angledge: (pumpkinhead)
[personal profile] angledge
Happy Halloween everyone!

Some old family plot in New Canaan, CT


Along with rock walls, lots of trees, & winding roads, New England countrysides feature numerous tiny graveyards, usually family plots with less than twenty graves. They are often overgrown & dilapidated, with nary a legible inscription to be found. I find them sort of sad - partially because they're so poorly maintained, but also because there are so many tiny tombstones for babies. Life was hard on the frontier.

Will someone please call maintenance?

Life was also hard where the settlers had come from - places like the little town of Legerwood, Scotland. [profile] marasca took this photo of the Legerwood Kirk graveyard on our Scotland vacation in 2002.

K, if you dontwant this posted, let me know & I'll take it down.

Of course, I also took lots of photos of graveyards in Edinburgh. The city's cemeteries serve double duty as burial grounds & parks, providing restful sanctuaries for both the living & the dead. Occasionally they appear to be in need of some maintenance, too.

Photographers, please stay to the right.

But they often feature amazing Celtic carvings, so beautiful ...

Greyfriars St. Cuthbert's

There are also memento mori, reminders of death, scattered throughout the cemeteries. Sometimes it's hard to get good photos of them, since they're hidden in little nooks & crannies, like skeletons of gargoyles.

Sure is dark in this corner.

Of course, you have to be careful when using the flash. Some of them get startled by it.

Eeek!
Have a good holiday, everyone!

Date: 2004-10-31 06:24 am (UTC)
(deleted comment)

Date: 2004-11-01 12:06 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] angledge.livejournal.com
In most big cities, the division between "park" & "graveyard" is a bit arbitrary. Most parks were used at one time as emergency burial grounds (plague victims were buried in Edinburgh's Meadows, Revolutionary War POWs were stacked in Philadelphia's Washington Square, New York City's Union Square covers yellow fever deaths, etc.), & most cemeteries are used by city dwellers as green space. I guess the major difference between the two is that cemeteries are more forthright about acknowledging the sleepers beneath the soil.

Date: 2004-10-31 09:26 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] fanboyextream.livejournal.com
Some of these look like the photos we took while i was visiting...

Date: 2004-11-01 12:03 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] angledge.livejournal.com
Hmmm ... I don't think any of these were taken at that time. But I took photos at Greyfriars on several occasions, so I'm not sure. That weekend was great fun!!

Date: 2004-11-02 07:00 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] fanboyextream.livejournal.com
Indeed it was, soon to be repeated, American style 2005

Date: 2005-01-06 09:01 pm (UTC)
(deleted comment)

Date: 2004-11-01 12:08 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] angledge.livejournal.com
That was a pretty amusing flash effect, wasn't it? BOO!

Date: 2004-10-31 09:16 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] calamityshane.livejournal.com
I love walking around in cemetaries. There's a cemetary (as you observed when you visited us here in Fishtown) right up the streeet from our house. Palmer Cemetary. Many of the residents there were victims of Yellow Fever. It's also one of the oldest cemetaries in the country. Longtime residents of Fishtown can be buried there for free, apparently. Don't know the details. It really seems like they have little room left but, then occassionally on a Sunday another person gets buried there. There are small burial plots for the many children who died during "The Fever". Thanks for the photos, the carvings are beautiful.

Date: 2004-11-01 12:02 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] angledge.livejournal.com
I intended to take photos of Palmer Cemetery (specifically for inclusion in this post, too!), but a certain thief at the Free Library of Philadelphia prevented that from happening ...

Curses!

Date: 2004-11-01 05:04 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] crostfingrs.livejournal.com
Wow, these are awesome - hauntingly beautiful . . .

I don't spend enough time wandering around old graveyards. Actually, I don't spend any . . . I think I'm probably in the wrong country for that.

Thanks!

Date: 2004-11-01 06:07 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] angledge.livejournal.com
I don't know ... I'm not sure where you live in the US, but some parts of the country have gorgeous graveyards.

And thanks for the compliment, too.

Date: 2004-11-01 11:25 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] impulsezip.livejournal.com
Dude. Go to Bachelor's Grove cemetery. You're about 20 minutes away.
http://www.prairieghosts.com/bachgrov.html

Date: 2005-01-06 06:35 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] -phobia.livejournal.com
Wow - those are really pretty graveyard pictures. Especially the last two! I'm particularly fond of graveyards - go figure!

Date: 2005-01-06 06:36 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] -phobia.livejournal.com
Oh - I should probably mention that it's me, Brianna!

Well hello there

Date: 2005-01-06 08:57 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] angledge.livejournal.com
Glad you liked them! You've gone pretty far back to find these photos.

Re: Well hello there

Date: 2005-01-06 08:58 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] -phobia.livejournal.com
nah - I just scrolled down a bit ;D Mind if I add you?

Re: Well hello there

Date: 2005-01-06 08:59 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] angledge.livejournal.com
Not at all - you're already added back!

Re: Well hello there

Date: 2005-01-06 09:00 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] -phobia.livejournal.com
Zing! I'm a lucky girl today!

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