Arbor House News and Views

One of the favorite things our guests like to do is walk the path around Lake Tomahawk (.55 miles)
and look at all the ducks.  It is so easy to walk down our garden path and go through the gate down to the path.  The path goes by the tennis courts and you can look up to the mountains that surround our valley. The Blue Ridge Parkway is only minutes from our B&B and you can go either north to MT. Mitchell
or south to Mt. Pisgah.
Come check out the ducks but please don't feed them bread. They are starting to learn to live without the stuff humans like to throw at them and eat grass and bugs like nature intended.

There is something magical about sitting out on the deck in the evening feeling the cool breeze blowing across and looking out on the lake watching the sunset. The evening I took this picture there had been a storm that afternoon and the clouds were low and bouncing off the pretty colors. The colors of the Blue Ridge Parkway were soft purples and yellows and I thought it doesn't get much better than this.
Come check it out.

Working is the garden has it's payoffs and just looking at these flowers makes it worthwhile.
I worked in the garden yesterday half the day dividing plants and putting out lots of new annuals.
The flowers stay pretty for months and something is always blooming in the gardens until frost.
We are enjoying some nice cool evening and morning.  Today I did a 7 mile bike  loop around town and enjoyed the cool breeze.  The town of Black Mountain is building more greenways to ride and walk and it is so nice not to compete with the cars for the road.  I will be happy when the dream trail is build from Black Mountain to Asheville about 15 miles of paved trails by the Swannanoa River . 
Epic Bikes has rental bikes in Asheville and there is a good bike trail down the old 70 Road which is now a park way.  I love to ride down it but have not mastered coming back up the mountain.  I have someone pick me up at the bottom .

It is such a joy to walk out in the garden in the early mist and pick flowers to bring inside so everyone can see and enjoy them.  With the good rains we have been having the flowers are big and pretty this year. I just bought 4 flats of annuals that need to go in the ground today.  They will bloom and stay pretty until frost and that a long way away since summer doesn't start until next week.
The first park concert was fun last night and well attended. It starts at 6 and ends at 9 pm.  As I was walking home on the path around the lake I saw Dr. Wilson with a crowd of people watching the evening primroses opening with lots of blooms to entain the viewers.

The fountain on Lake Tomahawk provides such peaceful sounds and we enjoy it when we sit up on the deck and balacony looking over the lake.
Starting this Thursday the first of eight free Thursday night concerts kicks off the season for the parks department entertainment around the lake.  The Swayback Sisters will sing tonight and The Red Radish will cater food for the evening.  We have lawn chairs available for our guests to take  and sit on the lawn to enjoy the event.  It's a great evening to sit outside , enjoy the music and eat dinner.  If you get tired of sitting the lake has a half mile path that circles the lake and you can take a stroll to enjoy the gardens and watch the ducks.  It a very Black Mountain thing to do !

It's starting to look a  lot like summer in the garden . With some nice rains the flowers are starting to grow and the grasses are looking pretty.  I have cut flowers in vases all over the house and enjoying looking at them inside as well as outside.

It took 7 years but this past week I finished the last untamed patch of garden in the front yard.  Someone helped me pull all the weeds and put down a good mulch cover.  It looks great.

Exciting times to be had in Black Mountain are going down to the lake to watch the Evening Blooming Primroses open at 9 PM.  The blooms start to wiggle and then open quickly . People stand around the bed looking as hundreds of blooms start to unfurl and watch and wait for them to open. Dr. Wilson likes to tell the on lookers about the history of the plants and how they have a sweet scent to attract the night moth.  The season of the blooms starts early June and peaks around July 4th.   Dr. Wilson usually has some seeds left over from the year past to share with people and a sheet of planting instructions.
The Friends of Lake Tomahawk earned money to have a rock wall built behind the flower bed and people can sit on it to watch the flowers open.