News From Jamul Haven

This Halloween (Friday, October 31st) we'll be hosting a murder mystery party. Guests that evening will be treated to an evening of gourmet dining plus have the opportunity to participate in a fun murder mystery event, all at no additional charge.

We're still looking for prospective art patrons. You'll have the opportunity to attend a free artist dinner during 2009, and if you like the work of any of the artists during the evening you may help them out. Examples of helping are financial donations, buying one of their art pieces, or introducing them to people who can help them. Even if you're just willing to donate the value of the dinner and entertainment for the evening, that money would be a big help to some of these artists. Let us know if you're interested in helping.

We've set our 2009 rate schedule, which will be effective for stays on or after 1 January. The rates will vary by room, and they will be different for weekedays, weekends, and holidays. The 2009 rates will be:

Weekday
Celtic $199
Asian $209
Rose $279
Peacock $309

Weekend
Celtic $219
Asian $229
Rose $299
Peacock $329

Holiday
Celtic $249
Asian $269
Rose $349
Peacock $369

We've just been certified by AAA, which makes us one of the few B&Bs in San Diego that is thus certified. To get to the next higher diamond level we need to find a way to fit three chairs in the Asian room. Thus far, the only thing we've come up with is hanging chairs on chains from the ceiling!

Jamul Haven History, Amy Lowell Slept Here

Amy Lowell was a very famous poet and women's activist from the early twentieth century. Lowell Massachussets was named after her grandfather, and the Lowell Observatory was named after her brother. She was the subject of one of my "Five Poet Plays" series. In doing that research, I came across the following diary entries:

The Dabneys owned ‘Fayal Ranch’ in Jamacha, San Diego County, about twenty miles north of the Mexican border; next to it was another fruit ranch with a house adequate for myself, my chaperon, maid, and cook.
…Last Monday we went on a picnic, with the Kendalls, way up in the hills where there were beautiful views, and we could even see the sea, twenty miles away…
…On Tuesday afternoon Miss Dabney & I drove over to El Cajon…
…But the next morning he told us that if we had been a little later, we could not have gone home at all, for going back through the olives the water was rushing down the hill, & up to his knees.

In trying to find out exactly where she stayed in Jamacha (the old name for Jamul), I found that the Dabney family archives were at the University of Spokane, and that a neighbor had some early documentation about the Dabneys. Next week, I'll provide extracts from that research, offering interesting insight into the area. And as you may suspect, what we'll find is that Amy Lowell et. all really did spend one winter in the Angel House. But first, here's one of her poems:

New Heavens for Old

I am useless.
What I do is nothing,
what I think has no savor.
There is an almanac between the windows:
it is of the year when I was born.

My fellows call to me to join them,
they shout for me,
passing the house in a great wind of vermilion banners.
They are fresh and fulminant,
they are indecent and strut with the thought of it,
they laugh, and curse, and brawl,
and cheer a holocaust of “Who comes firsts!” at the iron fronts of the houses at the two edges of the street.
Young men with naked hearts
jeering between iron house-fronts,
young men with naked bodies beneath their clothes
passionately conscious of them,
ready to strip off their clothes,
ready to strip off their customs, their usual routine,
clamoring for the rawness of life,
in love with appetite,
proclaiming it as a creed,
worshipping youth,
worshipping themselves.
They call for women and the women come,
they bare the whiteness of their lusts
to the dead gaze of the old house-fronts,
they roar down the street like flame,
they explode upon the dead houses like new, sharp fire.

But I—
I arrange three roses in a Chinese vase:
a pink one,
a red one,
a yellow one.
I fuss over their arrangement.
Then I sit in a South window
and sip pale wine with a touch of hemlock in it.
And think of Winter nights,
and field-mice crossing and re-crossing
the spot which will be my grave.

Romantic Getaway #7: The Masked Ball

Dress up in evening attire (tuxedo, long dress), and purchase or rent a pair of extravagent masks. Then take a cab to a restaurant of your choice. When people ask about your dress and mask, tell them that you were at a Vienesse style masked ball at the home of a famous celebrity in La Jolla (you're too discrete to name names), but that the two of you decided to just get away on your own. Keep them guessing throughout the night about your friends at the party.

In This Issue:

Upcoming Local Events

Selected fun San Diego events that are worth a trip.

Through 9/30 - Special evening entertainment and fireworks nightly with extended evening hours at the San Diego Zoo.

9/25-9/28 -The San Diego Film Festival is an event worth visiting - with over 75 films hosted, the festival was recently voted "One of the top ten hottest film festivals in the US."

For information about any of these events, email us!

Jamul Haven Specials

We are continuing to offer our introductory rate special of $199 per night, holidays excluded, which includes a gourmet breakfast for two cooked to order.

Innkeeper Update

Regina performed a liturgical dance for the 50th anniversary of Marianne's cousin Colleen becomming a nun, and it was a huge hit with the entire church. It was also a good chance for us to see Victoria, British Columbia. We all especially enjoyed Butchart gardens. Amazing.

John is selling a very special movie prosthetic on eBay. For a complete description, including the amazing history of this item, check out ebay item 280261810932.

Mama and Mattie risked life and nose to save the chickens from a maurading skunk (the four legged kind). I think we spent more on tomatoe juice than we did to buy the chicks.

There will be a free reading of William's play Dickinson in San Diego on October 3rd. There will be a workshop of William's musical Eliot in Los Angeles on October 19th. Let us know if you're interested in attending either of these events. William's plays Dickinson and Eliot are finalist for the Hariett Lake Play Festival in Orlando. He'll find out by October 15th if either was selected for performance at the festival.

In The News

For links to articles and reviews, visit http://www.jamulhaven.com/links.html.

Hints from Yesteryear

Hints from "The Everyday Cook-Book," (c) 1889 and found in the Jamul Haven Angel House.

For mending valuable glass objects, which would be disfigured by common cement, chrome cement may be used. This is a mixture of five parts of gelatine to one of a solution of acid chromate of lime. The broken edges are covered with this, pressed together and exposed to sunlight, the effect of the latter being to render the compound insoluble even in boiling water.

Recipies from Yesteryear

Recipies from "The Everyday Cook-Book," (c) 1889 and found in the Jamul Haven Angel House.

Oyster Patties. Make some rich puff paste and bake it in very small tin patty pans; when cool turn them out upon a large dish. Stew some large fresh oysters with a few cloves, a little mace and nutmeg; then add the yolk of one egg, boiled hard and grated; add a little butter, and as much of the oyster liquid as will cover them. When they have stewed a little while, take them out of the pan and set them cool. When quite cold, aly two or three oysters in each shell of puff paste.