The Fall Season Is Upon Us....

We've been incredibly busy here at North Fork with both the gift shop and the Bed and Breakfast. We've had cool weather and rain. The leaves are changing like crazy and it's really beautiful. The picking of the straw flowers has slowed down. The new vented heater has been installed in the gift shop and Tim and I have been working on putting up the rest of the ceiling. It's tough because there's a lot hanging on the beams and the measurements change as we go along. Little by little though, we're getting there. I made some new soap this week that's really neat. Tiny bars that fit in the small organza bags. They will be a great addition for guests and for the upcoming holiday season!

Lots of new items....

We've got lots of new items in the gift shop! Beautiful aprons for the holiday season including Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and some that just celebrate the harvest. New Autumn Harvest soaps! A Fall line of bags that are just wonderful and 2 warm and cozy fleece throws to celebrate the upcoming Fall season. Many new candles including our new wooden wick candles. Lots of new things to see. The dried flowers continue to grow nicely. Statice and straw flowers are picked daily and the new dried flower bunches will be going up within the week. http://www.northforkgifts.com/ is the place to buy your holiday gifts or gifts for any occasion. The website is still being worked on. You can email me to pay for items that are not listed with a button for purchase. The bread is selling really well too!

Incredible Weather

Now it's back to work. The weather is wonderful! The flowers are blossoming nicely in the gardens and the second set of the corn crop is coming in. Due to an extremely wet summer, the pumpkins seem slim to none. The butternut squash seems non existent as well. When it's that wet, the plants form blossoms but as they begin to form the fruit, they turn black and fall off. This nice sunny patch of weather will hopefully provide enough drying time soon enough for some of these plants to produce. If they don't, there's always next year! The hummingbirds have started to migrate as there are fewer and fewer at the feeders these days. I used to take the feeders in on the first of September but read that there are stragglers who need extra food to make the trip. Hummingbirds won't stay just because the food is there. They know when to migrate and they will as soon as they are ready. Last year I had 2 little hummingbirds that stayed later than usual. As soon as they were plump, they took off.

We've had a few customers in the gift shop and that's very exciting. I need to make more soap and candles. I have many pressed flowers that need sorting and filing. The bread has been selling very well too. There's a lot of work to be done on the websites and I'm hoping when I get back some energy and have recovered from the start of work, I can make lots more stuff and be ready for the holidays!!

Finally some warm and sunny weather....

We are finally having some warm and sunny weather after 2 months of nothing but rain. Yesterday afternoon I was finally able to kayak and even went for a swim in the St. Lawrence! I haven't done that in years. We were kayaking just off Welsley Island. I had never been there and always wanted to go. The water was quite pleasant. We saw several Osprey. On one siting I was sure it was an eagle because of the white head but my daughter was quick to point out the black mask around the eyes and the pattern of black and white on the lower parts of the bird. We saw a Great Blue Herring as well hanging out on the side of the river. He was quite content to preen himself and look magnificent. All in all it was quite wonderful.

The garden is looking better with the warmth and the sun. The pumpkin plants are blossoming and the butternut squash is as well. The statice is growing like crazy. I've been able to pick a large bunch of flowers each day. The straw flowers are coming in better with more varied colors beginning to blossom.

North Fork B&B is quite busy and due to be even busier as parents bring their students to college. This morning's breakfast will feature sourdough pancakes! Yum!

Rain,The Farmer's Market and the Mystery of the Mouse!

I haven't written since our first trip to the Farmer's Market. Our first experience was very positive. Tim was able to sell his coffee and people were very interested in locally roasted coffee. It was great fun. I was also able to sell some of my soap and candles. It was a very nice day.

The paperwork never came together but I'm hoping the person will be able to meet on Monday so that this Tuesday I can sell baked goods at the Farmer's Market. We went last Friday as it was drizzling. We checked the weather map before we left and both thought the showers would subside. We were wrong! We got to the market and set up. People immediately were buying coffee and we thought we were in for a great day. Within minutes it began to pour. I quickly packed my things away in a large plastic tote. I slid the tables in a bit and moved some of the coffee to protect it from the rain. When Tim returned from some errands, it rained even harder. By a bit after 11 we decided to call it a day. The rain got worse and worse and we were worried about the labels on the coffee as they began to curl from the excess moisture. This week it looks like the weather will be better. One can only hope!

Well, the first time we went to the market I noticed mouse droppings in my car. I have searched the entire thing for this mouse. Today, I was going through the bath teas and saw some herbs in the bottom of the basket. Then, in the bottom of the tote there were, you guessed it, mouse droppings! Now I ask you, how does a little mouse get into a huge, sealed plastic tote, chew a bath tea, eat a pressed flower off the top of a candle and another one off of a soap box, and get out and away? This is just crazy!! The night before the market my new bath teas came in. I worked like crazy to make them for the market on Friday. There was no mouse then and there's no mouse now. Anyway, I'm showing some of the new bath teas that have escaped this mysterious, masterful mouse.

I'm very excited about these new bath teas. They are fun to make and they are nice to use. They also make a wonderful sachet. I plan to make more and include a new larger size as well.

We had guests at the B&B as well. Here's a picture of the breakfast table and the wonderful cinnamon french toast that we make here at North Fork B&B.

Off to the Famer's Market

Well, today I'm off to the Farmer's Market. We'll see how it goes. Tomorrow I will finally be getting the paper work in order so that I can market my bread. I'm very excited about that! So I'll be selling my sourdough bread at the market as well. I'm hoping they have taken care of checking into the coffee. We should be selling that today as well. Let's just hope the rain holds off!

The garden is doing well. The corn is pretty tall now and the rows that were eaten by the birds are even filling in better than I thought they would. Yesterday I had to free a bird from the deer fencing. I'm not sure I like that fencing. One bird got caught in it before but I didn't get there soon enough. I'll be back to talk about the Farmer's Market. Still working on the gift shop website. There just never seems to be enough time!!

Busy, busy time at the B&B and the gift shop

This is a fabulous sunflower field in Maryland. I had to take pictures of this! Quite beautiful.

After taking some time off and doing a little bit of traveling we're back at it full swing. The coffee business has been pretty busy these days with lots of deliveries. Coffee can be purchased from the website. I'm not sure why people aren't using it. I wish they would or let me know if there's a reason they don't. http://www.stlawrencevalleyroasters.com/ the best coffee ever!

So, getting back to the travel. En route to a family reunion, we checked out a dried flower farm where we purchased a wide array of fabulous dried flowers that will be available in the gift shop. The Wheat Wreath pictured above, is just one of the many different types of wreaths and swags we will have in our gift shop.

We stopped in Lancaster and Intercourse,PA where we found many great ideas for the both the B&B and the gift shop which I'm currently working on implementing.

We're finally linked with Bed and Breakfast.com and their blog site. We are on facebook as well. The linking thing there is a bit more complicated. I'm still in the process of figuring that out.

I hope to have some pictures of the garden and the flowers very soon so check back often.