It was rainy and cloudy nearly all day yesterday. It started late the night before and was pretty steady for more than 8 hours. It was a good morning to sit inside sipping hot tea and work on stuff that has been put on the back burner for a time while it has been so beautiful outside. I finally managed to get some photo's posted yesterday, and may even get these posted today.... if I can resist the sunny morning that is calling to me long enough to finish this up.

   One sour note from yesterday; checked on the trailer early on to see how all the work I had done on the roof had worked with all this rain.... it didn't. Yup.... still leaking somewhere up there, but where the leak is... well that's the question isn't it? Will take another look at it as soon as it warms up and dries it out a bit.

     Had a really nice evening of entertainment last night. My friend Rima has season tickets to the Roanoke Symphony, so we went into the city last night and attended their season opening. Started out with dinner at a local Mexican Restaurant she knew of. Carnitas for me... pretty good taste, but a little dry unfortunately. Still, it was nice to have some decent Mexican food again, and certainly some place I would go back to and try again.

   After dinner it was off to the Performing Arts Center to hear the 'before the music' talk by the conductor and several performers. Was interesting to hear the guest performer talk about the music and the cello he would be performing on. Built sometime around the 1690's, that's right, it's that old, but I don't remember the exact date. He called it 'J-lo' while flying around with it. I guess it might look a little like some famous singer in a certain light. Certainly had a certain roundness and spread to it's lower.... well, I'm not going to go there.

  Last nights program included two selections that were performed by the Roanoke Youth Symphony Orchestra. The first being the Star Spangled Banner and the second being The Russian Sailors Dance by Reinhold Gliere. Both were pulled off brilliantly by the group and were a joy to listen to.

   Once the Youth Symphony exited the stage the regular Symphony members came on and finished the first half of the program with two selections. Joining them for the rest of the concert was a special guest performer, Zuill Bailey. A well known cello soloist with an arm load of awards and honors. The Symphony went on to perform the 'Light Cavalry Overture' by Franz von Suppe and the 'Cello Concerto in C Major' by Erich Korngold. Both had wonderful solo performances for cello within each selection and Mr. Bailey's performance was outstanding. The Korngold piece was particularly interesting because it had been used as a piece in an old black and white movie, 'Deception', back in the 1920's. Will have to go out and find a copy of that movie now to see what it was all about.

   After the intermission there was one more 40 min selection to be performed, Don Quixote by Richard Strauss. With 12 different sections and variations it was wonderful to listen to the music and read along with the notes as to which part of Cervantes' epic tale it was referring too. All in all a very nice evening.

  So here are a few more photo's from my days at Colonial Williamsburg. I think there is one more days worth or photo's to go on this subject and then I'll be on to something else. Enjoy!

Colonial Williamsburg Virginia - Sept 2013



Just a regular small house in Colonial Williamsburg. A sort of Cape Cod - Salt Box style that is really appealing.

If you want, you can take a ride in a horse drawn coach with a person in period dress to drive and tell you all about what you are seeing.

One of the shops was dedicated to fixing and repairing metal and iron pieces used in everyday life. I was surprised to find out that nearly nothing was actually made in the Colonies at that time, it was much cheaper to order and then import them from England or Europe. But when something broke it would need repairing as there was no local Wal-Mart to run to if you needed something new. So everything from kitchen utensils to fire arms could be fixed in a shop like this.

The small forge where iron work could be heated, or tin and other softer metals could be melted and molded into new parts.

This mostly wooden tool was used for cutting grooves and lan's into the inside of a gun barrel in order to make the bullet spin and therefore be more accurate. While there weren't a lot of complete guns being built in the U.S. at this time, every part could be fabricated or repaired if needed.

A simple shutter dog created at the local blacksmith shop.

 I found the brick pattern of this building and the tree in the courtyard melded into a nice symmetry.

Another one of the horse drawn carriages waiting for passengers.

One of many local gardens around the homes in Williamsburg.

Do the crime... do the time. Who can resist trying out the old stocks to see what it would of been like.



In the silversmith's shop. One of several people working that day turning plates of silver into bowls.

Some of the tools of the silversmith's trade.  The rounded, shiny headed things are used on the inside of curved surfaces, such as a bowl, to help shape it into a smooth surface.

A display showing some of the steps in taking a piece of flat silver and turning it into a bowl or cup.

The Secretary's Office. Built in order to have a place to create and store documents related to the town and the colony as a whole. In this photo the guy on the left, in costume, was tending a fire where he was heating up a bunch of solid metal irons in which to press some cloth out that they were putting together to make a replica of a tent George Washington used during the war.

A model of the tent they are hand sewing here at the Secretary's Office.

The original Capitol building for Virginia. Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to do the tour of this building. Guess I'll just have to go back and do it at some other time. Darn!

An outdoor oven near the towns blacksmith shop. Today they were heating up the interior oven with a nice hot fire where they would then go on to bake some meat pies, bread and fruit pies after the embers were pulled out.  

A carriage passing by the 'Bruton Parish Church'.