The View from Hidden Pond Lane

This small lake may be called Hidden Pond, but that could just be the name of the road. It's not far from Harrisonburg.

Views from Moreland Gap Road

When I took Charlie to Fort Valley on Saturday, one of my goals was to get some pictures of mountain laurel. That may sound a silly because I have dozens of pictures of this plant in bloom from other years, but I like seeing it. I saw some along Fort Valley Road, but there was no safe place to pull off. I decided to drive home through Moreland Gap because that route has little traffic, although it is narrow and unpaved in places. 

I not only found spots to pull off where there was mountain laurel, but where there were also views of a pretty creek called Mountain Run. 

This may look like a sweet babbling brook, but sometimes it floods and closes the road. 

Even though the forest scenery is lovely, I felt relieved to emerge into farmland and civilization.

Mallards along Hawksbill Creek

Luray, VA

Mallard ducks looked unconcerned as people strolled past. I also saw other birds, including an egret flying by, but I couldn’t get pictures of them because I had Charlie on the leash. He’s usually on the move, sniffing here and there, and only the ducks seemed unafraid of him.

The creek had plenty of water in it, but if you see the debris level in the surrounding trees, you can see that it flooded recently. In fact, I read that the creek has a high level of E. coli right now, probably as a result of stormwater picking up manure and even sewage and carrying it into the creek. 

Parkland along the creek was created after a severe flood in 1966 proved that the riverbanks were not suitable for buildings. Open space and plants help prevent flooding by allowing stormwater to drain into the ground instead of rushing into the creek.

Saturday at Camp Roosevelt, the First CCC Camp

Visiting the Pump House Site

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Pets and Art in Luray

Yesterday in Page County

Charlie’s friend Sadie is checking out a mural in Ruffner Plaza. I’ve actually shared this mural before, but it was in 2017. Let’s look at some other things.

Monday Mosaics /  Murals

We saw a small sign explaining that a cat that wandered around was not a stray. We did not have the privilege of meeting the cat, though.

There were some plaques telling the early history of the town, which was established in 1812 on land owned by the Ruffner family. Another plaque said that the first bluegrass festival was held at in Luray in 1961.

We also stopped at an art gallery that is west of town. It’s run by the folks who used to have the Warehouse Gallery. 

A Loyal Following

On Thursday, I went to the funeral of Charles Poland, a beloved history teacher, who passed away at the age of 90. I wrote about him on Tuesday and have mentioned him many times over the years. The funeral was in Purcellville, not far from where my sister used to live. Then we formed a car caravan and rode out to Ebenezer Cemetery in Bluemont.

The ride felt familiar although most of the territory was new to me. Our field trips with Dr. Poland were carried out in a similar way: car following car down rural roads into the middle of nowhere. We passed homes and farms. At one point I thought I heard goats and glanced over and saw some standing on top of a car in a farmyard! 

Finally we reached a country cemetery, which seemed poetically appropriate. Dr. Poland often ended his tours at a cemetery where Civil War soldiers were buried, where he would discuss the losses of whatever campaign we were studying. Even though he made a career teaching and writing about the Civil War, he made sure we understood that it was a terrible and wasteful war. 

I picked out three more pictures from past tours to show you. The first one amuses me because group members are studying a map after we took a wrong turn near Cold Harbor. That rarely happened because Dr. Poland and his wife Betty drove the routes on a previous weekend to plan all the stops. He’s second from left in the picture.

When I first started taking his classes in 1989, I feared getting separated from the group because we had no cell phones or GPS. We only had small sketched-out maps, not to scale, and verbal directions. I only got hopelessly lost one time and that was in Newport News. 

I took these classes for 23 semesters, typically in the spring. It took eight years to complete all the eastern campaigns, and at that point I thought I was done, but a classmate called me and ask me to go again because he often rode with me and was afraid of getting lost by himself. So I did the whole series again, and then there were additional semesters covering specialized topics like guerrilla warfare and Civil War hospitals.  So I kept going until Dr. Poland retired. I loved these trips.

