Mural on Half Wall Revisited

This wall in Strasbug has been repainted. The flowers are bigger and bolder than the old version.

The door to the florist is also painted with flowers!

Sharing with Monday Murals

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

Albert Gallatin Willis

This afternoon I stopped at the Flint Hill Baptist Church because a sign indicated that there was a Civil War Trails marker. I was curious to see what the marker was for and also to view the little church. The marker turned out to be behind the church near this monument.

"Albert Gallatin Willis" – the name was familiar. It turned out he was a member of Mosby's Rangers and I have heard many stories about them. I toured quite a few Mosby-related sites with Professor Poland's Civil War classes and a read at least one memoir by a member of the Rangers.

Albert Gallatin Willis

A Life Laid Down for a Friend

This is the burial site of a Mosby Ranger who sacrificed himself for a friend. By the autumn of 1864, Confederate John S. Mosby’s Rangers had so harassed Union troops, supply lines, and railroads in northern Virginia that Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant ordered, “Where any of Mosby’s men are caught, hang them without a trial.” Six Rangers were summarily executed in Front Royal on September 23; one dragged through the streets as his mother begged for his life. 

On October 10, Rangers on the Chancellor farm near here captured a Federal soldier posing as a Confederate and hanged him on the spot. In retaliation, Union Gen. William H. Powell burned the farm buildings. On the afternoon of October 12, Ranger Albert Gallatin Willis, a ministerial student, shared a meal with Miss Lucy Twisdale, here at Rose Cliff. Shortly thereafter he and another Ranger were captured at the blacksmith shop on Ben Venue plantation and taken to the Marlow farm near the Chester Gap Turnpike at the foot of the Blue Ridge. Powell ordered that one of them be executed. Willis’s companion was initially chosen. He begged for his life, as he was married, had a family, and was not prepared to die. Willis, who was single, offered to take his place, then prayed for the executioners. He was hanged the next day from a poplar tree on the Marlow farm. Lucy Twisdale and three male friends retrieved Willis’s body and buried him in the corner of this churchyard.

You can read the rest of the sign on HMDB.org. The story sounds harsh today, but if you consider that the United States Army considered Mosby's Rangers to be terrorists, it makes more sense.

Sharing with Sundays in My City 

Flint Hill Baptist Church

Flint Hill is a charming town about 13 miles southeast of Front Royal. Erected in 1854, this church is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Sharing with My Town Shoot Out and InSpired Sunday

and Black and White Weekend 

Rhino at Rhodes Elementary School

Front Royal, Virginia

P.S. I just learned that students call her Attie, after the school motto of Attitude and Accomplishment.

Sharing with Sepia Saturday

A Little More Winter

We've had a couple weeks of spring-like weather but winter came back today. Snow fell all day but fortunately the ground was warm so accumulation was under an inch. A tree that just blossomed yesterday was frosted with snow. Little Squirrel visited one of the few feeders that I'm still keeping filled.

I still have pictures of geese taken earlier this winter, so here are three of them that I hope you enjoy.

Sharing with Saturday's Critters and The Bird D'Pot

and Weekend Reflections

Overlook Sunset

These scenes are from a week ago. I took the first two photos at Dickey Ridge, the northernmost visitor center on Skyline Drive.

As the sky darkened, I drove toward Front Royal and stopped at the last overlook before you leave the park.  A deer was grazing there and very kindly stepped out from the shadows so I could photograph him with the lights of town and the Shenandoah River below us.

Sharing with Skywatch Friday and 

Orange You Glad It's Friday

and Scenic Weekends

Three Pictures From March 2015

A Year Ago... 

I'm clearing some files off my computer and I don't know if I ever got around to posting these.

1. Little Ben is no longer around but I still miss him sometimes.
2. These tall straight trees stand at milepost 8 on Skyline Drive. I posted a springtime view of this forest in May.
3. I've pictured other views of this tree before. It's in our yard.

Sharing with: Thoughtless Thursday

Little Marie by a Fence

In Alexandria, VA

This snapshot from the 70's was badly faded so I scanned it and brought it up in Photoshop. Simply using Autotone and AutoColor (under the Image menu) made a huge difference!

Sharing with Good Fences

Mourning Doves in the Afternoon

Sharing with Wordless Wednesday and

Wild Bird Wednesday and 

Black and White Wednesday

Two Sides, Two Signs

Sharing with Signs, Signs

Squirrelly Sports

Sharing with Our World Tuesday

and Wordless Wednesday on Tuesday

An Old Cemetery in a Golf Course

The Front Royal Golf Course has some old stone walls that enclose an old cemetery. I almost gave up on finding information on this feature but I changed my search terms and came up with the nomination document (1992) for the Front Royal Recreational Park Historic District to the National Register of Historic Places, which includes this paragraph:

"The Hand-Ash family cemetery is about a quarter mile south of the abandoned shelter. The cemetery is overgrown with trees and shrubs and pitted with groundhog borrows and is not maintained. A dry-laid limestone wall surrounding the graveyard is in good condition except on the south side, where stones have been removed."

