Is it Really Spring?

We were busy gearing up for Spring after a cold but practically snowless winter. The studio was turned into a silk flower arranging workshop with Regina, our head waitress, working her creative magic.
A new batch of pumpkin parsley wheat-free dog biscuits was made for welcoming any canine guest to our inn. We freshened up some bathrooms with new shower curtains. And we organized and restocked our art supply shop for the incoming art and fiber art workshops that we'll have this year (about 38 workshops!). Our art supply shop is open to the public year-round. We carry all sorts of supplies, notions, and tools for artists of a variety of media - watercolor, oil, pastel, acrylic, and quilt artists. During our fiber art workshops, we also get a mini fabric and notions shop supplied by our good friends from Log Cabin Fabrics in Selkirk (just 20 minutes from our inn).

Here is one of the magnificent finished bouquets creative by Regina. The weather was looking perfect - sunshine and 60s and 70s. Then - April Fools - Mother Nature decided to play a joke on us and this is what happened!




We love a good joke! Especially one that results in such a beautiful snowy landscape that we were missing all winter. Besides, the snow on the ground lasted only a couple days and now we are back to spring green everywhere!

Strolling the Inn Grounds

A quick photo stroll around the inn grounds! These were taken just about a month ago and already there are so many more flowers all around. These are actually peonies from our assistant innkeepers garden. They are tree peonies that bloom earlier than our regular peonies and she always brings in her "excess" to brighten the main inn common rooms. Bree, our ridgeback, is trying to look noble and worried at the same time. She hates to walk on the wet grass, but she loves going on walks.

This is the herb garden with the marigolds just after planting. Now they have completely filled in the bed and you can't even see the dirt anymore. Here is Bree, the dog who hates to walk in wet grass, showing us that she will make an exception for wading into the fresh puddles of rain water for a nice cooling drink. The chives are going wild, which is great because I use them in my goat cheese and chives scrambled egg special. Yum. This year we had robin build a nest right above the bend in the rainspout. A much smarter location than their usual spot above a doorway!

Flowers Abound

We are already deep into our workshop season with the painting and fiber/art quilt workshops, but we still take time to stop and enjoy the flowers that blooming in profusion all over the property.

We had a week of rain followed by a week of bright sunny weather that has really shifted the plants, vines, and trees in to high growing gear.








All that flower admiring is making me hungry! Here is a nice bowl of our house-made granola topped off with lots of fresh fruit that is always available for breakfast. Yum!

Snow and Savory Kitchen Adventures

While the East Coast has been getting their share of major snow storms, up here in the Catskills, the snow has been pretty light, comparatively. So we were happy to finally get a nice snow fall to blanket the landscape with a fluffy blanket of the cold stuff.

The dogs love going for walks around the property through the soft snow. They often stick their whole face under the snow to sniff the tantalizing scents underneath - mainly deer tracks!



I love all the shadows created by the trees!

But speaking of tantalizing scents, winter is also the time when we are experimenting with new recipes for the year. One of the recent dishes was a Roast Pork Loin with Pears and Cider.



It was a tasty dish with wonderfully delicate flavors. I just wish I'd had something to sop up all that luscious sauce!

Sum-Sum-Summertime

It summertime and the "livin' is easy." Actually it easy for our guests! We are still working hard to make sure that our guests are welcomed and pampered!

The pool is kept sparkling with daily cleaning.

Everyone enjoys hanging by the pool -- even this watercolor painting workshop with Tony van Hasselt, that is being held this week at the inn.

New flowers have been planted. This is a self-watering planter that I purchased from Gardener's Supply. It looks pretty and was simple to assemble. We'll see how it holds up over winter.

We've added two more climbing roses to the flowering pool fence. This one is called Don Juan.

The Korean Dogwood by the front driveway is putting on a tremendous display this year. It must like this hot/cold/wet weather we've been having.

Spring Spiffing-Up Projects

We took advantage of some days between inn guests to tackle some Spring projects.

I did the annual planting of marigolds in our herb garden. The garden had been doubled in size last year, so now I plant one half in marigolds and the other half in herbs. The marigolds are eatable and make lovely color accents in salads.

The old steps leading from the front lawn to the lower side lawn was repaired.

Next the painters arrived with this big hydraulic lift. This year they were painting the 3rd floor of the main inn, the cottage, and also power washing all the moss off the roof. They did a fabulous job and everything looks so fresh and new.

And then since they had the lift for the week, it only made sense to finally cut down the one dead and one dying 50 foot plus spruce trees that were next to the main inn. It was amazing how quickly and efficiently they cut down the trees and carted away the logs. See the size of that log that the one guy is lifting?!

Of course, we stopped to smell the flowers, too! All the lilacs around the property are scenting the air with the most wonderful aroma.

The river birches were also trimmed back. Several years ago as the result of a really heavy snow fall, several of the trunks were completely bent over and were practically touching the inn.

Marvelous Views Back Home in Greenville

I love to stay at B&Bs when we travel, and I'll admit to getting a little "innkeepers" envy when we discover such wonderful B&Bs as the last two we discovered.

But then we come home to our inn, the Greenville Arms 1889 Inn, and I fall in love with it all over again and remember that we've got quite the nice B&B, too!

Each week bring new flowers blooming all over the grounds.

We always get a lovely display of dandelions before the first mowing of the season.

The magnolia in the front side lawn is an amazing waterfall of blushing pink blossoms. Last year it was hit with a late frost and had hardly any blooms at all, so I think it is making up for that this year.

Another gem hidden amongst the tall lawn grass.

The dogwood tree out by the pool gets more beautiful every year.