Grave Garden Ornaments by Barns

Saturday was a no go with housebuilding. Snow had fallen yet again and again I was stuck in the house. So I threw out plenty of bird seed along with a couple of suet cakes and watched the birds. It got a little daunting at one point as the Crow Family who live up here on the hill decided to sit in the oak tree and peer through the french doors at me. It felt a bit like a scene from The Birds.

 By Sunday I was done with being in the house and it was too cold to partake in any fun outdoor group activities so I decided to go exploring by driving around the countryside. Berryville was going to be my first stop so I headed off there with the car heater furiously blasting out hot air around me. With the windows up and loud music playing I was very content. I passed through a small village called Millwood which I'd never been to before.

It pretty much consisted of a few buildings along the main street, many of which were very old, almost tottering on the edge of the road. It felt as though the whole place would tumble to the ground as I drove through, much like a house of cards when blown upon. There were 2 antique places which I shall return to visit at a later date but for now I was reluctant to get out of my cozy cocoon.

 I loved this mural as I entered Berryville. I drove all around the town and realized that it wasn't the place I'd thought it was, my memories of places were mixed up. There were some antique/junk stores on the main street but nothing that could prize me from my warm seat. I did climb out to investigate one of the graveyards but only found one interesting stone.

And I also got out to watch this Norfolk Southern train as it pulled away and then realized that I was standing at the site of an old photo I'd seen on the internet, one that I wanted to photograph myself.

 But I was disappointed. The old photo is the top one of these two and the one below is all that's left today.

 Berryville was not as captivating as I'd hoped so I drove on, but this garishly painted house made me smile before I left.
My next stop was an old chapel which looked very old. It dated from 1790 and had an old graveyard so I went for a walkabout and read on a sign that Lord Fairfax worshipped here. I found this wonderful old book online about the chapel.
http://www.archive.org/stream/oldchapelclarkec00hughes#page/28/mode/2up
There's a section entitled A Gentleman of Verona which is interesting.

 This gentleman is also mentioned in the book in The Cemetery Record, page 26.

 I really liked this little place, it had a peaceful and welcoming feel to it and is obviously well looked after.

I saw these 2 guys hanging around outside.
I drove further on and came to a place that caught my eye. The side of the road was loaded with statues, carvings and old farm machinery as well as old garden furniture.

I struck up a conversation with the guy working there, who was looking after the place while the owners weren't there. He was very friendly and didn't mind me taking photos. The place is called Neatos, apparently because visitors would wander around remarking on how 'neat' the place was.

I totally fell in love with this bronze horse so if anyone would like to get me an early Birthday present, it's only $23,000.

 This beautiful 1968 Edsel sat out the front begging to be restored.

 There were some very cute and unique garden ornaments, mostly made from concrete but a few others made from soapstone or granite. I had a look around inside the store but wasn't as intrigued as I had been with the exterior. Saying goodbye I set off again and this time decided to trek along more rural roads.

 There were few people out as I drove along empty roads and looked out over emptier farmland, frozen ponds dotted among the rustic old barns in desolate fields. But there was a peaceful beauty in the bleakness. I bumbled along the windy lanes and eventually ended up approaching a village with this post in the middle of the road, such a strange sight, that I promptly came to a halt.

 This was the village of White Post. The post has been replaced many times over the last 200 years, the first erected by George Washington. Bishop William Meade was borne at White Post and later led the remarkable revival of the Episcopal Church in the decades following the War of 1812.

 As I drove in the direction of home I passed this wonderful old country store. Unfortunately it was closed but I shall return as I'm curious to find out how much those realistic black crows are going for. On my travels I had been keeping an eye out for old barns. One of my groups is wanting to do a tour to photograph these, a photographic assignment I've been meaning to do for months. And strangely enough the best ones of the day were practically at the end of my road, within 20 miles of Meadow House. Who'd have thunk?

A good start to the Barns of America and just down the road from me. It was a fine way to finish the roadtrip until I came across this group of cows and horses who immediately took an avid interest in me and my camera.

Say, "Hay!"

Chinese New Year 2013

A Chinese New Year graphic for 2013 that just needs a message added. I'll be sending this to our digitizer from us at Emblemax.

Chili Bowl Football

I created these images but then they couldn't be used for a specific order, so throwing them out there so they don't get wasted.

An Insanely Cold Day

On Saturday Margie and I drove down to Radford, VA to meet with a group where we were visiting an abandoned sanatorium. The morning was frigidly cold and we were both wrapped up well to visit a house which was likely to be colder inside than out. As we drove south the countryside became whiter and whiter with snow that had fallen a couple of days previously. In Radford itself we heard that about 8" had fallen and there were still homes without power.

