Welcome to our online bed & breakfast journal, where we share news about the Inn and our neck of the woods -- Black Mountain, Old Fort and Asheville, North Carolina -- with our guests and friends.
This summer, we've enjoyed watching a myriad of butterflies and bees happily fluttering around our hydrangeas between the Main House and Lake House. This is a spot where we and our guests watch birds at the feeder throughout the year (such as Mr. Titmouse and his friends in the winter and spring), but other winged creatures have provided a lot of entertainment lately. We took some photos recently ~ enjoy!
The North Carolina State Bluegrass Festival will be held in Marion, NC, this year, at the Tom Johnson Camping Center's Rally Park (30 minutes east of the Inn on Mill Creek). From Thursday, August 19, through Saturday, August 21, bluegrass music will fill the air in McDowell County.
Bring your chair and listen to the following bluegrass entertainers this year:
Thursday, August 19 - Gloria Belle & Tennessee Sunshine, The Crowe Brothers, Joe Mullins and the Radio Ramblers, David Peterson & 1946, Bobby Osborne & The Rocky Top X-press, and Dailey & Vincent
Friday, August 20 - The Next Best Thing Bluegrass Band, The Bluegrass Brothers, Cedar Hill, Goldwing Express, J.D. Crowe & The New South, and Rhonda Vincent & The Rage
Saturday, August 21 - Raymond Fairchild & The Maggie Valley Boys, The Little Roy & Lizzy Show, The Inspirations, The Grascals, Larry Sparks & The Lonesome Ramblers, and Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver
Here's a sampling of what you'll hear -- turn up your sound and enjoy! This is the Next Best Thing Bluegrass Band:
And here are the Bluegrass Brothers:
Just two of several fine bands that are part of the North Carolina State Bluegrass Festival this year. Tickets for the festival are $35 for each day, at the gate, with no parking fee.
Eight weeks and counting to the start of fall foliage season
With the piping hot summer we've been having (here in the mountains of Western North Carolina, Grandfather Mountain hit an all-time record high of 83 degrees in July and we've had upper 80s more than a few times these past few weeks in our neck of the woods), we're really looking forward to welcoming the crisp coolness of fall, and with it, the sparkly yellows, fiery reds and blazing oranges that envelop our mountains each year.
By late September, we'll see bits of color here and there at the higher elevations, mid- to late October typically brings gorgeous peak fall colors to our elevation at places like Biltmore Estate and the North Carolina Arboretum, and in early November, leaf peepers should still be enjoying a beautiful backdrop of color just south of us at places like Chimney Rock Park.
Wondering what times are the best for visiting the North Carolina mountains for fall foliage? We have the details in a blog post we did about this time last year answering lots of questions about fall foliage in the North Carolina mountains.
And just as in years' past, we'll keep you up to date on what trees are putting on a show and where you can find the fall foliage peak each week with Fall Foliage Reports for our elevation in the NC mountains (2,300 feet above sea level) and beyond. Plus, we'll also be recommending fantastic fall color viewing opportunities from the highest elevations of the Black Mountains to the foothills nearby.
The 33rd Annual Sourwood Festival will be held August 14-15, 2010, in Black Mountain, NC, a charming artsy town that's just 12 minutes from the Inn on Mill Creek.
Logo designed by George White of Black Mountain and Greensboro, NC
The Sourwood Festival, sponsored by the Black Mountain-Swannanoa Chamber of Commerce, is an annual street festival where you can browse the arts and crafts of hundreds of vendors, see honey bee demonstrations and sample festival food. Plus, festival-goers will be entertained all weekend long by local singers and performers, including the Flat Creek Boys, the Asheville Clogging Company, David Cody, the Black Mountain Ramblers and Cheri Cagle, just to name a few. [Visit the Black Mountain Music Scene site for the full list of entertainers.]