It was not overgrown when we happened upon it, so I think it is now maintained to some extent. I noticed grave markers for George A. Ash, Mary H. Ash, Buckner Ash, Emily J. Ash, and Elizabeth Hand, all born in the 19th century.

Sharing with Tuesday's Treasures and Through My Lens

Middle March Random-osity

The Good,  the Random, and the Fun

The Good: I love tree-lined roads! This is Indian Ridge Road between Mauzy and Harrisonburg. I imagine that our famed Valley Pike once looked like this before it was widened. I'm sharing these cedars with Nature's Footsteps Trees and Bushes.

The Random: We stopped at Bob Evans Restaurant for lunch. I noticed this mural and snapped it with my cell phone for Monday Murals.

The Fun: I enjoy the surprises that I see when I look at the pictures captured by my trail cam. I've moved it since the last batch of movement-triggered photos so we get to see something other than grass!

Click the see a large version.

Above we see (1) just a tree, (2) a muscovy duck, (3) tree at night, (4) tree in snow, (5) me, and (6) some small critter's eyes in the dark. I'm sharing this collage with Mosaic Monday.

Below we see the critter, apparently an opossum. And finally we have what I think is a fox.

Behind the Opequon Church

The Opequon Presbyterian Church is next to Kernstown Battlefield just south of Winchester.  I've written about it before.

There's an old cemetery next to the church and a much smaller one behind it. As you can see, this tiny plot is close to a housing development.  The houses are designed for people over the age of 55.

Several of the markers are for members of the Cruickshank family. This one tells us that Elizabeth Cruickshank was born in Scotland in 1845.

From the church we can see the old farm that lies on the Kernstown Battlefield, site of two Civil War battles.

Visit the Kernstown Battlefield website.

Sharing with InSpired Sunday and The Barn Collective

Hanging Branch

Blog Post #5450

Thank you, Black and White Weekend for selecting my shadow shot from last weekend as one of the six displayed this week!

Sharing with Black and White Weekend and Weekend Reflections

Another Deer at Dark

I used the flash for this ... had to darken the eye in Photoshop because the light turned it white. Then I changed it to sepia-tone but that's barely noticeable because the natural color is brown.

Sharing with Sepia Saturday and Camera Critters

A Powershot Workout

Finally! My Canon Powershot G16 came back from repair this week. Actually, what I got back was a replacement camera. They had mine for 5 weeks and couldn't find what was wrong with it. The problem was intermittent, like a car that won't act up in front of the mechanic. It occasionally happened when I zoomed in and then tried to zoom back out, but since I take a number of nature photos, I need the zoom to work reliably. And this was the third time I've sent the camera to Canon for repair, all under warranty. The technician thought it might be a problem with the viewfinder not synching with the zoom.

I've been trying out the new camera yesterday and today. So far, so good! Here are some sample shots.

Frank took my picture in Winchester.

These deer are in Shenandoah National Park. Night was approaching so I used the camera's little flash. It worked okay but I had to tweak these shots in Photoshop to make them look natural.

 The sign says "No Alcoholic Beverages" but I don't think it's aimed at the deer! By the way, this one is wearing a tracking collar.

 Sharing with Saturday's Critters 

and Today's Flowers and Saturday Silhouettes

Flowers are blooming in Virginia!

Five Randoms for Friday, March 11

For Willy Nilly Friday and More

1. Tomorrow is Genealogy Day so I scanned in two really old photos from a falling-apart old album that belonged to my grandparents. Here we see my mother's mother, perhaps in the 1930's.  The next picture shows my grandfather in a swimming outfit.

My grandparents separated during World War II, first as a necessity because my grandfather served in the Navy, and afterwards for their personal reasons. They never divorced but many years later my grandfather remarried after her death.

2. There have been a number of residents in our area reporting their credit card numbers have been stolen, even though they still have the cards. It is likely that they are victims of "skimming" at a payment machine, although it is also possible that someone read their number remotely with an electronic device. I just moved my credit cards to an RFID-shielded wallet in hopes that this will add some protection.

3. Here's a snapshot I took in Strasburg at dusk. I was waiting in the car while Frank was in a store.

4.  Mersad challenges us to post a photo from "Inside My Favorite Place" for the My Town Shootout linkup. My favorite places are outdoors, so I'm bending the rules. Here I am in Shenandoah National Park, definitely one of my favorite places. Frank took this picture.

5. Photo Friday's theme this week is Wilderness. I'm using Shenandoah National Park for that one too.  Skyline Drive runs the length of the park, but once you walk a few hundred yards from the road, you find yourself in wilderness.

View from an Overlook in October

On the Appalachian Trail

Skyline Drive in the Clouds