Tag Archives: Cemeteries

Halloween, Yang style

October 16, 2016Autumn, Cemeteries, Gothic, Halloween, Hallpween Decorations, New England, tomb stonesAutumn, Cemeteries, Halloween, New Englandhealy24yang

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I just got all the tombstones and a few haunting creatures up in my front yard. I still have to add several more supernatural visitors, but the eerie atmosphere is starting to coalesce. Just to give you an idea of what things will look like, I’ll share with you some images from last year’s outside decorations.

Here’s a vertical shot of the graveyard in the front lawn. Yang joined in the fun by getting the iron fencing and putting it up for me. Mr. Bones there seems to be chuckling over something the ghoul in black just told him. Did they see into the future for this year’s election?

I think this chap is recovering from one of the Halloween parties that I have every year. Either that or he’s someone I caught plagiarizing. See any red marks on him?

We also were visited by a few witches, ghouls, and demons, flying joyously on the fall winds. Some of them are looking right at you, and they seem awfully glad to see you – for what reason, I’m not sure. it’s probably not good for you!

Back to those pesky skeletons again! They’re worse than ants in the summer – and just as hungry. Heh, heh, heh!

And lest I forget, Here are some shots of our homemade dancing ghosts! These guys (or gals) usually go up closer to Halloween because if there’s too much rain and wind the ground gets too soft to support them and they become staggering, collapsing ghosts. As Quentin and Beth say, there’s nothing worse than when your ectoplasm starts to sag!

So, I’ll just close with this nice horizontal shot of the whole front yard, to let you drink in the entire spooky panorama. Try not to be too scared as you drive up the street. This year, I have even some new tomb stones! It may not be Mt. Auburn or Hope Cemetery, but it’s home sweet creepy home to me!

Birds and Beasts at Mt. Auburn Cemetery

August 1, 2016birds, Cemeteries, English Robin, herons, Nature, New England, robins, tomb stones, turkeys, turtlesbirds, catbird, Cemeteries, Great Blue heron, Nature, New England, robin, summer, turkeyshealy24yang

We went to Mt. Auburn looking for birds and beasts. In the past, we’ve seen rabbits, ground hogs, foxes, hawks, and robins, but we had a few surprises this time. This is a lovely catbird. I’m afraid you can’t quite distinguish his/her black cap. We have at least one who lives near our house and is rather friendly, visiting the bird feeders, sipping from the bird baths and fish pond, and plucking up multi-legged critters from the ground. We also saw tons of robins. I wanted to include this picture for my British viewers. Your robins are adorable, petite, and feathered lovely blue and rust. Ours, as you can see, are longer and larger, with a grey/black body and striking rusty-red tummy. Their faces and build are similar to your blackbirds, though yours are really black. I heard that your robins were struggling. How are they doing now?

Here was a nice surprise! Down by one of the ponds, we found quite a few painted turtles sunning themselves. Look at this guy stretch his hind legs. Seems comfy, doesn’t he/she. Meanwhile, in the pond, a baby was swimming around like crazy, having a ball. maybe this guy on the shore was a watchful parent?

We really had a surprise when we saw and were able to follow a Great Blue Heron around the cemetery. We expected to see him wading in one of the ponds. That’s how we usually see them, but not this guy. He just took himself on the most casual of strolls, looking around, chilling out. maybe he was looking for a friend?

Okay, here he is paying his respects.

Heading back to our car we got the biggest of surprises! A flock of about 8 or 9 wild turkeys! Notice the “beards” hanging from some of the birds. I’d never noticed that before.

I talked to a woman who was planting some flowers at a relative’s grade, and she told me the turkeys were making her nervous. Apparently, a turkey had gotten too aggressive with one of the workers in the cemetery last week, with things had not going well for the turkey. I have heard that these wild bird can be exceptionally bold. These guys didn’t bother us, but then, again, we didn’t bother them, either. I prevented Yang from mentioning either dreaded trigger word: Thanksgiving or drumstick.

Once More, DON’T BLINK!

August 1, 2016Cemeteries, Don't Blink, Nature, New England, tomb stonesCemeteries, Gothic, Nature, New Englandhealy24yang

Recently, Yang and I decided to take a stroll in one of our favorite cemeteries, Mt. Auburn in Cambridge, MA. So, to avoid the July heat and try to catch sight of some interesting birds, we left early in the morning and managed to get in around 8:00. Parking in a slightly different location, we almost immediately came across this monument to Edwin Booth, a famous Shakespearean actor of the nineteenth century. Unfortunately, his mental health in later years led him to take the method acting thing a bit too far, his Richard III indomitably driving Richmond off the stage and his Othello trying to strangle Desdemona for real – maybe an inspiration for Ronald Colman’s A Double Life? Still, he posed far less of danger than one of his actor sons, John Wilkes.

Here you can see some wonderful reliefs carved on series of family tomb stones.

