2012 Visions of Sugar Plums B&B Cookie Tour

Posted on December 11, 2012 by Inn on Mill Creek

Christmas Cookie season has arrived! This weekend, December 15 and December 16, is the second annual Black Mountain Visions of Sugar Plums Cookie Tour, where you can visit the Black Mountain area B&Bs and Inns and view all their holiday decorations, taste a different cookie at each one, and take home the recipes! Tickets are $10 and benefit the Swannanoa Valley Christian Ministry, a team of churches and volunteers who work to provide basic services and emergency relief for those facing hardship.

Geocaching Celebration on 12/12/12

Posted on December 7, 2012 by Inn on Mill Creek

Kiva Loan #42

Posted on December 4, 2012 by Inn on Mill Creek

Even though it looks like we will not make our goal of helping to fund 45 small business entrepreneurs in developing countries through Kiva, we are proud to say that we made it to 42! One of our first loans of 2012, to help Julio grow his family bakery business in Peru, has been paid in full, so we have relended the money to Merlinda, who sells fruit in the Philippines:

Black Mountain Holly Jolly and other Christmas Festivities

Posted on December 3, 2012 by Inn on Mill Creek

2012 National Gingerbread Competition

Posted on November 22, 2012 by Inn on Mill Creek

Photo Credit: RomanticAsheville.com

Grove Park Inn in Asheville is hosting the 2012 National Gingerbread House Competition display from now through January 2, 2013. This is the 20th year that Grove Park Inn has held the competition and the entries seem to have gotten grander and grander over the years.

Santa at Chimney Rock Park in December

Posted on November 16, 2012 by Inn on Mill Creek

Photo Credit: Chimney Rock Park

For 20 years now, Santa Claus has been practicing for his big night of heading down everyone’s chimneys by going down the 315-foot “Chimney” at Chimney Rock Park, 30 minutes south of the Inn on Mill Creek.

North Carolina Mountain Birds: Wild Turkey

Posted on November 12, 2012 by Inn on Mill Creek

Wild Turkey checks out the orchard at the Inn on Mill Creek

We’ve picked the Wild Turkey as the November bird for our 12 Months of Birding series. We see Wild Turkeys at the Inn on Mill Creek quite frequently…they seem to be big fans of our apple orchard. As year-round residents, Wild Turkeys enjoy scattered open spaces in Pisgah National Forest (like our orchard) and feast on acorns, fruit, insects and fern fronds, all of which are in good supply here.

Sunny November Day at Biltmore Estate

Posted on November 10, 2012 by Inn on Mill Creek

Standing on the South Terrace looking toward the Library Terrace

Early November in the mountains of Western North Carolina can be, in a word, temperamental. Different elevations can see different weather. For example, the higher elevations such as Mt. Mitchell (highest peak in the eastern United States) saw several inches of snow earlier this week! We had cool temps with some rain and even some snow flurries at our elevation the first part of the week, which was the earliest we remember it snowing since we arrived in 2007.

2012 Foothills Arts & Crafts Holiday Show

Posted on November 3, 2012 by Inn on Mill Creek

It’s always a treat to see the work of our talented local artists up close, so we were really excited to hear that two of our local artists’ groups — the Arrowhead Artists and Artisans League (A3L) and the McDowell Arts Council Association (MACA) — will be hosting the first Foothills Arts & Crafts Holiday Show on Saturday and Sunday, November 17-18, 2012, at the Corpening Memorial YMCA in Marion (25 minutes east of the Inn on Mill Creek).

Fall Color in the North Carolina Mountains: Week 5

Posted on October 31, 2012 by Inn on Mill Creek

View from Point Lookout Trail near the Inn, October 27, 2012

It looks like this will be our last fall color report for 2012…Frankenstorm arrived in the mountains of Western North Carolina earlier this week and blew many of the leaves to the ground at our elevation (2,300 feet). We had some really strong wind gusts as a result of Hurricane Sandy and the winter storm system that decided to overlap and bring crazy weather to the Eastern U.S., but we were fortunate and only lost two apple trees and our power and phone service for the day. Our guests and innkeeper friends who live in areas affected by this week’s weather are foremost in our thoughts — hope everyone came through the storm OK!

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