Adventures in Virginia

We had a couple more new visitors to the bird feeders this morning. This Mourning Dove spent all of its time on the ground picking up the kernels the other birds had dropped. I have never seen a Mourning Dove at a feeder, only on the ground underneath...

This little male House Finch had been flitting around yesterday, but today is the first time we actually saw it at the feeders --

We had picked up a brochure at the office when we first came to Rainbow Acres Campground that told about the Village of Gloucester and the Ruins at Rosewell and decided to check them out. We had to call to get an address as there was none on the brochure and the Ruins are NOT in Gloucester! Given that the ruins are prominently featured in the brochure, you'd think there would at least be signs, but NO! We finally found the Visitor Center about eight miles away. There was a sign on the door saying "Please Excuse Our Mess." And was it ever! They had had a pipe break that flooded the place. All the carpet tile was ripped up and all the artifacts and other objects they had were packed up in boxes.We were given a one page photo-copied sheet that told about the brickwork, but that was it. There were no interpretive signs nor information other than the three sentences in the brochure...

"Rosewell was built between 1725-1738 by Governor John Page. It was frequently visited by his good friend, Thomas Jefferson. Rosewell was the centerpiece of a 3000 acre plantation that raised grain and tobacco"

The building was gutted by fire in 1916, but offers archaeologists an inside look at 18th century brickwork --

Visitors in the 1800s came up the York River and Carter Creek, which winds around the back of the mansion, to a landing, then were given a carriage ride to the front door.

The stump of this huge tree sits out by where the out-building that housed the kitchen was located. It must have offered good shade for the hot work done in the kitchen in the Virginia summers --

From Gloucester Village, we drove up the National Colonial Parkway along the York River to Yorktown. The banks of the river were strewn with what I'm sure were Alliums. In some places there were so many blooming, the roadside looked purple!
 

This is the huge drawbridge that crosses the York River between Gloucester and Yorktown. These are the towns that the British General Cornwallis occupied.

The Yorktown Victory Center celebrates the victory of the French fleet and the Continental Army under George Washington over the British that led to Cornwallis' surrender.

We weren't allowed to take pictures in the museum or during the movie explaining the siege, but we could take pictures of the Continental Army Encampment set up behind the museum.

This lady, in period costume, was demonstrating some of the medicines and instuments available to an army surgeon of that day.

Next to the military encampment was a replica of a 1780s farm. I was intrigued by the field of tobacco plants which were being watered (see the wooden bucket in the back?) and cultivated by hand just as they would have been in those days --

This is the inside of the tobacco barn, where the leaves were hung after harvesting to cure and dry --

The dried leaves would be packed in large hogsheads (barrels) and sold at auction for script which the farmer could then use to buy needed supplies. The hogsheads were shipped to England where the tobacco was processed. The colonies were not allowed to do this and had to import and buy their finished tobacco from the Brits...

We followed the Parkway as far as Jamestown and then headed back to Auntie Violet -- after a stop for blackberry/strawberry pie!