Mt. Zion in Strasburg

Yesterday’s post mentioned several old cemeteries in Shenandoah County.  Since I was in Strasburg today, I went by the Mount Zion Methodist Church to take a picture of the old African-American cemetery.

Interestingly, the church building dates back to 1869 but it was not on this site. According to Shenandoah Stories, the original building was dismantled and moved to the present site, where it has been improved over the years.

Grave Matters

A View of African American Burial Grounds

On Tuesday, there was a talk at our county library for Black History Month. As a history enthusiast, I look forward to special events like this.

The presenter was Zachary Hottle, archivist at Shenandoah County Library. His talk was entitled “Grave Matters, An Exploration of Shenandoah County’s African American Burial Grounds.” He told us about the ones that have been identified so far. No doubt there were other cemeteries that have been lost to time. Even some of the ones that he listed have disappeared from view, as wooden markers disintegrated and stones sunk into the earth. 

Today I took a few photos at Riverview Cemetery, which I’ll share below. On Sunday, I posted pictures of the Mount Jackson Colored Cemetery. Two years ago, I wrote a post on the Corhaven Graveyard. 

The Riverview Cemetery is scenically located at the top of a hill. Unlike most of the other burial grounds on Zach‘s list, it does not date back to the time of slavery. It was established in 1906 and is still in use. There was an earlier cemetery in Woodstock before this one was established, but that one was not preserved.

Yellow Wall with Birds

Today was busy because I had physical therapy for my knee at 9 AM, and then this afternoon, I went to the dentist to have a tooth pulled. It was way in the back and my dentist felt that I would be fine without it. The other option was to get a root canal and I’ve been through that enough times. They don’t last a lifetime for me. I’ve already had a couple that went bad and had to be replaced with implants.

The procedure was not pleasant, of course. At least there was a birdfeeder outside the window for me to watch. I saw sparrows and other small birds, plus mourning doves and a cardinal feeding on the ground. 

Ii

Now I feel very tired. I'm going to go to bed soon. But first, here's a white throated sparrow that landed on my automated feeder.

Reflection Collection

 Pictures from Past Posts

Mosaics / Wordless

Mac’s Roller Rink

 Near Front Royal 

I took these pictures a year ago and apparently forgot to post them. Mac’s is one of the few rollerskating places that are still left around here.

Monday Murals

Mount Jackson Colored Cemetery

In Mt. Jackson, Shenandoah County

This is on Nelson Street behind the Old Soldiers Cemetery. Surnames include Banks, Berry, Bullett, Clifford, Cook, Dyer, Fadely, Green, Jennings, Lewis, Rankins, Rinker, Spinner, Turner, and Wilson.

In 2024, an archaeological survey was completed that uncovered a number of graves previously unknown, their markers gone. Some were on adjacent property, apparently because fences had encroached upon the property lines.

According to Shenandoah Stories, there were graves here by 1862, and were mentioned in writing by a Union officer. 

Rainy Day Creek, Cold Weather Birds, Plus My Beagle

Yesterday’s post showed a log home in Mount Jackson that’s near Mill Creek. In this view of their yard, you can get a glimpse of the creek in the background. 

Wanting to get pictures of the creek, I braved the cold rain and walked on the bridge where Main Street crosses the creek. I was surprised when a heron took flight up the creek. It’s in the center of this picture and looks white, although I’m certain it was a great blue heron.

Except for the heron, that was a disappointing picture. Such a gloomy winter day! Let me make up for it with something bright.

The cardinal visited my feeder today. You may be thinking that a feeder with a camera is a great thing, but it can be time consuming. Mine is a Birdfy feeder, and the battery keeps running down when the temperature falls below freezing. But winter is the time that I want to feed birds. They have plenty of natural food in the summer, and birdseed can attract less desirable animals too.

I’ll show you a couple pictures of Charlie. He doesn’t like having his picture taken.

A Wooden Mill and a Log Home

The town of Mount Jackson began as a settlement where the Great Wagon Road crossed Mill Creek. The original gristmill existed before 1746, and the current building replaced it in 1872. Until recently, this mill had fallen into disrepair, but it has been fixed up and painted.

The road eventually became the Valley Pike and is now US 11. In Mount Jackson, it is known as Main Street.

Across the road from Mount Jackson Mill is a log home built in 1751. Additions have been built on to the back, but the front of the home still displays the original logs.

I took these pictures on a rainy day and the house is reflected on the street. The picture looks lopsided because the street runs downhill to Mill Creek, but the foundation was built up so the house would be level. You can see where the roof to the front porch was, but the porch was removed when the road was widened in the 1930s.

