| Azaleas at Biltmore bloom in late April / early May |
Azaleas. Do you like them? If so, then you should check out the thousands of amazing azaleas at Biltmore Estate in nearby Asheville, NC, during late April / early May. They have an entire garden — at 15 acres, it’s more like a park — dedicated to this lovely spring-blooming shrub.
| The (very green) Black Mountains of North Carolina in springtime |
We’ve updated our list of ten hikes around our neck of the woods that are great for enjoying springtime. Western North Carolina has elevations between 1,000 and 6,690 feet, so keep in mind that late March and early/mid-April may still be on the wintry side in the mountains at the higher elevations, while the flowers and flowering trees are blooming at middle elevations such as ours at 2,300 feet. By the end of April and first part of May, spring takes hold everywhere.
| Say hello to our daffodils |
Spring is here! It’s our favorite season, so you can imagine how happy we are, even though there may be a little bit of winter here and there over the next few weeks. Our forsythia and daffodils don’t care and therefore, we shouldn’t care, right? So take a moment to welcome Spring and enjoy these photos taken at the Inn on March 20:
| White-breasted Nuthatch at the Inn |
When you watch the suet and seed birdfeeders at the Inn on Mill Creek, you may notice a smallish bird with a big head, a short tail, and a white chest, with striking black and gray markings and black going over the top of its head, quickly scooting up and down and all around a tree trunk at weird angles. If he looks like the guy in the photo above, then you’ve seen the White-breasted Nuthatch, our March bird in the 12 Months of Birding series that we’re doing on the blog.
Can we talk chocolate for a moment, because not only is Asheville known as Foodtopia, but it’s also Chocolatopia as far as we’re concerned. Early this month, we perused three chocolatier shops in Asheville: French Broad Chocolate Lounge, Chocolate Gems and Chocolate Fetish. Nom nom nom.
