Nature and Nurture

In another life, I had sheep in my yard. Remember the sixties? I didn’t have a lawn mower and I really did believe that the sheep would groom my yard. I needed the fleeces – I was working on my master’s degree in fibers – spinning and natural dyeing. I lived on the south side… Read more

I love our new hand-drawn B&B farm map – made just for Big Mill I love the outbuildings here on the farm – they are almost 100 years old. We have the Smoke House where my folks cured sausage and hams and stored the lard and fatback to feed five families; the Wash House where… Read more

High Cotton in the antebellum South meant that the cotton was high, prices were good and all was well on the plantation. Yep, we’re in High Cotton on the farm here at Big Mill Bed and Breakfast this year. Right outside my kitchen window the cotton is as high as I can remember. My brother… Read more

Late summer evenings in Big Mill B&B’s garden are filled with sweet scents The show begins in the afternoon at 5 o’clock, when the Four O’clocks start blooming. They are an old flower that my mother and grandmother raised and shared with their friends. It is a wonderful plant and each flower can have several… Read more

Our Evening Primrose, wildflower and beautiful King’s cure-all, is often considered a weed Evening Primrose photo by Chloe Tuttle But here at Big Mill Bed & Breakfast, Evening Primrose is glorified, photographed, written about and touted as entertainer – watching it bloom is a great way to spend an evening in the garden. Take a… Read more

Spiderwort – Big Mill’s “Canary in the coal mine” This wonderful blue flower that grows in my eastern North Carolina garden is Spiderwort (Tradescantia), pronounced  trad-ess-KANT-ee-uh. Each day in spring and early summer I am greeted with the vibrant blue of these odd beauties. Then about noon, they close. My mother loved these flowers –… Read more

Just settle into the hammock or in a swing on the farm at Big Mill and wait …. but not for very long. Yes, you’ll have to wind down and be still and quiet – but you will be well-rewarded. Soon, right before your eyes, the birds start singing and hop out of their hiding… Read more

Our hummingbirds arrive at Big Mill B&B sometime around Easter – and it is with a flourish and a big show, chattering and demanding food.  And since we are a designated Bird and Breakfast Bird-Friendly Business, we willingly obliged. Guy’s outstanding photo, taken here at Big Mill B&B, earned him 1st place in the 2010 Beaufort County Arts… Read more

Did you know that bees are responsible for every third bite of food that we eat? Bees are fascinating little creatures and they are in trouble. The Great Sunflower Project was begun in 2008 by the biology department at San Francisco State University to study the wild bee population. In 2009, lots of us were… Read more