Cemetery Saturday

This is Halcyon cemetery in Arroyo Grande. We drive past it everytime we visit our friends in Oceano and the last time Margot pulled over and said "Would you like to get some pictures?"

It was a warm Sunday afternoon and very peaceful walking around and taking shots of the headstones.

There seemed to be a plethora of very diminutive markers,

including some where the engraving had almost worn away with the years.

On this last Saturday of 2011, we'll bid a fond farewell to Cemetery Saturday. I hope you've enjoyed our graveyard visits.

Cemetery Saturday

Trinity Church Cemetery Manhatten NY, the resting place of Clement C Moore, whose most famous work will be read and recited this evening by hundreds of thousands.

"T'was the night before Christmas and all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse."

Cemetery Saturday

The final resting place of Charles Dickens in Poet's Corner in Westminster Abbey, London.



Probably the most loved Christmas story of all time A Christmas Carol was penned by Dickens in 1843. Hundreds of editions and dozens of dramatizations have followed that first slim volume that was printed and sold just a few days before the holiday that year. The story was credited (along with Prince Albert's enthusiasm for the Christmas tree) with bringing back the seasonal spirit to the British Isles which had been somewhat lacking since the days of Cromwell.

Cemetery Saturday

Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York.
Resting place of beloved composer Irving Berlin.

Mr. Berlin penned the most recorded Christmas song of all time - "White Christmas". First featured in 1942's Holiday Inn and then the title song of 1954's White Christmas, both times sung by Bing Crosby.

Cemetery Saturday

Above is the St. Nicholas Church in Demre, formerly Myra, (in present day Turkey) which was built in the 6th century to accommodate the many pilgrims who came to visit St. Nicholas' tomb. Invaders destroyed the town and the church in the 7th and again in the 9th centuries. Restored during the 11th century, the church was gradually buried by sand and silt as the riverbed shifted. Russian Tsar Nikola sponsored restoration in the mid-to-late 1800s, but the church was nearly buried again by 1903. Restoration began again in 1989 by the Antalya Museum and Ankara University. The church is in particular peril for water damage as it is a number of feet below the current ground level. The church, which for years held a Greek Orthodox Mass every December 6 to celebrate the Saint's day, is now a museum.


However, Irish historians claim that St. Nicholas's remains were looted by the early crusaders and brought back to Ireland and buried at Jerpoint Abbey. The grave is in this green burial yard.




Wherever his corporeal remains are, his spirit and love still encompass the whole world and many countries honour him every December 6.

Cemetery Saturday

I thought this Thanksgiving Saturday
would be the perfect time to visit Burial Hill,
the Pilgrim Cemetery in Plymouth, Massachusetts.




Famous graves include William Bradford,
governor of the Plymouth Colony,



John Howland, Mayflower passenger.



This rise is the site of the first fort built by the pilgrims.

photos courtesy of Wikipedia

Cemetery Saturday

More shots from Springfield National Cemetery in Missouri,

taken by my daughter Bronwyn.

Gorgeous fall colour against the green grass,

white sentinels marching eternally forward.

Cemetery Saturday

My daughter Bronwyn sent these shots

from the Springfield National Cemetery
in Springfield Missouri.

Her old apartment looked out over the graveyard

and she often went walking there.

Cemetery Saturday

Back to Iron City Cemetery in Colorado,

As always in these old graveyards,
so many young children laid to eternal rest

This, a double tragedy, two sisters
dying a day apart of diphtheria.
One a newborn, the other only two or three.

Cemetery Saturday

My sister sent these wonderful shots of Iron City Cemetery near Collegiate Peaks in Colorado.



She said that maybe people were getting tired of all the mossy, foggy atmospheric graveyards

and would like to see one under "the clear blue Colorado skies."

So for the next couple of weeks we'll wander through Iron City.

Cemetery Saturday

A last visit to Oakland's Mountain View Cemetery.

This area was in hounour of those who had
served in the American Civil War.

A cannon stands guard,

And rows of cannon balls provide a border for the plot.

Cemetery Saturday

Interesting bits of headstones in
Oakland's Mountain View Cemetery,



Shields and anchors, scrolls and acanthus leaves,

and an urn so covered in lichen that from the back,

it looks like monk with a golden shroud.

Cemetery Saturday

More from Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland.

Many interestingly shaped headstones,

Granite drapery and scrolls,

an old rugged cross , all granting eternal rest.

Cemetery Saturday

Mountain View Cemetery atop a hill overlooking
Oakland and the San Francisco Bay.

The grounds are huge and hold many different individual areas.

Many of the Bay Area's well known and historical names are interred here, as well as countless thousands of others.



These shots are from the highest point of the hill, where the crypts and mausoleums of the very wealthy and influential stand.

We'll spent the next few Saturdays here, wandering amidst
the eternal silence and peaceful memories.