This beautiful woman, perhaps an embodiment of the soul, presides over a family vault.

Walking up the hill towards the tower that gives a beautiful panorama of the cemetery as well as of Boston and its environs, the slope that rolls down into the rest of the cemetery provides a peaceful, shaded landscape. This day we didn’t see any exciting creatures at the top of the tower, which you ascend via a spiral stone staircase in the center. Once, when we were up there, we saw several hawks circling. Here’s a nice shot the stone path leading up to the tower. I also had to take a photograph of the enormous roots of this ancient tree snaking across and underground. There’s a Lovecraft moment in here somewhere.

From lectures on cemetery tours and material I’ve read on monument art, I feel fairly safe conjecturing that the kneeling female figure represents the soul of the recently departed and the angel’s lifting a cloak from her represents this sacred figure lifting the veil of life cloaking us from God’s radiance, preparing the soul to ascend to heaven. Interesting that the soul usually is portrayed as female. A connection to the goddess Psyche?

Another intriguing relief. Any comments on the symbolism?

Here’s a figure to give all the Dr. Who fans the willies. How would you feel if this child cherub came to life? A comforting figure or not?

Plymouth, NH Trip – May

July 3, 2016Bait and Switch, black cat, book signings and readings, cats, Cemeteries, Claude Rains, Dusty, Film Actors, mystery, Nature, New England, Sisters in crime New EnglandBait and Switch, Bait and Switch novel, Bette Davis Jessica Rains, black cat, cats, Cemeteries, Claude Rains, Dusty, Jessica Mintonhealy24yang

When we went to Plainfield for me to participate in the Sisters in Crime panel on creating mysteries, we stayed over night in Plymouth, NH at one of our favorite places, the Red Carpet Inn. For years Yang and I, myself alone, or myself and a pal had stayed there for the Medieval and Renaissance Forum when it was at Plymouth State University. It’s always been pleasant. Look at the beautiful view we had from our window!

The next day, we drove over to the Red Hill Cemetery where Claude Rains is buried with his wife Rosemary. He has a beautiful epitaph: “All things once are things forever, Soul, once living, lives forever.” His wife’s is a variation on lines from Christina Rosetti’s “When I Am Dead” Sonnet – one of my favorite poems. We always try to pay a visit. Just a simple way of saying, “Thanks for the great celluloid memories.” It’s a special treat to know that my favorite actor is resting near me. It almost feels like we’re neighbors. Don’t they have a beautiful view? That’s Red Hill in the background, which Yang and I try to climb in good weather –– we’re tired afterward, but it’s worth it.

When we stopped in Center Harbor, I found a neat independent book store, Bayswater Book Co. (12 Main St.). Of course, I scoped out the lovely little shop –– and ultimately managed to make arrangements to give a reading and signing on Saturday, July 9th, from 1:00-3:00. Drop by and meet me. Bait and Switch‘s Dusty will be be on the lookout for you!

I always wonder if this pun carries exactly the right connotations to bring in customers. It must work, ’cause it’s been there for like 20 years!

Once we got home, we were happy to see that, on occasion, Rosalind and Natasha can rest peacefully together. The Moe will lie down with the Curly.

On Tour for Dracula

November 29, 2015Cemeteries, Dracula, England, English Robin, George Eliot, Gothic, Gothic literature, Highgate Cemetery, medieval, monastery, Nature, Whitby AbbeyCemeteries, Dracula, George Eliot, Gothic, Highgate Cemetery, Whitby Abbeyhealy24yang

So, the last work we’re covering for my Romantic and Victorian Gothic course is Dracula, on December 2nd. For “educational” purposes, I’m going to post some pictures that Yang and I took on our visits to England in 2013 and 2015. The first trip was a kind of “English major’s dream.” We visited Tintern Abbey, the Lake Country, Haworth and Whitby in Yorkshire, and in London St. Pancras Cemetery, Samuel Johnson’s House, Highgate Cemetery, and other neat places. So, let’s start with images from Whitby that correspond to events in Dracula.

Here is a shot of the cemetery for the Church of St. Mary’s, overlooking the harbor. You can even see a few graves that might have been the very ones that Mina and Lucy sat upon – where Lucy was attacked by the evil Count and where he hid out during the day.

Here are some of the views of the harbor that the young gals would have see from their spot – or Dracula if he peeked through the cracks of his sepulcher hideyhole. Note the man-made breakwater with its lighthouse, described in the novel.

The brilliant roofs on the houses perhaps inspired Stoker’s emphasis of red predominating his descriptions of the town.

The other arm of the harbor stretches mightily outward. You can see the depth of the harbor just by noting the height of the opposite cliff.

You get the same impression looking at the abbey and St. Mary’s from the heights above the beach and the concert pavilion.

Mina must have lied. She could never have run up these stairs in her bare feet. The girl must have had her New Balance sneakers on – and collapsed when she got to the top!

