Thursday, December 4, 2008

Messiah Sing-In at Old Cabell Hall (UVa)

On Tuesday, December 9th, the McIntire Department of Music at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville will present the 41st Annual Messiah Sing-in, conducted by Donald Loach. The audience becomes the chorus, and the orchestra will play from the stage. Non-singers are welcome! Copies of the vocal score will be available for those who do not have their own, and orchestral parts will be available for instrumentalists. I can tell you that this event is great fun, and eagerly anticipated by musicians and would-be musicians as an integral part of the holiday season in Charlottesville.

Date: December 9, 2008
Time: 8 p.m. EST
Place: Auditorium at Old Cabell Hall on the University Grounds
Cost: $5 to benefit the University's choral ensembles

For more information: www.virginia.edu/music/Messiah

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Virginia State Parks

You may remember First Landing State Park and Chippokes Plantation State Park from my free tours that go along with Chapter 1 in the Guide. (Here's the link if you haven't seen it: My Favorite Places in Historic Tidewater Virginia.)

Here are a few events that will be happening in the coming month at these locations:

2008 Fall Festival at First Landing, Oct 18, 2008, 3:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m. Celebrate fall with programs covering harvesting, Native American ways of life, pirate history, games, hikes and hayrides. Take a night hike in search of the elusive screech owls that live in First Landing. Location - Picnic Area & Trail Center Phone - (757) 412-2300

Jones-Stewart Mansion Tours at Chippokes Plantation , Oct 10, 2008 - Sep 04, 2009 , 12:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. Experience the comforts of an antebellum mansion and get to know the folks that called Chippokes home! Tours are family friendly and there is no fee to tour the Mansion. Open Saturdays and Sundays. While you are here, please visit the Chippokes Farm and Forestry Museum. Location - Jones-Stewart Mansion Phone - (757) 294-3625

Fossil Walk at Chippokes Plantation, Oct 11, 2008, 4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. and Oct 18, 2008, 10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. Participants will hike through a journey millions of years in the making! The walk will be about 1.5 miles. Geology and natural history of the park will be discussed as well as fossil identification and methods to finding fossils. Location - Meet at River House parking lot Phone - (757) 294-3625

If you want to be kept informed of what's going on in your state parks, go to the Park Events page, and sign up for the electronic newsletter.

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Corn Mazes in Virginia

Mazes used to be very popular among the 18th and 19th century folks, and they seem to be making a comeback. Typically, a farmer will create a maze in a cornfield to make some extra cash from the crop.

One nearby corn maze is at Hess Greenhouse in Harrisonburg, VA, about an hour west of Charlottesville. Field trips to the maze can be scheduled anytime from August 10th through November 4th, 2007, and on most fall weekends, Hess is having a variety of harvest festivals. Check out the Calendar of Events to see what's happening.

Other Virginia mazes include the Corn Maze in the Plains, in Northern Virginia; the Corn Maze at Bridgemont Farm, in the northern Shenandoah Valley; and the Virginia is for Lovers Corn Maze in Midlands, VA.

Monday, July 28, 2008

James Madison's Montpelier

Montpelier is a very interesting place. It was the home of James and Dolley Madison, who lived there with Madison's parents. Madison is related to Albemarle County, not only because he was a friend and protege of Thomas Jefferson, but because he was the first President of the Albemarle Agricultural Society. The house is also interesting because it was owned by the DuPont family from the late nineteenth century to 1983, when Marion duPont Scott died and left it to the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

After much study, the National Trust decided to restore the house to it's eighteenth-century look, removing all of the DuPont additions. Now, the restoration is complete and on September 17, 2008 -- Constitution Day -- Montpelier will hold a Restoration Celebration, open to the public.

On November 1st, Montpelier will host the Montpelier Hunt Races, a tradition started by Mrs. Scott in 1924.

