As you may know each and every week I enjoy one Country Inn Day, a day I escape from regular routines. Country Inn Days are play days. They are days to enjoy my favorite activities, focus on favorite things and spend time in places I love. The idea behind my Country Inn Days is to stop and smell the roses in life. We must give ourselves permission to do this regularly. Work and worry are sturdy weeds, but joy requires cultivation.

There is a lot of play involved in a Country Inn Day. It’s not only children that need to play. Play is very good for all of us no matter how old we might be. For me play is tied closely to imagination. Because I love old country inns it’s not a coincidence I live in a historic house. My house, the Jeremiah Brown House, was built in 1853 by the half brother of John Brown, the famous abolitionist.

Living in such an old house makes it easy for me to play, imagining the house is an old Inn. I can “play” the part of innkeeper every time I welcome guests to dinner parties and afternoon teas or as I work to spruce up the place.. I can “play” the part of inn cook every time I work in the kitchen creating culinary masterpieces on Inn Days. I can even enjoy “playing” the part of inn maid as I clean and polish this old house. But of course every Inn Day sees me “playing” the part of Inn guest too as I enjoy simple pleasures and not so simple pleasures like breakfast in bed or champagne before dinner served in my best crystal glasses.

I go off to real Country Inns every chance I get, but in between these junkets The Jeremiah Brown House is my Inn of choice, a grand place for having great fun and refreshment.

Of course I’m not forced to hybernate at the Inn for all of every Country Inn Day. There are Culture Days that take me out to museums. There are Adventure Days where I go off exploring new places. There are Nature Days that take me to gardens and parks. There are Spa Days at the Inn or away, and there are Favorite Town Days where I spend time in these favorite places taking advantage of what these towns have to offer. There are many kinds of Country Inn Days and I’m dreaming up more all the time.

My last Inn Day was a Favorite Town Day and on such days as this I bop around a town visiting coffee shops, restaurants, gift shops, strolling around, you know, just enjoying the surroundings, taking in the different sites and sounds. I might even meet new people and make new friends. I don’t always have to travel hundreds of miles to escape my regular setting. Sometimes going off fifty, thirty or even just twenty miles east, west or south ( not north because that’s Lake Erie) is all I need to do. Any town different from my own Hudson will offer new sites, perspectives and fun.

So off I went on my last Country Inn Day to the town of Medina. Medina is a few towns southwest of my Hudson. It’s an old town approximately 23 miles south of Cleveland and 23 miles west of Akron, Ohio. Its population was noted as 26,678 at the last census in 2010. It was founded in 1818 making it about 200 years old. Because I love history, old Country Inns, and all sorts of old things I especially love to visit the old towns in my area.

On this outing to Medina I first enjoyed finding a new coffee shop and I liked it very much. I got a table by the window and started my day with coffee and the writing of two letters to favorite pen friends. A day does not go by for me without a little (or a lot) of letter writing.

After coffee I strolled around the lovely Village Green. Every town should have a Village Green with park benches and a gazebo or some other charming fixture. I loved the old buildings around the square.

• 

I spotted a Polish pottery shop and being 100% Polish I had to stop in.

It was a most colorful and charming place. I felt like I was in an art museum seeing so many handpainted items. Being a cook, and one who enjoys entertaining, I felt like a kid in a candy store seeing so many beautiful dishes. I wanted to take everything home with me …

• 

but I settled for two small items -a little birdie that will serve as a vent for my next apple pie and a sweet little dish to hold my next tea bag.

From the Polish pottery shop I headed off to Roots Candle Company. Medina is the home of its 20,000 square foot Flagship store. It feels like a stylish boutique brimming with unique and designer-inspired home decor. The Innkeeper in me loved this place and boy were there a lot of candles to see.

The Root family, over 5 generations and 140 years have worked to perfect the candle and of course I had to buy some candles and a pretty wintery globe to grace a coffee table back at my Inn, the Jeremiah Brown House.

Time was flying as I strolled around looking at all sorts of goodies. I had meant to stop for tea, but the tea house, Miss Molly’s, had closed at 3:00. Phooie!

But the antique shop next to Roots was open so I went in, looked around …

Antique shops are always fun, and there I found 5 sweet crystal tea light containers for my dining table…

and this large embossed globe with candle. What fun to buy a few treasures to use on Inn Days and on ordinary days too. Every time I use these things I’ll be reminded of my fun Medina Country Inn Day.

It was getting late and of course there were things to enjoy back at the Inn. I had to get back to Hudson soon, but before I left Medina I had to peek in at a certain Victorian House. A friend had told me about this old place.

I heard this old house was turned into a restaurant. Dinner was waiting for me at my Inn so I just took a quick look around noting the information for some future Country Inn Day.

It’s always fun to discover another old place in my area. I wish many more historic buildings had been preserved.

So, that’s about it for my Country Inn Medina Day. I could tell you all about the other fun things I did back at the Inn, but I’ll save those stories for another Country Inn Day blog post.

I hope you have your own Country Inn Days each and every week. Your play days may have a different name then mine and they may contain different activities, but what’s important is that you take time out to dream, play, and focus on your own favorite things. My spiritual directives tell me to live abundantly. Work is important, using our gifts, but creative fun is important too. Country Inn Days help me live abundantly.

I wish abundant days for you as well. Sharing with you has doubled my joy and I hope the sharing inspired a little extra joy in your day too.

So until we meet again Medina, and to you my friend- Take joy!