Here are some shots of the magnificent ruins themselves.

Notice me in the corner for scale.

The other Dracula portion of my tour was at Highgate Cemetery. There are actually two sides to the cemetery. One is called the Old Highgate and the other the New. They’re both pretty old, but Yang and I figure that the encounters with Lucy’s Undead self probably occurred in New Highgate, since she would have been buried in 1897. We weren’t there in the middle of the night; that’s frowned on. So, our pictures are all in daylight – they wouldn’t have looked too good with only flash light, anyway. Still, these pics definitely capture the eeriness – especially if you are a Dr. Who fan. Don’t blink!

The graves are closely crowded, so you can imagine how easy Dr.Van Helsing and the boys would have had it finding a place to hide and peek at the vampires. I don’t know how overgrown the landscape would have been about 120 years ago, though.

You can’t forget to visit some of the famous folk buried here, like George Eliot.

And my husband said hello to one of the more fiery of the Marx Brothers, Karl. I guess Van Helsing and Co. were in too much of a rush to pay any literary/political social calls.

To end on an adorable note, enjoy the English Robin on the tomb stone, though you might have to click on the picture and enlarge it to see him/her.

Or this fox, who is way too adorable to fall under Dracula’s evil sway.

Don’t Blink!

August 6, 2015Cemeteries, Don't Blink, GothicAngels, Cemeteries, Don't blink, Gothic, ST. Georgehealy24yang

Don’t Blink! – Cemetery Artistry

Last year, in August, my husband and I drove to Stratford, Ontario for the Shakespeare Festival, to see Antony and Cleopatra. On the way, we stayed over in Rochester to break up our trip. Once before we’d been to the city and had been driven past two wonderful cemeteries. We decided that if we ever came back to town, we had to visit. We love the nineteenth-century “Romantic-style” cemeteries, most of them based on Mt. Auburn in Cambridge: sloping grounds, ponds, shady trees, a beautiful parklike setting. As a matter of fact, when these cemeteries were originally designed, the idea was for the whole family to take a Sunday afternoon and picnic, relaxing in the beautiful scenery, communing with nature, and visiting with lost beloveds. The exquisite, evocative, wistful statuary creates a mood of delicious melancholy –– though Whovians may feel far different emotions when surrounded by (seeming) stone weeping angels.

These two cemeteries face each other across a busy road. Yang and I started on the side without the redstone, castle-like gates. I don’t remember the names, but I bet my friend Tim Shaw could tell me!

The first cemetery that we visited was Catholic, which is brought home by the beautiful statuary of saints and angels.

This large monument celebrated St. Joseph, holding his “step son” Jesus. I love the angels flanking on both sides. It was extremely hard to get a picture without too much shadowing. I always liked St. Joseph. He was a good Dad, and my father’s middle name was Joseph – and he was a wonderful dad as well.

Here are two of the St. Anthonys immortalized, also holding baby Jesus. Clearly St. Anthony is a popular patron saint in Rochester. Maybe this is St. Anthony’s Cemetery, or a lot of people were praying to find something they’d lost- he’s the patron saint of finding what’s been lost. Whatever the case, they are so wonderfully sculpted. The faces show such deep and beautiful feeling. the graceful folds of the robes seem ready to shift with the breeze or a movement. And the mossy covering adds a lovely Gothic shading.

St. George and the Dragon, no less! This guy’s family clearly thought he was a champion of . . . what? Pretty impressive, huh? The monument is actually much wider, with statuary on the sides. Many of these graves had such elaborate stones that had arches and side statuary. Two other places you see a lot of these kind of elaborate tombs are at Sleepy Hollow in Tarrytown and Woodlawn in the Bronx. Note that this is one one really long monument.

There were also many of the traditional weeping ladies and powerful angels that you find in many Victorian cemeteries. Again, some are still smooth, while others are mossy, but all have a lovely melancholy to them.

Look at this child, someone’s little girl. The closeup shot of her face lets us see her as a real person. Look at the sadness in her expression as she holds a basket of flowers as delicate, lovely, and evanescent as her own life.

I’m particularly fascinated by this brooding woman, standing tall, but not quite able to look us in the eye. Still, she’s peeking through one uncovered eye. Or maybe she just has a really bad migraine? Anyway, Dr. Who fans would probably think she’s trying to cheat.

Across the street and past the redstone gates it was much shadier; there were far more trees. And this was a brutally hot August afternoon. You can tell by how washed out the sky looks in some of the shots how brilliant the sun was that day. As my physicist husband pointed out, the UV was baaad. I have to point out some images of my favorite monument, the greiveing angel. This figure was actually a tad unnerving, but beautiful. The grace of the carving made it seem on the verge of movement. And those enormous wings hinted at an unsettling power. So here are two shots.

Again, Dr. Who-followers, keep your eyes open!