Chocolate Season

The chocolate season is another name for winter/spring around the Greenville Arms 1889 Inn. It's when our in-house chocolate company, Life By Chocolates, is in full swing producing chocolates for all of the holidays that fall between October and April.

This is the time when the scent of chocolate really fills the main inn!

Even if you can't make it to the inn at the moment, but are craving some wonderful organic chocolates, you can always purchase the chocolates on the Life By Chocolates website.

We are in the process of updating all of the photographs of the chocolates on our website - putting up bigger pictures of all of the individual chocolates. Here are a couple sample pictures to tempt your sweet tooth!

These are Lemon Logs - a white chocolate ganache center flavored with lemon juice and lemon zest and covered with an organic 73% dark chocolate. Then sprinkled with naturally colored sugar crystals.

Then there is one of my favorites, the Lavender Ganache! This is a heavenly rich ganache (soft chocolate - like a truffle filling) flavored with a hint organic lavender and covered with an organic 73% dark chocolate.

We always put 2 sample chocolates in your room for your arrival. So if you have some favorites or a particular chocolate you'd like to try, let us know when you make your reservation and we'll be sure to put a sample of that in your room!

Town Park As a Snowy Wonderland

I love the four seasons for the particular beauty that each one brings to our area. So the last time we had an over night snow storm, I couldn't resist going for a walk in the early morning to snap just pictures of the predawn beauty of one of our town parks.

The gazebo is host to music performances and BBQ cookouts in the summertime. It overlooks the pond, which is the white expanse in the foreground of the photo. The first building after the gazebo is the Greenville Library. Next is the All Arts Matter building, host to a wide variety of visual and performing arts events.

This is the clock at the park. Looks fetching in its white hat!

Below is the main intersection in Greenville - Route 32 and Route 81. The streets were totally empty while I was out walking around, but you can see what a good job the snow plow crews do in keeping the roads clear.

This picture is looking West across the town pond. Those small trees are the 50 or so little Christmas trees that are put around the park by the Rotary Club and then sponsored and decorated by local businesses (including us). In the evening their lights are on.

On the walk back to the inn I passed the Ann Lafferty Real Estate office, festively decked out in Christmas lights and The Towne and Country Shoppe, a fine family consignments shop. They have wonderful deals on not only gently used items, but brand new overstock items. Mark bought a fabulous new coat from them.

Back at the inn, here is our snow covered creek . . .

. . . and a vintage urn brimming with snow.

The outdoor sculpture is always lovely with the addition of a little snow.
This is a piece by Lisa Friedlander of California.

The picnic table by the swimming pool also had a good topping of the fluffy white stuff.

More awe inspiring quiet beauty in that cool gray-ish blue of early morning.

Hot Chocolate Weather

The snow is gently falling all around Greenville Arms 1889 Inn today. It makes me what to sit by a window with a mug of hot chocolate and a good book or my knitting.



The weather reports are predicting about 2 - 4 inches of fluffy white stuff, but the snow plows have been keeping the roads totally clear.

Without any wind, like the last snowfall, it is really quite pleasant outside and I love to see the snow collecting on the trees and scrubs.



The wishing well (the actual water well for the property before the property was connected to city water lines) is always picturesque in the winter.



Two of our most popular rooms in the winter (or any time) are the cottage rooms. Each of them has a gas fireplace and a whirlpool tub for two. The rooms are known as the South Cottage and the North Cottage.



Bundling up and sitting on the cottage porch with a hot beverage is fun, especially when it is snowing!



If you are looking for a more active stay in our area, the area ski resorts are getting plenty of packed powder! Windham Mountain and Hunter Mountain are just about 40 minutes away from our inn.

Winter White

The day after Christmas the snows came! The grounds around the inn now look properly wintery.

It was also quite blustery, putting the wind chill temps at -7, so I only ventured out as far as the front porch to take picture of our first snow.







There was a 2 foot snow drift in front of the kitchen door. Note that our Halloween pumpkin is quite frozen, which is why it still looks good at this late date.



We even got a good layer of snow on the second floor porch on the main inn.

Christmas Sunrise

Merry Christmas to all of our friends and family, and to everyone who has been our guest at the Greenville Arms 1889 Inn.



We wish you a happy and prosperous New Year and hope to see you at the Inn!

Christmas Eve Tradition

In my family it is tradition to wait until Christmas Eve to decorate the tree. Christmas Eve is all about decorating the tree with family and eating holiday treats!

My mom use to make a "normal" Christmas Eve dinner, but everyone would be so stuffed with cookies and ring-a-lings (a frosted raisin and cinnamon roll) that we hardly ever ate dinner.

So last night Mark and I decorated the tree.

It started with bringing in the tree. You can see that we have only a dusting of snow and the sun is brightly shining, but at least it is cold enough to feel like Christmas.



The first step in the decorating is putting on the lights. When I was little, I started out as a "light hanging assistant" with my Dad, then later with my older brother, but then it wasn't long until I was light hanging "master" - or the only one left happy to do this task!



Now it is completely left up to me. Everyone thinks that hanging the ornaments is more fun, but I love sparkling lights. We now use the new energy-efficient LCD light strings and they are great!

The finished tree! We have a very eclectic collection of ornaments - some purchased and some handmade.



Because we put the tree up so late, we also traditionally keep it up until around January 16th (my brother's birthday). So you have plenty of time to stop for a visit or a stay at the inn while the tree is on display in the front dinning room.

Our chocolate shop, Life By Chocolates, will also have all of the Christmas chocolates on sale -- making a visit even sweeter!

The Newest Wee Forest Folk

We are very happy to carry Wee Forest Folk in our gift shop at the inn. These are addictively collectable little mouse figures! I started collecting them myself in the 1980's.

We have all of the new Christmas figures available for sale and just received the specially designed piece by the founder of Wee Forest Folk - Annette Petersen, who is still design at the age of 91 years young.





It is called "The Elegant Hostess" (M-423).