Cemeteries

This past week, I was in Toronto Thursday night for my book club, which was held near Mt. Pleasant and Eglinton.  I was early, so I walked around the neighbourhood and discovered that Mount Hope Cemetery was just down the road from the book club location, and walked around to have a look.  Cemeteries have long fascinated me. They are often oases of peace and quiet in the midst of the noisy, urban environment. There are also well-manicured lawns, lots of trees and birds, and very few (living) souls in sight.  Good places to get away from it all.  The older graves, especially, are quite beautiful and  good examples of artistry.  I also like the shabby-chic look of the weather-worn gravestones, which makes them the perfect subject of photographs.

Gothic figures

Note the plane in the distance

Once back in G-town, I rode my bike up to the local Woodlawn Cemetery, and walked around taking some more pictures of the graves that captured my eye.  I uploaded some into my Camera+ app on my jPhone and altered them to make them more interesting.

Lion statue atop a Sons of England memorial

Child's grave with a lamb motif (there were many like this. Sad.)

 My favourite Toronto cemetery is Mount Pleasant, which is large and contains many great photo-ops.

Mount Pleasant Lion - very lifelike.

In my travels over the years, I have tried to make a point of visiting Cemeteries in other cities.  They are often older than what we have here in Canada, and are visually quite stunning.

Bunhill Fields, London, England.

Cirencester Cemetery, England.

My all-time favourite cemetery has to be Pere Lachaise, in Paris France, where many famous people are buried.  I could easily devote a whole blog to it as I spent hours walking around the vast grounds, taking in the many interesting graves, happily snapping away with my camera.

Loved the colour of this realistic figure.

Creepy or what?

Something that could easily be in a horror movie.