Fall Colors hitting their stride at the Greenville Arms

The Fall Colors are just hitting their stride here at Life By Chocolate at the Greenville Arms. The surrounding country side may be past it's prime, though still very colorful and beautiful, but as you can see, we still have plenty of green leaves getting ready to change, as well as plenty of beautiful fall trees and bushes. Now's the time to come up and visit us.

Apple Picking Time

Fall is a glorious time to be in the Catskills. Not only our the tree leaves turning magnificent colors of yellow, orange, and red, but it it apple picking time!



There a number of pick-your-own apple farms in Greene county. Two of them are Schnare's Sunset Orchard and Boehm Farm.

You still have time to see some great Fall color. The trees around the Greenville Arms are just starting to turn and the ivy on the Main Inn is starting, too.



The pool may be closed, but it is a lovely spot to sit with a nice cup of hot chocolate, coffee, or tea - which is available anytime!

Prime Time Fall at Olana

This is the time of year I love the most - the brisk air, the falling leaves, colorful trees, and sunny skies!

There are many wonderful scenic routes to drive around our area to take in the glorious Fall colors. One of these destinations is Olana, the historic estate and home built by Frederick Church, who was one of the Hudson River painters of the turn of the previous century.

I recently enjoyed an afternoon up at Olana (located in the town of Hudson) when I delivered lunches to our group of painters taking a workshop with Hudson River Valley Art Workshops.



The views were tremendous - you could see the Hudson River and the Catskill Mountains.

The house is pretty stunning, too!





One of my favorite places to walk at Olana is their perennial garden located on a lower slope near the house.



It seems like there is always something blooming.



And they have interesting varieties of flowers.

The Scent of Chocolate

Fall means chocolate at the inn because that is when Life By Chocolates, our chocolate company starts getting in gear for the chocolate season - starting with Halloween

We start making chocolate cats by the dozens! We have dark chocolate, milk chocolate, white chocolate, and vegan dark chocolate cats!

We also have beautiful gift boxes of chocolates, perfect as a gift or for snacking in your room.

This boxes have a selection of some of our favorite flavors for Fall, including Maple Creams, Pumpkin Pie Caramels, Peppermint Cordials, and more.

All of these chocolate confections are made right at our inn using the finest ingredients, starting with organic chocolate.

Our chocolate shop is open Wednesday thru Sunday from 10:00am to 5:00pm, but since we are an inn and open practically all the time, if you get a hankering for some fabulous chocolate at a time when we are "closed", give us a call!

September Flora

Fall is definitely on the way, although there was not yet been much color changes on the trees.

The robins have all left their nests. (This one was built on our fire escape stairs.)

The foxglove is still blooming.

The marigolds in the herb garden are going gangbusters, threatening to crowd out all the herbs!

The ivy is still creeping around.

And the Angel's Trumpet is still putting out their spectacular blooms.

But, as I said, Fall is just around the corner!

Yes, We're Still Here and Still Having Great Workshops

I can't believe it is a month since my last blog post. I guess we've just been having too much fun with the workshops.

Now let's see . . . where did I leave off.

Yes, the wonderful weekend with Larkin Van Horn (she'll be back in 2012!)

Following Larkin, was another fantastic workshop taught by Rayna Gillman - Deconstructing the Screen.

This is Rayna giving a little trunk show of her own work.

This was a wonderful class made up of both fiber artists, wearable art artists, and print makers. A marvelous convergence of ideas and talent.

If you're wondering about the pile of white fabric on the tables, it is the mother lode of machine-made lace. It was donated to us by an inn guest of ours who was downsizing. The piles use to fill 4 tables, but now it is down to just 2. It is free for the taking, so if you're in the area stop by soon before it is all gone!

This is a print done on fabric and on watercolor paper.

The railing on the North Cottage was turned into a drying rack / display!

The rope lines strung between trees in back of the studio also featured a colorful display every day.

Rayna and Calli talk about screen printing. Calli is the sister of Koo Schadler, who teaches an egg tempera class for us (Koo is coming next year - sign up early as her class always fills quickly).

Mice in Greenville!

No, I'm NOT talking about the scurrying, furry kind! The Greenville Arms gift shop now carries Wee Forest Folk, wonderful and whimsical mice figurines hand-crafted by a family company in MA.

Wee Forest Folk just announced a couple of new customizable figures that are just the cutest!

They are customizable with the type and number of toys on the mousey's bed and on the floor around the bed.

I'll be ordering my favorite combo to have in our shop, but would be happy to order a custom one for you!