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Independence Day at Monticello

In my opinion, there is no better day to visit Monticello than July 4th. Thomas Jefferson preferred to celebrate Independence Day rather than his own birthday (April 13th). As he said in his last political statement:

May [July 4] be to the world, what I believe it will be -- to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all -- the signal of arousing men to burst the chains under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings and security of self-government. That form [of government] which we have substituted, restores the free right to the unbounded exercise of reason and freedom of opinion. All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of God. These are grounds of hope for others. For ourselves, let the annual return of this day forever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them.


The Thomas Jefferson Foundation also invites the public to Monticello every July 4th, to attend a Naturalization Ceremony for what is usually over 100 people who wish to become citizens of the United States. Here's a video clip on YouTube of Sam Waterston, as the speaker for the Naturalization Ceremonies in 2007, and a transcript of his speech.

NOTE: The speaker this year was actually the sitting President, George Bush.

I suggest you get there at least an hour early and take a walk around the mountaintop while waiting for the ceremony to start. Although you must buy tickets for the House Tour, the Gardens and Grounds Tour, and the Plantation Community Tour (all are included in one ticket), there is still plenty to see. If you feel like seeing everything, you can buy another ticket to see Montalto, the Jefferson property on the next mountain west that the Foundation acquired in the past couple of years.

What I like to do is take a walk through the vegetable garden, walk down Mulberry Row, and follow the path down the mountain. I always stop at the Monticello Cemetery, where there is a wreath-laying ceremony after the Naturalization Ceremony. It's a beautiful walk (about half a mile long, but not handicap accessible) and gives you time to contemplate the founding of our nation over two hundred years ago.

Sunday, June 8, 2008

Charlottesville as the Center of the Universe - A meditation on books

Sometimes, in conversations with people from Charlottesville or the University of Virginia, one gets the impression that we believe Charlottesville is the Center of the Universe. We don't actually believe that. Really.

Sometimes it just seems as if Charlottesville is the center around which all things move.

I was reading the Washington Post this morning, as I do every Sunday morning, and by some strange confluence of ideas, two of the books reviewed in the Post's Book World magazine have connections to Charlottesville, and there's a small blurb on Charlottesville in the Travel section of the paper. I'm always amazed at what varied topics are related to this area, so I thought I'd give those who have a "Charlottesville Reading List" the heads-up on these books.

Most closely related to this area, in my opinion, is The Billionaire's Vinegar; The Mystery of the World's Most Expensive Bottle of Wine, by Benjamin Wallace. Wallace gives a non-fiction account of intrigue and mystery that centers around several bottles of wine that purportedly belonged to Thomas Jefferson. The researchers at Monticello's Jefferson Library at Kenwood are involved in this mystery.

American Eye; Evelyn Nesbit, Stanford White, the Birth of the "It" Girl, and the Crime of the Century by Paula Uruburu, is a more distant connection. Nesbit, a showgirl, had had an affair with architect Stanford White of McKim, Mead, and White of New York, when she was only 17 and he was in his 40s. Nesbit eventually married millionaire Harry K. Thaw, who in 1906, murdered White by shooting him point-blank during a show at Madison Square Garden. What is the connection to Charlottesville, you ask? McKim, Mead, and White was the architectural firm that renovated the University of Virginia's Rotunda (in fact, the Rotunda was Stanford White's project), and which designed Carr's Hill (the University President's mansion) and Old Cabell Hall.

Another interesting book (it came out in 2006) is Archie and Amelie; Love and Madness in the Gilded Age, by Donna M. Lucey. Amelie was Amelie Rives, a granddaughter of Senator William Cabell Rives. She was a popular writer of sensational novels who owned Castle Hill on Louisa Road (Rt. 22) in Albemarle County. The story is fascinating, reminding us that even the rich can behave badly.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Monacan Indian Pow-Wow, May 16-18, 2008

The Monacan Indians are having their 16th Annual Pow-Wow this coming weekend. Events include Indian dancing, drumming, arts, food. For more information, contact the tribal office, 434-946-0389, or see http://www.monacannation.com/powwow.shtml

The Virginia Foundation for the Humanities has a great calendar on their website: http://www.virginiafoundation.org/calendar/, which lists even more events related to Virginia Indians.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Historic Garden Week in Virginia - April 19-27, 2008

This weekend marks the beginning of this year's Historic Garden Week in Virginia. There are going to be a number of interesting gardens open in Albemarle County, among them Morven; Casa Maria, Ramsay, and other properties in the Greenwood area; and the University of Virginia Grounds and Gardens. I urge you to take advantage of these rare opportunities to see these private homes and gardens up close; Garden Week is usually the only time they are open to the public. Plus, the entrance fees help the garden clubs of Virginia continue the preservation of historic sites around the state.

