Bed & Breakfast... and Birds

The weather has warmed up enough that we're back to serving in the sunny solarium at breakfast! Here are recent guests Lisa, Mike, Clarke, Marsha, Kathleen, Pat, Carol and Sandy enjoying Dave's frittatas and Pisgah National Forest:

Besides being a place for breakfast, the solarium is also a place from which you might observe our other breakfast-time (and afternoon and evening) guests -- those of the winged variety. For example, our American Goldfinches are back in full force and are having a grand time in the morning at our new feeders from Wild Birds Unlimited in Asheville.

As this next guy turned to say hello from behind one of the feeders, we thought he resembled a Marshmallow Peep just a little, so it's fitting that we share his picture on Easter, don't you think?

The Inn on Mill Creek near Black Mountain and Asheville, NC, is one of 105 Mountains Region sites on the North Carolina Birding Trail, something we're very proud of. Other nearby Birding Trail sites in the mountains of Western North Carolina include Biltmore Estate, Chimney Rock State Park, Grandfather Mountain, Linville Falls, Mount Mitchell State Park, the Mountain Gateway Museum in Old Fort, and the North Carolina Arboretum.

Just last week, innkeepers and guests heard and/or saw the following species of birds at the Inn:

• American Goldfinches
• American Crow
• Barred Owl
• Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
• Blue Jay
• Carolina Chickadee
• Carolina Wren
• Eastern Phoebe
• Louisiana Waterthrush
• Mourning Dove
• Northern Cardinal
• Pileated Woodpecker
• Red-eyed Vireo
• Ruby-throated Hummingbird
• Tufted Titmouse
• Whip-Poor-Will
• White-breasted Nuthatch

As one of a handful of private properties on the statewide driving trail, the Inn's grounds are open to birding enthusiasts seven days a week, by appointment. Please call 828.668.1115 or e-mail us to set up a time to come out and do some birding on the North Carolina Birding Trail! More than 120 species of birds make our neck of the woods their home at different times of the year.

Additionally, stay tuned as we're working out details to provide formal birding opportunities for our guests with our new friend and expert birder, Simon Thompson of Ventures Birding Tours. Some of you may recognize Simon from Wild Birds Unlimited in Asheville, which he owns with his partner, Chris, or from Chimney Rock State Park, where Simon serves as the Park's ornithologist and leads guided bird walks.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies (gluten free!)

Ding! Cookies are ready!

Our April recipe is our Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies, an adaptation on a Southern Living recipe. With no flour needed, this recipe is automatically gluten free. And even better, they are super easy to make!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
from the Inn on Mill Creek Bed & Breakfast
Prep time: 25 minutes / Bake time: 12 minutes / Makes 1.5 dozen

Ingredients

1 egg

1/2 Cup smooth peanut butter

1/3 Cup sugar or sugar substitute

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp salt

1/2 Cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 Cup white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350.

1. Mix egg, peanut butter, sugar, baking powder and salt until creamy.
2. Stir in chips.
3. Refrigerate mixture for 10 minutes.
4. Spoon onto cookie sheets (we use a tablespoon)
5. Bake for 12 minutes (we rotate the sheets once, halfway through)
6. Let cool for 10 minutes
7. Make another batch, because they go fast!

More April Blooms

Spring at our Bed & Breakfast in the mountains of Western North Carolina is zooming right along, and very beautifully we might add. A few days ago, we highlighted what's currently in bloom at the Inn. Here are some more blooms, which seem to be increasing daily. Yay, Spring!

Columbine

Lily of the Valley

Bleeding hearts in front of pink and white azaleas

Scotch Broom in front of irises that are going to bloom any day now

Chimney Rock Park Outcroppings Trail Back Open

We got great news last week from our friends at Chimney Rock Park, a beautiful state park in the Hickory Nut Gorge area about 30 minutes south of the Inn on Mill Creek. The park is named for a huge granite monolith called the Chimney, on which you can stand and see awesome views that span for miles. Here's a photo we took looking up at the Chimney in 2009:

Access to the Chimney has been restored after months of work to improve the Outcroppings Trail, leading from the upper parking lot to the stairs at the base of the Chimney. What we like about the "new and improved" Outcroppings Trail is that it now allows for two-way foot traffic so you no longer need to squeeeeze to get by someone on the way up as you head down or vice versa. This is a seriously fabulous improvement. Additionally, the Outcroppings Trail is pet-friendly, so four-legged friends (on leashes) can get by more easily as well.


Our guests who have mobility challenges should definitely keep in mind that climbing the stairs on the Outcroppings Trail is currently the only way to get to the top of the Chimney, as the park continues its upgrade this year of the elevator. Modernizing the elevator is a major undertaking and the work is expected to span the remainder of the year. But trust us, it will be well worth the wait to see those magnificent views from the top!

For more info on the park, the improvements to the elevator and Outcroppings Trail, as well as details about other trails and things to do around the park, check out Chimney Rock Park's website. And visit their Facebook page for the latest photos of Hickory Nut Falls after our big rain this past weekend. It's pretty amazing.

Now in bloom at the Inn (mid-April)

We've had some amazing weather the past two weeks...amazing in that we've had all four seasons wrapped into one! Small flurries, thunderstorms, warm sunny days, you name it. So, it's nice to see that Mother Nature is being consistent with the gorgeous flowers and flowering trees now in bloom around Asheville, Black Mountain and Old Fort -- our beautiful neck of the woods. Yep, Spring is still our favorite season.

Here's what's in bloom now at the Inn: Lilacs (the one pictured above is outside the Mountain Laurel Room window), daffodils in the White Garden (see below), bleeding hearts, violas and pansies, creeping phlox, tulips (albeit some hot weather days have shortened their days) and candytuft. In the "soon-to-bloom" category, we have irises (any day now) and our rose bushes have teeny tiny buds! So exciting. Visit our B&B Facebook Page for more photos, and consider Liking our page so that you can get automatic updates whenever we post new seasonal photos.

If you'll be in our neck of the woods this Spring or Summer and want to check out Mother Nature's colorful palate of flowers, here are some great "bloom report" websites to check out:

Asheville Bloom Calendar
Biltmore Estate: Blooming Now
Chimney Rock: What's Blooming
Grandfather Mountain Wildflower Bloom Calendar
North Carolina Arboretum: What's in Bloom

Visit to Painter's Greenhouse

Whenever we visit Painter's Greenhouse, one of our favorite nurseries in our area, it's tempting to take home flats upon flats of gorgeous plants and flowers. Painter's is amazing. But we've learned to pace ourselves {"we" meaning Brigette}, and with a list in hand, we recently headed over to the Painter's Greenhouse Herb Fest: live music, fabulous food, and plants everywhere.

Thanks to Painter's the herb garden at the southern end of the Pool Garden is now in good shape, with chives, thyme, thai basil, two kinds of sage, not to mention our fennel, lavender, chocolate mint, st. john's wort and tarragon that's already in the garden. Here are a few of our new herbs for 2011:

Plus, a beautiful rosemary shrub is now in its new home on the deck overlooking the solarium. And we picked out some Dusty Millers and Shasta Daisies for the White Garden.

We had a great time and a successful adventure. Already planning our next gardening mission with the help of Painter's...plants and flowers for all of our containers.

Return of the Phlox

Our creeping phlox in the Pool Garden (a garden that used to be a swimming pool) is blooming profusely and when it returns, that signals the return of butterflies to the Inn. Here are our first two winged visitors of the season...with many more to come. We've counted up to 40 butterflies at one time on the phlox, which provides a purple splash of color in the middle of the Pool Garden this time of year.