Glorious Fall Colors Abound

The trees on our property have finally decided to put on their Fall show.

This is the view stepping out the front door of the Greenville Arms 1889 Inn.

Looking to the left on the front porch.

Looking down the driveway of the inn.

Looking at the driveway entrance from the sidewalk.

Looking down the front of our property from the street. Notice the "Chocolate Shop is Open" sign! Life By Chocolates has created some fabulous Fall chocolates with the flavors of pumpkin pie and homemade marshmallows.

Looking down the sidewalk in front of the inn. The sign is the logo for our Hudson River Valley Art Workshops. We still have some wonderful art quilting workshop this year, plus the retreat week- Nov. 1 - 7 - when anyone is welcome to sign up for 1 night to 6 nights and make use of the spacious studio to work on whatever they wish (painting, quilting, knitting, scrapbooking, writing, collaging, etc.) and get great meals, too!

The Red Squirrrels Are Going Nuts

As winter approaches it is always fun to watch the squirrels in their annual frenzy of gathering nuts. There is one little red squirrel that always sits in the same spot every day in one of our trees and works on chewing the shells off walnuts.

I wish I had a better zoom lens for a close up, but you can still see his cute little face!

Summer Events at Hunter Mountain

There are some wonderful events coming up at Hunter Mountain. During the winter Hunter Mountain is, of course, one of the two ski resorts within 30 - 40 minutes of the Greenville Arms 1889 Inn. But they also have a lot of great activities happening in the summer.

Besides the Skyride, a 5,500 foot long chairlift to the summit of Colonel's Chair where you can see tremendous vistas of the Catskill Mountains, there are the following fun events:

• August 8/9: German Alps Festival
  
• August 15/16: International Celtic Festival
  
• Sept 26/27: Microbrew and Wine Festival
  
• Oct. 3/4 and 10/11: Oktoberfest Celebration
  

There are still plenty of flowers in bloom around the inn and the weather has stayed in the 70s with a couple of 80s now and then. Perfect for walking around town or sitting on the front porch.

Another Dalmatian on the Way to 101!

Delores, our office assistant, chocolate saleswoman extrordinaire, and all around nice person, gave me a new dalmatian figurine for my collection on my birthday today. It's it so cute!

I've had 6 dalmatians in my life so far and use to do the show circuit with some of them. So I've built up quite a collection of dalmatian figures. The entire collection is displayed in the dining room of the Greenville Arms 1889 Inn in the wonderful built-in display cabinets.

Hudson is our current Dalmatian and he is a dog with a great sense of humor, but I don't think he'd ever wear bows in his ears!

It's Not As Rainy As You Might Think

The weather sites are predicting rain for the rest of the week, but it's not as rainy as you might think. Mostly it has just been a couple of sprinkles during the day and then totally sunny and beautiful. Then the real rain happens at night leaving everything nice and refreshed in the morning. This makes it perfect weather for a walk around the grounds of the inn to check out all the flowers!

This is the Dalmatian Foxglove. Not quite as spotted as Hudson, our dog, but probably has a better scent! ;-)

We have wonderful patch of wild strawberries that is doing particular great this year. I have been using them as a little accent on top of the peppermint brownie pie that I make for dessert.

A fabulous workshop on painting expressive portraits with Paul Leveille, a master portrait artist from Connecticut, just finished here at Greenville Arms, home of the Hudson River Valley Art Workshops.

Rain, Rain Means Green, Green in Greenville

We are finally get a bit of rain at the Greenville Arms 1889 Inn. I love the rain, especially if I just planted something new!

The gardens are coming a long nicely and our gardener and I are keeping the weeds at bay. Here is little photo tour of the new garden growth.

Ok, so I like Lamb's Ear and have some in practically every area of the gardens. It is just so soft and I love the tiny lavender flowers. Of course, the other reason I like is because the deer don't!

Today was perfect weather-wise. In the 70's, a nice breeze, and the sun peeking through the clouds. Mark and I enjoyed our espresso and latte beverages up on the second floor porch in the main inn. Just marvelous - to feel the gentle breeze and see the maple tree leaves waving.

It was such a nice day that we so took the dogs, Hudson and Bree, out to the back for a nice run around lawns in the "back 40". Hudson loves to fetch and Bree loves to fetch Hudson.

World Wide Knit In Public Day - June 13th

Did you know that it is World Wide Knit In Public Day on June 13th this year? I just heard about it myself through Twitter, but being a knitting fiend myself, I jumped on the bandwagon or yarn-wagon as the case may be!

I know this is short notice but I plan to spend the day on the front porch of the Greenville Arms 1889 Inn knitting and I invite one and all to join me in this fiber-love fest. I'll be knitting from 11:00am to 6:00pm.

I've got my projects ready to go!

I'll provide the coffee, tea, and cookies - you bring your knitting!

As a special deal, just for those participating in this event, all room rates for Saturday night will be half price! So the knitting frenzy doesn't have to end at 6:00pm!