I wasn’t the only regular. There were people who started the courses before I did and kept on going almost until the end. This sort of travel could be strenuous so adult students sometimes found it became too hard to keep doing. Quite a bit of walking was required, and I remember getting exhausted.

(The CDP Theme is Shadows. Also Sharing with Shadow Shot Sunday.)

Dr. Poland usually wore a hat, and I quickly learned that it was important to have one for sunny afternoons. I also learned to carry sunscreen, water, snacks, and insect repellent. 

Today’s final photo is from 2009. It was a pleasure to see some of my old classmates at the funeral, and they were in this Appomattox photo: Jon and Sheryl W., Pam, John B., plus Martha and Betty. 

Notes: My Civil War Field Trips website was about these tours. Eventually I gave it up for the easier task of blogging.

I also wrote book reports for homework and turned them into reviews on Amazon, which was known mostly as a bookstore in those days. This started my hobby of writing reviews, which I still do.

Dr. Poland recently completed a book on Animals in the Civil War. I have ordered a copy.

The Last Week of May

It was a busy week. Marie left on Monday, which was Memorial Day. I had a dermatology appointment on Tuesday, and had to have a spot on my cheek removed for a biopsy. They also treated other sun-damaged spots, leaving me with a slightly beat-up looking face. And it rained. 

I always rest in the car for a while after that sort of appointment because I want to be sure that I have recovered enough to drive safely. The spray that they use on my face leaves me lightheaded. I took a picture of dogwoods through the wet car window.

I canceled the dental appointment that I had for Wednesday because I wanted a day to recover before the funeral that I was going to on Thursday. It rained again, and stopped long enough to take Charlie to Riley Park for a quick walk.

On Thursday, the weather was good. I’ll write about Dr. Poland‘s funeral later.

Yesterday we had more rain. There was a tornado warning, but it didn’t touch down here, although I heard it was seen in Page County. I did pick up my grocery order during a break in the weather.

Today was quite chilly for the end of May. I took Charlie to Camp Roosevelt for a walk, not venturing far from the car because there was a chance of rain again. I’ll share pictures from that trip on another day. 

In the meantime, here’s an image for Caturday.

Walking in Sync

This was in a college town so they may be students. They appeared to be enjoying a conversation.

Field and Bright Clouds

There’s a barn in the distance, but it 's lost in shadow so all you can see is the faint glow of the metal roof.

Song Sparrow in the Grass

Melospiza melodia

Wild Bird Wednesday / Wordless 

A Respected Teacher, a Caring Friend

 Charles Preston Poland, Jr.
1934 - 2025

Dr. Poland was an enthusiastic and caring teacher. I first took one of his history courses 35 years ago and enjoyed it so much that I kept taking his classes until he retired. Mostly, they were summer or spring field trip tours. I was fortunate that the first one I signed up for covered the beginning of the American Civil War. We followed the war chronologically for the most part. It took eight seasons to cover the entire war, and we only concentrated on action in Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. Much of the time was spent traveling by car, following the routes of the major campaigns. 

Some of my classmates had completed the series before and were doing it a second time. Well, I wound up doing the same thing. The trips were never exactly the same though, for Dr. Poland was always learning new things and leading us to new places. 

He and his wife were some of my favorite people. We continued to exchange Christmas cards after he retired. It hurts to lose him. 

Memorial Day 2025

Since Marie did not need to leave until noon, we took Charlie to the dog park in Strasburg this morning. I had another reason for going there, and that was to photograph the display of flags downtown.

The pedestrian bridge over the creek has been decorated with a very nice LOVE sign. The banks of the creek are newly landscaped.

There’s a pretty painted butterfly on the fence. The town has several other butterflies decorating fences and walls. Hanging baskets of flowers brighten the sidewalks.

Mosaic Monday / Murals 

There are two mosaics in front of a garden. There are also three painted concrete sculptures which remind me of waves.

Charlie did not run as much as usual in the dog park. I think he had a tummy ache from getting some human food last night. He was glad to have Marie there.

This is blog post #9100.