Winter

Virtual Messiah

Image | | edwinridout

The Fredericksburg Community Chorus’s 51st annual Messiah had to be virtual. Although last year’s 50th performance was the complete Messiah, this year’s may have been the least complete (under 30 minutes!) See it on YouTube here. The anonymity of my preferred seat in the back row seemed somewhat diminished, as surely I must have spent at least a few moments under the director’s microscope. But the number of singers grew due to collaboration with the Williamsburg United Methodist choir. Photo by Elspeth.

Dahlgren Heritage Rail Trail ½ Marathon

| edwinridout

The start of the DHRT Half-Marathon has a few hundred yards of rails, a restored ancient wooden caboose, a decrepit freight car, and “The Rocket”, a working railway pumper cart. Race volunteers use it as a moving platform for photographing the runners approaching the finish. See this moving illustration. Among the Fredericksburg Area Runners Club members who finished the race this day was Vic Culp, longtime director, in black hat at back.

Union Church Steeple

Image | | edwinridout

The newly restored (June 2019) belfry and steeple on the old Union Church in Falmouth (c. 1819), via zoom lens from the south lawn at Belmont, the Gari Melchers Home and Studio. (The restoration was reported in this Free Lance-Star article).

I took another shot a few days later without the zoom lens: a wider view of Falmouth from Belmont’s blue bathroom window. Most prominent is the 1966 Falmouth Baptist Church, but the Union Church spire can still be seen in the trees further to the right.

A few more photos from Belmont: the eagle greeting arrivals to the front door, the vertical sundial between the bathroom windows above the sun room (at 10:19am, Feb 14th, 2020), and the south side of the house (at 3:44pm a week later). The sun room was a 1920s (?) Melchers addition to the 1795 house.

The horseshoe staircase outside the back door has a century-old ornate railing which we hope to see renovated soon. This is the center panel, seen from inside the house, looking down the hill to the back gate.