debbie's aunt and uncle. Small world!).
I have no pictures of my lovely breakfast bunch, because I figured it would be a little awkward to be taking pictures over papaya juice and broccoli quiche. But I'm a writer, so I'll give you a character sketch from which you can form your own opinions:

-Debbie: chatty and cheerful, she's her own antagonist. Born and raised in small-town Virginia, her demeanor is more like a nosy New Yorker with a mid-Western accent. She's smart and opinionated like a lawyer, and enthusiastic like a veteran theater-goer, which makes her great company!
-Jeff: kind of reminds me of Richard Dreyfus in What About Bob? (as the mellow therapist at the beginning of the movie, not the deluded psychopath at the end!). He's soft-spoken and considerate of his conversation companions, and when he speaks to you he is very attentive. The perfect foil to his wife, Debbie.

-Susan: I only breakfasted with her once, so I don't know her as well. But I do know that she is the Kevin Bacon of the 'Six Degrees of Separation' game: Real World edition! She is friends with Debbie's family, and her best friend of 40 years lives in Scottsdale. She's a bit reserved, but polite. Probably late-50's, recently married her first husband, Ken. She's been a regular at the Inn for years and, naturally, knew everyone who came through the door!
-Ken: is English, though he moved to San Francisco in the 70s ("kicking and screaming," he insists). He's an enthusiastic conversationalist, but his material was a little beyond me. Actually, I dont' think he was very comfortable conversing with me, since I was the youngest one at the table by at least 30 years! Oh, well. I just enjoyed listening to the lilt of his persistent English accent!

Speaking of small worlds, tonight I'm going to dinner with Gary Fadell and his group of colleagues (Gary and my mom are law partners).