Awaiting Springtime on a Virginia Hillside

Awaiting Springtime on a Virginia Hillside

The inviting blossoms in foreground suggest springtime is imminent on
this mid-March afternoon, but the trees clearly have some catching up to do.

Historic Huntley, in northern Virginia’s Fairfax County, was built in 1825 in the Federalist style as a hilltop summer
retreat for Thomson Francis Mason, a prominent jurist and mayor of Alexandria, among his other capacities.

Over the years, Historic Huntley was used as a summer retreat, a grain farm, encampment for Civil War troops of
the 3rd Michigan Infantry, and eventually was converted to a dairy farm. It later fell into disrepair, but is now on the
National Register of Historic Places, the Virginia Landmarks Register and the Fairfax County Inventory of Historic Sites.

I discovered the site late Saturday afternoon, the winter-bare tree limbs impressive against the volatile
cloudscape, as the sun broke through some late day overcast to provide that very special kind of winter light.

©2021 Steve Ember