In conjunction with the festival, singers will compete for cash prizes in the Sourwood Idol contest on Friday, August 13, to be held from 7pm to 11pm under the Big Entertainment Tent on Sutton Avenue in downtown Black Mountain, while early risers can catch a 5K run/walk at 8:30am on August 14, at Cheshire Fitness Club just south of downtown.
What is sourwood, you ask? The sourwood tree and our lovely honey bees provide our area with very tasty local sourwood honey (which we like to use in our breakfast recipes, such as the one for Brigette's fresh fruit honey lime cocktail). The sourwood tree has white blooms in the summertime, and its leaves put on a fiery red color display each autumn. It's a beautiful tree, worthy of having a festival named after it, that's for sure!
For more details about the annual Sourwood Festival, which also has been included in this year's events celebrating the Blue Ridge Parkway's 75th anniversary, visit www.exploreblackmountain.com.
July has been a bit warm here in our neck of the woods near Asheville and Black Mountain, North Carolina. Dry, too, at least in our immediate area. Today, it was 88 degrees, which is several degrees above normal, but we got a nice evening rain that made our plants happy and cooled off our "neighborhood" inside Pisgah National Forest quite nicely.
The heat-loving blooms in our garden this month include bee balm, liatris/blazingstar, daisies, coneflowers, daylilies, butterfly bushes and tall garden phlox. Our roses and hydrangeas are having a good year as well. Enjoy these photos taken in July at the Inn (and more on our B&B Facebook page):
This bee went 'round and 'round this liatris for about 5 minutes like he was going up and down a spiral staircase
Bee balm next to autumn clematis makes our hummingbirds happy
Brigette's daisies in the White Garden in front of white ornamental grass
Biltmore Estate will offer a late summer treat for visitors again this year with its flower carpet. The 2010 Biltmore Flower Carpet installation will include more than 155,000 plants, covering the majority of the South Terrace. The design this year is based on a La Farge stained glass window that Mr. Vanderbilt inherited from his father.
Not only can you enjoy the Flower Carpet during the day, but you also have the opportunity to view Biltmore Estate and the Flower Carpet in the evenings, complete with live jazz and candlelight, during the following Fridays and Saturdays: August 20, 21, 27, 28, September 10 and 11.
Even more good news: When you stay at the Inn on Mill Creek, you can buy discounted tickets for Biltmore at $50/person (which includes access to Biltmore House, Antler Hill Village and the Winery, the Gardens and the restaurants), and you can add a Flower Carpet Evenings visit at just $10 per ticket. This upgrade allows you to visit Biltmore House for a self-guided tour between 5pm and 8pm on the night of the Flower Carpet Evening date you choose. And as always, our tickets are good for a free second day at Biltmore. Please allow 48 hours for us to process your upgrade.
Biltmore began creating flower carpets in 2008. Here's a photo we took of last year's Flower Carpet, a fleur-de-lis pattern (wish we could have gotten higher up to get a better shot because it was amazing):
And here is a time-lapse video featured on BiltmoreInsider of the 2008 Flower Carpet installation:
Dehlia Low will perform July 8 at Park Rhythms in Black Mountain [photo:Dehlia Low Facebook Page]
Black Mountain Recreation & Parks is currently putting on its 15th season of Park Rhythms, a series of outdoor summer concerts every Thursday evening. Bring a blanket or chair to Lake Tomahawk Park and hear live music from 7pm to 9pm. Local restaurants sell food during the concerts as well, so you can also enjoy some local cuisine while you're listening to our local singers and bands. And thanks to several of our area businesses who sponsor Park Rhythms, the shows are free to the public.
Park Rhythms kicked off this year with Kat Williams, followed by Westsound and Motownblue. If you're in our neck of the woods on a Thursday night, you can catch one of the remaining shows this season:
The Inn on Mill Creek is a bed and breakfast inn located 20 minutes east of Asheville, North Carolina. Our secluded property is on seven acres, entirely surrounded by the Pisgah National Forest. We have seven guest rooms, a lake, an orchard and plenty of space to relax and take it easy.