For more details, check out the Albemarle-Charlottesville schedule.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Virginia Festival of the Book, March 26-28, 2008

Hi, all! I'm very excited about participating in the Virginia Festival of the Book this year. They have over 365 authors making presentations on books and writing over a period of three days.

The event I'm taking part in is: Traveling Historic Virginia: Sites and Tales. This will be a panel of three authors (myself, Pamela K. Kinney, and Donna Akers Warmuth) talking about our books on traveling in Virginia. The event is to take place on Friday, March 28th, at 2pm at the Sun Bow Trading Company (110 W. South Street) in Downtown Charlottesville. (They have beautiful rugs too!)

Come and join us!

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Bicycling Central Virginia in the Spring

Now that the weather seems to be warming up, we can look forward to a lovely spring in Central Virginia. One of the pastimes that everyone enjoys is bike riding on the more than 800 miles of scenic bike trails in Virginia. The Virginia Dept. of Transportation offers a free state bicycling trail map that you can order online, or retrieve as a PDF map file and a PDF bicycling guide.

The trail that goes through Albemarle County is US76, which starts north of Richmond, goes west past Lake Anna in Louisa County, then swings south to Fluvanna County, and then west through Fluvanna and Albemarle Counties. The trail meets the Blue Ridge Parkway at Waynesboro, and follows it for 25 miles before turning into the Shenandoah Valley. In spring, this trail is beautiful! (And for those of us not up to biking across several counties, most of the trail follows paved roads accessible to automobiles.)

Enjoy!

Monday, February 11, 2008

On the Map: The Seymour I. Schwartz Collection of North American Maps, 1500-1800

From Jan. 28, 2008 through Jan. 17, 2009, the Main Gallery of the Harrison Institute/Small Special Collections Library will display an exhibit called "On the Map: The Seymour I. Schwartz Collection of North American Maps 1500-1800." Dr. Schwartz is a well-known surgeon and medical educator whose avocation is cartography. Over a long and distinguished career, he has been recognized as one of the foremost U. S. authorities on maps and has written five books on the topic. This exhibit offers an opportunity to see Dr. Schwartz's North American map collection, which he has donated to the University of Virginia Library. For more information on the exhibit, see the exhibit website.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Traveling Historic Virginia: Sites and Tales

We've just got more information on the Virginia Festival of the Book panel that I will participate in.

Here's the link: Traveling Historic Virginia: Sites and Tales.

Monday, January 21, 2008

John Mosby Heritage Area, Feb. 9 & Mar. 8, 2008

Though John Mosby was a native of Albemarle County, the John Mosby Heritage Area is located around Warrenton, VA (about an hour west of Washington, D.C. and 2 hours north of Charlottesville). This is the area where Mosby and his men were most active during the Civil War.

During February and March of 2008, the Grey Ghost Interpretive Group will be offering "Fireside Mosby" at the Rector House in Atoka, near Middleburg, VA. As the website explains, "These are stories from costumed interpreters portraying citizens and soldiers who lived in this area during the time of the Civil War." Cost is $5 for adults and $2 for students. Check the website of the John Mosby Heritage Area for more information.

Thursday, January 3, 2008

Spain and the U.S. in the Age of Independence: National Portrait Gallery

There is a new show at the National Portrait Gallery called "Legacy: Spain and the United States in the Age of Independence, 1763-1848." According to the Washington Post, it is a collection of "some 70 portraits, maps, and treaties that attempt to shed some light on this still-shadowy corner of history."

While the National Portrait Gallery is not in Charlottesville or Albemarle County -- it's in Washington, D.C. -- this show sounds like it would be a lot of fun and educational, too!