Category Archives: Cemetery

Cemetery Angel

051113

This cast-iron angel watches over the entrance to the cemetery. She’s seen better days – her wings are gone as is her right arm and her left hand.

Someone, with an unsteady hand, has painted her lips, making her look even more forlorn.

St. Thomas the Apostle Cemetery
Ann Arbor, Michigan

photographed 4.20.2013

A serpent and some flowers

050513

A detail of the door pull on the Schoenhofen mausoleum at Graceland Cemetery.  The structure is “inspired” by Egyptian design:  it’s a pyramid.

Wikipedia reports that it is one of the most-photographed mausoleums at Graceland.  Had I known that when I was there, I wouldn't have taken any pictures:  I am a little bit cranky* that way.

But, since I DID photograph it, and got this relatively creepy shot of a serpent and some flowers, it seemed only right to share it.

Schoenhofen tomb
Graceland Cemetery
Chicago, Illinois

photographed 4.16.2013

*Maybe more than a "little bit cranky," to be fair.

Patched arrow still points

050413

My guess is that a lot of drivers (going fast, maybe, or driving at night, or texting) missed the left-to-right dogleg turn on Sharon Hollow Road, right there at the cemetery, and that it happened so often that a warning arrow was installed.

No one wanted to fill up the cemetery with bad drivers.

Sharon Hollow Cemetery
near Manchester, Michigan

photographed 4.19.2013

A cemetery haiku, written from the flight path

050313

She lifts her hand-less
arm as jets circle to land:
O’Hare is nearby.

An update, provided by another blogger, in response to the information that O’Hare International Airport was named for a man who “became the Navy’s first flying ace when he single-handedly attacked a formation”:

Single handed ace
O’Hare appreciates her
One armed salute

Graceland Cemetery
Chicago, Illinois
photographed 4.16.2013

White on white, 6

042813

The calendar led me to believe it might be warm; it was the third week of April, after all.  It was not warm; it wasn’t even cool.  So my day of photographing rural Michigan devolved into whatever I could shoot in brief forays from the car.

Fortunately, the caretaker’s shack at this cemetery was close by and I was able to get a few shots before my fingers got too cold to work the shutter release.  (And, yes, I DID have gloves.  But gloves that are really toasty in Texas are mostly just decorative in Michigan.)

This side of the building, the west, had a lot more peeling paint than the other sides.  That, plus what I observed that day, make me think that harsh winds from the west occur with some degree of regularity.  In that way, it was a lot like home.

Oak Grove Cemetery
Manchester, Michigan
photographed 4.19.2013

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 428 other followers

%d bloggers like this: