Weary wheelwright

True craftsmen and women help to recreate the colonial past in Williamsburg's historic centre, and the streets, shops, taverns, museums, and public buildings are peopled by 're-enacters' who step into the skins of those they represent. To hear or converse with them is to step back to the 17 hundreds - it's almost uncanny and very impressive.

This gentleman stepped out of his role very briefly to confess that he found his tasks very hard at times - this as he contemplated the join he was making in a hardwood piece, and the even harder task that awaited him of hand-drilling a hole through another 18" thick part of a cart structure. I asked what made him do it, it seemed almost like self-punishment. He stopped and thought for a moment, then said that he had always been interested in how things had been done before industrialization. It seemed a good explanation and a noble endeveavour.

There is so much to see here, so much to learn about the history of the break with Britain, and the role of Virginia and Virginians - and the setting is most beautiful. Hard to chose between pictures of the scenery, the 're-enacters', or the objects in the museum.

Ah well, as HarryJ would say, tomorrow's another day...