Our crocuses and hellebores have come out to let us know that Spring is just one month away! A few of the daffodils are budding as well, and tulips are peeking through the ground. Even the roses and butterfly bushes are coming out of hibernation. Spring is definitely on the way!
We’ve been having an up-and-down winter in our neck of the woods, how about you? Some days are warm, others are cold, rain here, flurries there…our spring flowers are so confused!
| The night sky near Morganton, NC [Credit & Copyright: David Cortner] |
Being situated inside a National Forest has its perks, one of which being there are very few man-made lights outside. Instead, the sky is lit by thousands of stars on a dark, clear night, making the Inn on Mill Creek a great place for stargazing.
| Chickadee outside the solarium at the Inn on Mill Creek |
January is a fairly unpredictable month in the mountains of Western North Carolina. One day, we’ll see bright sunshine and temperatures in the 40s or 50s, then blustery temps the following day with snow. So we’re countering the month’s unpredictable nature with a very predictable bird for our latest installment of 12 Months of Birding at the Inn: the Carolina Chickadee.
Since 2007, we have been a part of Kiva, a non-profit that matches microloan lenders with borrowers who are small business entrepreneurs. The vast majority of Kiva borrowers are from developing countries and the success of their businesses positively affects their local economies and helps to lift them and their families out of poverty. Lenders can lend as little as $25, and as the loan is paid, the lender receives his or her money back and can either take it out or relend it to another borrower.
Happy New Year! We hope you’re off to a great start in 2013. Have you made any resolutions? Perhaps you’ve resolved not to make resolutions! But if you have made some, may we suggest adding the resolution to relax more and stress less. We have lots of ways you can accomplish that by coming to the mountains of Western North Carolina, and we’ll be sharing those with you this year.
| Scene from the 2012 Cookie Tour at Inn on Mill Creek |
Without further ado, here is the cookie recipe we tailored for the 2012 Visions of Sugar Plums B&B Cookie Tour, in which Black Mountain area B&Bs opened their doors for cookie tourgoers to sample different cookies and view all the Christmas and holiday decorations, all to benefit a great charity, the Swannanoa Valley Christian Ministry.
Our theme may need to be “chocolate” for future cookie tours…our concoction last year, Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies, was pretty popular, too!
| Our dining solarium getting a facelift |
One of the many great things about running a B&B is the diversity
and awesomeness of the people we meet and have as our guests at the Inn on Mill Creek. One of our guests this past summer was
having breakfast with his wife in the Inn’s dining solarium, which at the time was starting to show its
age in some regards, particularly the curved plexiglass panels. Over the past few years, we have been looking at options and pricing for replacing the panels…no easy task.
