songbird's crazy world

 And the theme?   It’s “Dear Diary Day” according to the National Day calendar. Run with this  prompt the way it moves you and have fun! Hmmm…. How about an acrostic of the word “diary”? Dire Straits Irish Rovers ABBA Rolling Stones    Young Rascals

  The least exciting part of the trip. We left the battlefield and pointed the car north.  The GPS took us through rural Virginia and Maryland.  Very pretty countryside, and I suppose we avoided a lot of traffic.  We hit the Beltway around 7 PM (on a Friday night), and had to deal with a ton of traffic from D.C. all the way to Baltimore.   Even with GPS it’s possible to make mistakes — we wanted to take 295 over the Delaware Memorial Bridge and then into New Jersey, but we ended up staying on 95 to Philadelphia and crossing the river further north.   Once we hit the New Jersey Turnpike we felt we were almost home. We almost got killed on the Verrazano Bridge, when the driver of the car in the next lane tried to move into our lane without checking her blind spot.  And 5ben there were the two idiots racing each other and weaving in and out of traffic … We got home around 12:30 AM.  Shadow met us at the door.  Duchess came running down the stair...

  Come See About Me Welcome to  Saturday: 9 . What we've committed to our readers is that we will post 9 questions every Saturday. Sometimes the post will have a theme, and at other times the questions will be totally unrelated. Those weeks we do "random questions," so-to-speak. We encourage you to visit other participants posts and leave a comment. Because we don't have any rules, it is your choice. We hate rules. We love memes, however, and here is today's meme! Saturday 9: Come See About Me (1964) Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it  here . 1) In this song, Diana Ross sings that she's given up her friends for her boyfriend. Have you ever had a lover your friends disapproved of? Has a friend ever dated someone you didn't care for?   No. 2) Without her man at her side she feels uncertain. Let's be more positive: what's something you're sure of?  I’ve been on vacation this week, so I’m sure there’s a ton of work waiting for me Monday ...

  Our last day. We packed up the car checked out of the hotel and headed towards Yorktown. Yorktown, as you may know, was the site of the last decisive battle of the Revolutionary War, where George Washington defeated Cornwallis  and secured American independence. We started with the  American Revolution Museum .  This venue is operated by the same company as the Jamestown Settlement.   There’s a gallery that shows the history of the revolution. Outside there is a military encampment, and interpreters dressed as soldiers. There’s also a middling farm.  That’s a small farm owned by a middle class family.  The family would grow its own food, but they’d also grow a cash crop — tobacco or cotton.  They’d rely on enslaved people  as labor for the cash crop. Here’s a loom, probably operated by the lady of the house. The white building is the house, the brown one is the kitchen. Then it was time to go down the road to the battlefield.   There’s...

 Our day began at the George Tucker House,  This property is a reception center for those of us who are donors to the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. We were there to meet a Nation Builder. Nation Builders at Colonial Williamsburg are “interpreters”, actors who will portray a person from Williamsburg. You’ll find them at various locations throughout the historic area.  But conversations at the Tucker House are longer and more intimate.  Sometimes you might meet a famous person, like Patrick Henry or George Washington.  But today we met  Jane Vobe , an ordinary woman, who ran a tavern on Duke of Gloucester Street. While we were there, Drew bought a cookbook of colonial recipes.  Cookbooks were just coming into vogue on colonial times.  The recipes have been modernized, of course.  Can’t wait to try some of them. Next up was the Peyton Randolph House.  He is the Founding Father you’ve never heard of. He was very active in Virginia politi...