February is Gone; Let's Catch Up.

Willy Nilly Friday

1. Today's weather was unpleasant, as last night's snow turned to cold rain. I took a few pictures from the window, but for now I'm posting February scenes. Yesterday I mentioned that the March theme at City Daily Photo is "Green."  Not much has greened up here but I did see some fields turning green recently. 

Also Sharing with Skywatch Friday.

2. The bike rack interested me for its symmetry.  It didn't have much color so I turned it into a black and white photo to share with The Weekend in Black and White.

3. Linkups keep me shooting themes that I might otherwise neglect. Here I noticed reflections in a laundromat window and got out my cell phone to take a picture, when a child decided that the ledge inside the window was a good place to walk.

4. I like finding a flower in a vase when I sit down in a restaurant. Again my cell phone came in handy, taking a picture for Friday Flowers.

5. One thing I enjoyed about February is that there are interesting events, in contrast to January which is very quiet around here. Since it is Black History Month, a number of places featured special lectures, and as a history buff, I eagerly went out of my way to attend three of them. The final image today is a slide that was shown at a talk at the MSV. This same law was mentioned at a lecture at Oatlands, as it was relevant to both stories:

"In Virginia, legislation passed that any emancipated slaves, freed after May 1, 1806, who remained in the Commonwealth more than a year, would forfeit the right to freedom and be sold by the overseers of the poor for the benefit of the Parish."

This reflected fears of a slave rebellion and a distrust of freedmen.  It added a burden to people who wanted to free their slaves, for now they had to consider how to transport them out of the state, and at the same time it burdened the newly emancipated with great sadness at having to leave friends and relatives and travel to a strange place.