A Rainy Day in Hollywood Cemetery

     I love poking around old cemeteries, and perhaps my favorite is Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond. After nearly 3 decades I made a return visit while I was in Richmond on Thursday. I set out on foot from the entrance with just a light rain falling, but soon found myself hightailing it back to my truck as the weather intensified. Fortunately, you are also allowed to drive. Established in 1849, Hollywood was one of the earlier incarnations of the rural cemetery movement, which sought to create beautiful park-like settings, not just for the dead, but for the living to enjoy as bucolic escapes from crowded urban centers. If you want to learn more about this movement and Hollywood, there is a good article here, from a 2012 issue of Magnolia, published by the Southern Garden History Society.

     Not too far from the entrance is Iron Dog, who guards the grave of a toddler who died in 1862.

     Perhaps the most famous landmark in the cemetery is a 90' tall pyramid, created by the ladies of the Hollywood Memorial Assc. to honor the 18,000 Confederate soldiers buried here. I have always found its simple design in rough-hewn stone to be a stark and apt reminder of how war wastes lives.

     The cemetery is the final resting place of a who's who of notable Virginians, including Presidents Tyler and Monroe. The later was re-interred from New York, but given the ornate Gothic revival design of his tomb, on a prime spot overlooking the fall of the James, he probably didn't object.

     Speaking of re-interment, Jefferson Davis' body was moved from New Orleans to Richmond. His wife, Varina, would have preferred their plantation in Mississippi, but she was worried about flooding. You just can't have the bodies of former Confederate presidents floating about. There was a clamor among many Southern cities for the chance to be Davis' final resting place, but Varina chose Richmond for Davis and their family. While I was there on Thursday, it was evident that Davis Circle was in the middle of a big re-work, only appropriate as many across the country are re-working their view of Southern "heroes".

     While Hollywood has a long history, it is still very much a working cemetery, and there are many contemporary graves. There is also a mausoleum built in the 1990's with a beautiful view of the James River, and the city beyond.

     Before all of your allotted pixels are gone, I wanted to share with you one last photo, taken by my not-yet-wife of me and a friend posing on the pyramid about 1984/85. I am on the left. Please pardon the shorts and white socks, it wasn't creepy back then. I also want to remind you that my Winter Walk-Off is taking place through 3/19, and I invite all bloggers to participate.

T. Tyler Potterfield Memorial Bridge

     Back in October, my wife, a friend, and I traveled to Richmond for the day to celebrate my son's birthday. After a delightful lunch we headed down to the James, as I wanted to see the relatively new Potterfield Bridge. The pedestrian and bike only bridge is built atop the stone piers of an old hydroelectric structure, allowing visitors cross the river 20' above the quick waters. The bridge is named after T. Tyler Potterfield who was passionate about his adopted city, and before he died at a young age, was the project manager for the bridge that now bears his name. The north entrance commemorates the fall of Richmond in 1865, over the falls of Richmond. Embedded into the bridge deck are quotes from various people, famous and not, who were present then. The south entrance in Manchester is marked by Joshua Wiener's The Path Untraveled, a series of 8 17' tall large coreten steel rings that seem to roll across the landscape.

Mystery on Queens Creek

     I love the internet, especially for sleuthing out mystery plants. A few carefully considered questions asked in the right places will usually lead me to what I am looking for. Of course I am also just as likely to head down some wormhole and forget what I was looking for in the first place. What recently kept me busy was trying to ID a plant I saw blooming earlier this month while kayaking on Queens Creek, a small tributary of the James River in Charles City County. In places the flowers smothered the shoreline in bright yellow, which was a nice contrast to the gray storm-threatening skies. I first thought it could be any one of those yellow composite species that all begin with h-e-l (Helianthus, Helenium, Heliopsis) that are difficult for me to tell apart. Although Helenium autumnale (sneezeweed) is very common here, and was blooming elsewhere on my trip, I knew that was not it. I next guessed it might be Helianthus angustifolius (swamp sunflower), as I was indeed in a swamp, but after paddling closer for further inspection all I could confirm was my cluelessness. So I took close up photos of foliage and flowers to look up when I got home, and resolved just to enjoy the site of it.

     After a few minutes on the internet I narrowed the plant down to one of the Bidens. A little while later I think I fixed it to Bidens laevis (smooth beggartick, smooth bur-marigold, showy bur-marigold). To help in the identification of this plant I used two of my favorite sites; the Native Plant Database at wildflower.org., and the Digital Atlas of Virginia Flora, which is a decades long project to map all of the state's native plants. From the atlas I learned that B. laevis inhabits tidal freshwater marshes to oligohaline marshes. I had to look up the definition of oligohaline, which means having a very low amount of salt, and I decided to make it my word of the day, and wondered if health conscious snack companies could successfully market oligohaline chips or crackers. I digress. If any of you know this plant to be something else, please feel free to correct me. Regardless of its exact ID, it was a lovely thing to see, especially in such proliferation. 

     During my trip I had the creek to myself, no one else was on the water, though I did speak with a couple of guys on the shore getting their duck blind ready for the coming season. Judging from the number of blinds I saw, I will avoid this place in-season. I wouldn't want to be mistaken for a duck. Below are some of the other sights I saw.