 Radford is a university town with some interesting ghost signs on old walls but little to really look around although we found an old antique/junk shop on the main street.

 St Alban's Sanatorium was set on top of a hill overlooking a river and definitely looked spooky from the outside. We met inside a lounge area to listen to a briefing and discovered that we were taking the first ever photo tour of this old building. It's been used for various 'haunting' functions and as we walked around we came across many props for this purpose.
The building was originally a boys school but was later converted to a sanatorium where many experimental treatments were used that resulted in fatalities. The building is claimed to be heavily haunted thus the reason for the ghost hunts and tours. The background of St Albans is here.

 The community is anxious to preserve the building and its story with many volunteers helping out on the tours. We were told the history of the place and informed of some of the ghosts that walk it's rooms. We were allowed to walk around freely and ask questions or directions.

 We found this coffin used on one of the haunted tours so Margie jumped in for a photo shoot. She seemed to be getting quite comfortable in there and I wondered if she was planning a nap.

 The rooms inside the building weren't that interesting architecturally so it was a challenge to take some interesting shots but we persevered and enjoyed chatting with the volunteers who were always ready to tell a tale, explain uses of the rooms or simply direct us.

 Margie took a photo of me in this bath which I haven't seen yet but I found out later that a women in the sanatorium had given birth to a stillborn child. She kept it in a jar in her closet and later committed suicide in this tub.

 This was a 'cell' in the basement of the building. Note there's no handle on the inside of the door.

 One of the rooms had this sad little dog left on a bed. Staged, I know, but I found it effective.

 An old bed spring in one of the rooms.

 I took my little crystal marble with me and used it in some shots.

 This was one of the bedrooms upstairs where a young boy of about 7 years was murdered by another patient called Don who had a room across the hallway. These toys are left on the floor and Jacob plays with them, moving them around, and this has been seen during investigations.

An old electrical switch, the knobs on the bottom were pushed up for power.

 There's an old bowling alley in the basement. The whole area is in complete darkness and feels a bit creepy down there. Apparently there are a couple of ghosts that appear, one called Red Eyes, since all that is seen are 2 red lights like LED pointers, and another ghost called The Goat Man.
Here is an interesting documentation of paranormal activity at St Albans;
http://www.theghost-writers.com/Documents/Coast%20to%20Coast%20AM%20%20%20%20St.%20Albans%20Sanatorium.pdf

 There were about 20 of us walking around the house so I'm not sure if this kept the ghosts at bay but nobody reported any findings or activity. But there must be something there as there are many reports on Google and also videos on YouTube. The house has many supporters who raise money to keep the building open. It's costs about $60,000 a year to maintain the place and repairs have already been made with more planned for the future. The volunteers were all very enthusiastic and had plans for many fund raising events including an upcoming Bloody Valentines Weekend. Their commitment and hard work as well as their openness to visitors really endeared me to them and I hope they succeed in keeping the building, because somehow it saddened me to think of all those ghosts with no home.
After leaving Radford we drove to Roanoke to have a look around. I want to come back down here in the spring when their transport museum is open as there's supposed to be some great old trains in here but today we were just exploring.

The cinema had wonderful old fashioned lights on the front.

Two great old signs on the buildings. We walked around the town and decided a return trip would be very much worthwhile as there were some great shops and restaurants and plenty to photograph. but the daylight was fading fast and we were hungry so we decided to stop at a hole in the wall restaurant that caught our eye.

The Texas Tavern was like stepping back in time. It was a tiny place with just a counter where we sat on old fashioned stools and waited for our food to be cooked. The chili was very popular, everyone was eating it and it was only $1.70 a bowl! We had a cheeseburger each and shared a chili. Washed down with a soda and feeling very stuffed I paid our bill of $8.40. The food was fun and filling and the 2 guys running the place were friendly and fast with their service. Their website is here.http://texastavern-inc.com/
Of course the trip wouldn't be complete without a beer and this was achieved at the Chaps Tavern, a small bar near the railroad tracks.

I took the photo above on my phone and we were later asked why I was taking photos. They seemed a little concerned until we told them that we were merely tourists and then suddenly everything was fine and we were soon chatting to some of the regulars and introduced to the owner. A very friendly crowd who wanted us to stay the evening and wouldn't let us go until we'd exchanged details and promised to return.
It was a long drive back in the dark and we broke up the journey with stops to stock up on munchies and a snow globe for Margie's expansive collection. We'd been driving for well over 10 hours over the day but the trip was worth it, a fun day of ghost stories and history told by some fabulously friendly and unique people.