Colonial Beach Mural

We took a quick trip to Colonial Beach, VA this past weekend - great looking little beach town on the Potomac River, on the Northern Neck of Virginia. Of course, in October, most beach towns in this area are pretty quiet, and Colonial Beach was no exception. We did enjoy driving through the town, noticing the use of golf carts everywhere, even at the Police Station!

This mural was a community effort, initiated by the Town, and executed by members of the Colonial Beach Artist Guild with assistance from local volunteers.

The overview

Right Side

Left Side

The design was provided by Robin Schick and is based on Seurat's "Sunday in the Park".  There were modifications suggested by other members and the project was managed by Robin and Doris Barbee.  It was completed within a month.

This photo shows the mural as you face the river.

This last mural is a small painting just to the right of the larger mural - another lovely scene.  I loved the use of the painted frame around it.

Linking to Monday Murals.

Monday Mural

In December, 1930, the local newspaper headlined that the Lake Placid Phone Exchange would soon be ready - with the equipment installed and 60 homes wired and ready to go.  A PBX board was used until 1935.

Florence Booker came to Lake Placid to become the town's first PBX operator.  She operated it during the day and her daughter, Mildred, a high school student, answered the night calls.  It was not uncommon for people to call Florence and tell her they were going somewhere and ask her to forward their calls.  Then they would let her know when they were coming home.  If you needed to know anything, you called her.

This mural represents a phone call between Dr. Dewey's wife (you can read about Dr. Dewey here) and Dr. Eide (read about Dr. Eide here) the day after Christmas in 1931.  Dr. Dewey suffered a stroke and never fully regained consciousness.

This mural is 60' wide by 11' high and was completed in 2001.  A child's play telephone is hidden in the mural.

Linking to Monday Murals.

Lake Placid on Dwellable

I Need a Break!

After struggling for several weeks to keep up with my blogging, posting, following and commenting, I am feeling totally overwhelmed!  Dan and I are getting ready to enter a busy travel time - planning to be gone most of October and November, going to some places that are familiar to us - like Charleston, SC for our anniversary in November, and Florida to visit Mom;  others that are familiar to me but not to Dan - like Newbern, NC.  Then there are places that neither of us have ever been - Cape Cod, MA; Colonial Beach, VA.  With the health difficulties of this past year, we are both really looking forward to the trips.

SO...I will post when I can and when I have something worth posting.  I will still host Wordless Wednesday Again and I still will read and comment as I am able, but I have decided that I am not going to put so much stress on myself to post daily like I have been. I know I am not alone in this dilemna. Blogging has been fun - and I want it to continue to be fun!

For me, this says it all...

I am heading out to leave a trail....

Thursday Theme Song

There's a Long, Long Trail
A bit of history on the song:  though it has long been associated with WWI (and I am sure ALL of you remember that war!), it was actually written to be sung at a fraternity banquet the year before the war was declared -  in 1913, by a pair of Yale undergrads.  I tried to find a decent audio file of the song for those who don't know it, but most of them were not great quality...I have included one of them at the end, if you want to listen.

There's a long, long trail a-winding

Into the land of my dreams,

Where the nightingales are singing

And a white moon beams.

There's a long, long night of waiting

Until my dreams all come true;

Till the day when I'll be going down
That long, long trail with you.

The song can be heard here: There's a Long, Long Trail.

Linking to Anni's Thursday Theme Song.

Tuesday's Barns

On Sunday, we took a side road trip to what was billed as a "Wildlife Management Area".  I guess I really didn't know what that meant!  There was nothing but miles and miles of dirt road through a wooded/scrub area and very little wildlife to be seen.  I did see hunters though, which leads me to believe Dan was right when he said that this was an area designated for hunting by lottery...oh well...live and learn.

I did get a few shots of barns, so the side trip was not a total loss!

 I really liked this barn - particularly from this view.

 From this side, there were too many "things" in the way, and it was on the wrong side of the road, so Dan took the photo, trying to keep the 4-wheeler and the truck out of the photo.

This one was home to a horse, who was in the field with his blanket on, but would not turn his head so we could get a shot of anything other than his tail...so we opted not to photograph him!

Linking to Barn Charm.

Monday Mural

The mural this week was completed in 2008 and honors Annie Hill, Nurse Mid-Wife for 59 years in Lake Placid, FL.

 She was born in 1891 and died in 1988, at the age of 92.  She worked with the State Board of Health from 1918 until 1976 in the field of Mid-Wifery.  She delivered 1,500 babies during that time, and only resigned her position because of changes in the law.   In addition, she was a strong Christian, a faithful member of Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church, where she served in many different leadership positions.  She also served in the Masonic Family.

Annie married Deacon James Hill and they had 6 children - 2 sons and 4 daughters.

The mural is 40' wide and 10' high and is located on the side of Dr. Schechtman's office.  In this mural are hidden a "binki", a stethoscope and a wrench.

Linking to Monday Murals.