Today’s damp and cold weather reminded me of living in Scotland. It didn’t stop Hubby and I from going out in the morning. We drove around some parts of the neighboring county to scope out some additional bicycling spots and were dumbstruck by all the development. Townhomes and data center after data center replacing what was once farmland and forest when we moved here in 2001. Interesting stat: 70% of the world’s internet traffic passes through northern Virginia, which accounts for the need to continue building data centers. The main builder was my former employer, whose data centers I can recognize from a mile.

Not finding much suitable biking, we did happen upon the African American Burial Grounds for the Enslaved at Belmont (pictures below). A website says this about it: “Loudoun (County) is dotted with African American cemeteries and burial grounds, some of which have only recently been unearthed. Today’s Belmont Country Club in Landsdowne was once part of the Belmont Plantation and a 2.75-acre enslaved peoples burial ground marked by fieldstones was discovered in woodland at the corner” of two busy highways. I’m glad people are preserving burial grounds, especially of enslaved peoples. As I grow older, it becomes more important to me to remember those who’ve gone before. Sadly, one of the graves is recent, a teenage boy who died in 2020—Fitz. A young man taken too soon from friends and family.