Today's Flowers

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"Pretty Pink Bonnets Dripping in Raindrops"

The Today's Flowers blog is in the words of Luiz Santilli,Jr. "A Virtual Flower Shop." Luiz is the host of this new weekly meme. He graciously invited me to participate. The photo I have chosen to share today was taken at my son's home in Leesburg, Virginia right after a rainstorm. I don't know the name of the wild rose. Maybe someone will share that with me. I just thought they looked liked little pink bonnets hanging there.

You can learn all about Luiz's new adventure by clicking on the Today's Flowers icon at the beginning of my post. Come join in the fun.

The Lightfoot Restaurant

Across from the courthouse in historic Leesburg, Virginia sits another historic building. The building was built in the 1890's. This turn of the century completely restored building was once the People's Bank of Leesburg. It now is home to a restaurant called The Lightfoot.

The restaurant was named for a county hero and an American Statesman - Francis Lightfoot Lee. He was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.

I love the ornate ironwork in the archway above the door and the detail on the columns. The former bank's initials are in the crest.

I had to include a shot of this old shoe sign up the street from the restaurant. I thought it was amusing that at the top of the sign was a picture of a duck. I didn't see the bird on the pole when I took the picture. If you enlarge this one you can see all the architectural elements on the eaves of the building up the street. They sure don't make things that intricate anymore.

As we leave Leesburg on this leg of our trip maybe you've liked what you've seen and would be interested in buying some property and staying around awhile.

Maybe a combined residence and office space downtown would be to your liking. This circa 1835 building is selling for a whooping $1,490,000.

As we drive out of town you'll notice the Tally Ho Theatre. The art deco style theatre was built in 1931. It and it's attached coffee shop can be had for over two million dollars.

Tomorrow we'll be in Winchester, Virginia. Come along and see the old train station and some really big apples!

Historic Leesburg, Virginia

Here We Are!

(Leesburg, Virginia)

This is the main street through the historic city of Leesburg. The Town of Leesburg, founded in 1758 is one of Virginia's most picturesque and best-preserved communities by the National Trust for Historic Preservation standards. I loved the brick sidewalks and narrow streets. We're going to park here so we can go across the street to the county courthouse.

Let's walk through the ornate revolving gate toward the courthouse that was built in 1895 and is part of the Leesburg Historic District recognized by the Virginia Historic Landmarks Commission.

As we walk through the gate we can see the front of the courthouse. It rises on four columns, has double doors, and is capped by a clock and bell housed in a belfry.

In front of the courthouse stands a statue of a Confederate soldier. It was designed by F.S. Sievers, and dedicated to the courthouse in 1908. It serves as a memorial to the many Rebel soldiers who died fighting for the cause in which they believed. They actually rededicated this statue the weekend we were there. It poured the rain down on Saturday so we didn't stay to watch.

A Closeup of the Belfry Tower

A closeup of the front of the statue. Notice the ornate tops of the columns on the courthouse.

I love statues and particularly liked the detail on this one. The folds in his uniform are amazing.

Tomorrow we'll go back across the street and take a look at the building with the bars on the window that you get a peek at in today's Jeep photo.

Till then I'll leave you with some photos I took yesterday. We had rain and storms all day and after dinner were treated to a storm that dropped marble sized hail as you can see in the photo below.

It didn't last long and in a short while we were treated to a lovely sunset. This photo was taken from my front porch looking out past my gazebo. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.