Local lore says that George Washington visited this house. A better documented story tells us that it was used as a Civil War hospital, which was true of many buildings in the Shenandoah Valley since multiple battles were fought in the region.

Walking at 7A.M.

My dog wakes me up around daybreak. Sometimes he gets up a little earlier if there’s noise outside, but I try to get him to wait until there’s light outside before we take a walk. 

This was the sky at 7 o’clock Tuesday morning. Yesterday and today had very gray skies. It was also really cold! I always check the weather report before we go out so I know how much to bundle up. This morning the “feels like” temperature was 6°F. (-14.4°C). That’s so cold that Charlie hurried back to the house as soon as we were within sight of it. 

Birds and the Weather

The birdfeeder camera started recording this morning as soon as there was light. A white throated sparrow was at the feeder when a female cardinal flew  up and chased it off. Here’s the moment of confrontation.

I had a medical appointment at 9 o’clock and it was barely starting to snow when I got there. When I left a half hour later, the snow was coming down in big flakes. By the way, I left with a script for an x-ray of my knee and another script for physical therapy. 

I came home and sat on the couch with Charlie, dozing off for a little while. By lunchtime, the ground was covered with snow, but the driveway was still clear.

A female and male house finch shared the feeder. 

After the snow let up, it started melting, which surprised me because the high temperature today was only 23°F (-5°C). I guess the ground was still warm from yesterday, which was sunny and milder.

The little sparrow kept coming back and Ms.Cardinal kept trying to intimidate it. This scene was recorded after 5 PM.

Our daylight hours have thankfully gotten longer.

Presidents Day Protest

Yesterday in Woodstock, VA

Historic Shenandoah County Courthouse. 

Hundreds of People Showed Up.

Reflection. (Linking with Wordless Wednesday on Tuesday)

Mural for a Rain Barrel

Last week I took Charlie to W.O. Riley Park for a walk. I saw a colorful fence at a picnic shelter and went to investigate.

There is an enclosure with a mural on three sides. It represents the river and there’s a sign. 

SLOWING DOWN WATER

This tank catches the shelter rooftop rain runoff and stores it. The water in the tank can then be used on nearby plants or slowly released back into the ground, promoting natural filtering and cleaning it of pollutants. This demonstration project exists to educate the community on how individual households can contribute to improving water quality in the North Fork of the Shenandoah watershed.

Did you know? One inch of rain that falls on a 1000 square-foot roof provides 600 gallons of rainwater.

This display is a project of the Friends of the North Fork and the Town of Woodstock with funding from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. There is more information on the FNFSR website.

Monday Murals

Blog Post #9000

Nine thousand is a huge number of blog posts. I’ve been blogging for over 19 years, almost every day.  With any luck, I’ll make it to 20 years. Perhaps at that point I’ll cut back and skip a day here and there. 

Today I looked back at earlier anniversary posts. Post #1000 happened on Lynn‘s birthday so I shared two pictures of her. 

In order to save space, I’m combining some of the photos into collages. I used the web version of Photocollage for this. 

I didn’t find a post labeled 2000, but this picture of me is from a post that was close to that. 

Post #3000 showed my childhood home and a chalet that was home many years later. “I’ve always lived in Virginia,” I wrote.

I created a computer image with a squirrel as a background because the title of this blog is “The View from Squirrel Ridge.”  I gave it the title when we were living in the chalet on a ridge in Basye. 

A photo of me at Breaks Interstate Park appeared in #4000.

Post #5000 has pictures of me, my sister Peggy, and younger daughter Marie.

I didn’t find a post labeled number 6000 but one close to it had pictures of a visit to Shenandoah National Park. 

Post #7000 had one picture and I used a special effect that looks weird to me now. I think I was getting tired of showing my face, but anniversaries are a good time to re-introduce myself in some way. This is a screen print of the first part of the post.

Post #8000 featured a visit to a goat farm in West Virginia.

Sharing with Mosaic Monday

These posts covered some of my most frequent topics: Shenandoah, Family, and Animals. Somewhat in contrast to those, the post that gets the most hits is my 2014 one about the three towering crosses near the interstate. I think that people who drive on I-81 are often curious about their striking appearance. They are maintained by Restoration Fellowship Church.

If you have read this far, thank you! Many of my readers are fellow bloggers, and I apologize that I am not as punctual on commenting as I would like to be. If you have any tips on how to comment efficiently yet meaningfully, let me know.