LET THE ART ORDERING BEGIN

The Inn's walls are getting a fresh look, thanks to some art selected by Innkeeper Dave. This painting series is the Great Room's newest acquisition:



Dave found this metalwork of copper-colored leaves to adorn the staircase up to the Lake View Suite and Creekside Hideaway:



And the Lake View bathroom dressing area has a new painting as well:



Soon it'll be time to start putting some color on the walls...

FLOWER POWER

Both of us like gardening. We haven't been able to do too much this summer with it being our first year and being busy buying furniture and art, planning improvements to the Inn and hanging out with fun guests.

Gardeners out there: have you ever gone through gardening withdrawal? If yes, then you know how we feel. The good news is that we've ordered lots and lots of Spring bulbs for next year. In the meantime, we have a very pretty garden that the former owners doted on, with herbs and some nice bulbs and perenniels to get us started. And we have some flowers growing in the wild along the creek and our little lake. One of our recent guests, Judith, told us their names.

One of the flowers is Jewelweed (pictured here, growing along the bank of our lake):





Jewelweed (Impatiens capensis) grows in moist soil, often near poison ivy. This is actually a good thing, because when you've been exposed to poison ivy, you can crush the stems and leaves of jewelweed, rub it on the affected spot, and presto -- poison ivy remedy. We hear it also works well on mosquito bites, but we just haven't had any mosquitos this year to try it out...not that we'd want to be mosquito-bite guinea pigs. The orange and yellow jewelweed bloom is quite attractive.

The other flower we have is called Cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis), shown here near the creek:



It's a tall, vividly colored red perenniel. It's said that the common name refers to the brilliant red robes worn by Roman Catholic cardinals. Hummingbirds love it, and anything that brings out the hummingbirds is a good thing to have in our opinion.

In this time of our gardening withdrawal, it's nice to know that Mother Nature is doing a little gardening for our guests and us to enjoy.

FINE ART GALLERY GRAND OPENING

The grand opening of the Fine Art Gallery at The Appalachian Artisans Society Gallery is today, August 25, beginning at 2:00 pm. The TAAS Gallery is located at 48 Main Street in Old Fort, about 15 minutes east of us, and it features art for sale by over 60 Appalachian artists. The Gallery is owned and operated by Beverly Heldman, a native Old Fort resident and artisan hand crafter who specializes in jewelry creation.

At the grand opening of the Fine Art Gallery, you can meet the artists and gallery owners, enjoy the festivities and help TAAS raise money for the Davidson’s Fort Historic Park. [The Park is set to include a replica of Davidson's Fort, a stockade fort from the 1700's, and it's being funded through donations, fundraisers and volunteers.] A $5 ticket (all proceeds go to this non-profit organization) may bring you a Bob Travers’ limited edition, framed print. Drawing is at 4:00 pm. Stop by during business hours to purchase a ticket or call 828.668.1070.

Gallery hours are 10am-5pm (Tuesday-Friday) and 10am to 6pm (Saturday).

BLUE RIDGE PARKWAY EXHIBIT

We love art, we love our Southern artists and we love the Blue Ridge Parkway. That's why we're excited about a new exhibit coming to Blue Spiral 1 Gallery in Asheville.

Blue Ridge Parkway: Long Range View will open on August 30 and will feature 27 Southern artists' interpretations of the beautiful Blue Ridge Parkway in various forms: paintings, photography, sculpture, ceramics, glass and quilts.

According to Blue Spiral 1's website, a 10% donation from each sale during the show will go to the Conservation Trust for North Carolina (CTNC) and Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy (SAHC), two non-profit organizations dedicated to the protection and preservation of the Appalachian landscape.

Blue Ridge Parkway: Long Range View runs from August 30 through October 27, 2007.

Blue Spiral 1 is located at 38 Biltmore Avenue, north of Biltmore Village, about 25 minutes east of us. Their hours are 10am-6pm (Monday-Saturday) and 12pm-5pm (Sunday, April-October).

DINNER RECOMMENDATION: AUGUST

Each month, we bring to you restaurant recommendations from our guests. Who better to recommend good eats than your fellow travelers who like to sample our local cuisine when they visit our area.

We've had several guests tell us how much they've enjoyed a new restaurant in Black Mountain, so we're adding it to our recommendation list. The name of the restaurant is Que Sera and they're located on East State Street, on our side of town. Guests describe it as a New Orleans-style cuisine with a southern flare. Dining is casual, but the food is really top-notch. They're open for both lunch and dinner.

Menu items getting rave reviews include the bourbon-soaked wild salmon with red onion marmalade, the tarragon chicken salad, the beer battered catfish, and the crawfish etouffe.

Be sure to stop in and try this great new place in Black Mountain, recommended by guests of the Inn on Mill Creek.

SEEING STARS

Photo: Answers.com

Brigette loves watching stars. The night sky type, not the Hollywood type. You can catch her sometimes out late at night sitting near the rose garden getting a neck strain as she peers up at the stars (The "lay back" kind of patio chairs are now on the list of things to buy...)

What a great place we have here inside the national forest for star gazing. Without any street lights, the night lights up instead with stars, planets, galaxies, you name it. We ventured outside late one evening this week and we, along with three of our guests, Killian, Catherine and Tracy, eyed the wide flowing band of the Milky Way stretching across the sky from our rooftop to the southern end of the property. Amazing.

This weekend was the Perseids meteor shower, which happens every year in summertime, peaking in August when the Earth heads through the tail of the Swift-Tuttle Comet. Did you catch any shooting stars? Brigette hung out tonight with dozens of crickets and cicadas, one big bullfrog and millions of stars, and she saw at least five streaking meteors heading across the sky. It was hard to go back inside, but bedtime had to come sometime.

Here's one of Brigette's favorite websites, the Astronomy Picture of the Day. Enjoy.

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap070812.html

30th ANNUAL SOURWOOD FESTIVAL

The Sourwood Festival takes place this weekend in Black Mountain. The street festival, now in its 30th year, brings 180 vendors and what estimators are saying will be 30,000 visitors to the town.

The Sourwood Festival is a wonderful showcase of mountain arts and crafts, music and food. And there isn't a better place to have it than in Black Mountain, considered the "Front Porch of Western North Carolina" for good reason. It's one of those charming small towns that you want to visit again and again.

The festival goes from 10am to 9pm on Saturday, August 11, and from 10am to 6pm on Sunday, August 12.

So, what's sourwood, you ask? It's a beautiful tree native to the eastern United States and it thrives here in the mountains of Western North Carolina. Sourwood trees are short and slow-growing and are often used as ornamental trees.



White bell-shaped flowers appear on the sourwood trees in the summer, bees pollinate them -- and voila -- prized sourwood honey is produced. Sourwood honey is, of course, available at the festival.

In Autumn, the leaves of sourwood trees turn a striking red, adding to our fantastic fall foliage.

An article about the Sourwood Festival can be read at the online home of Black Mountain News.

BUZZZZZZZZ

We discovered a great shop in Black Mountain called Black Mountain Ironworks (http://www.blackmountainiron.com/). They have all kinds of art, sculpture, housewares, gates, railings and furniture made from hand-forged iron.

Since we haven't seen much wildlife here (we know, weird, huh?), we decided to pick up some of our own from Black Mountain Ironworks.

This snail immediately captured Brigette's eye:



Question: Are the praying mantises fighting or dancing?



We're a little short on mosquitos this season, so Dave picked this guy up. Maybe he'll scare off the few real ones that we have!