34: Of cemetery visits, a winner, and today’s walk
Posted: October 26, 2010 Filed under: 365 Life in the Bogs Challenge, Adventures in art, Adventures in Life, Autumn, Earth, endings, home, nature, Photography, Spring, travel, Walking, wandering | Tags: cemetery, death, graves, New Orleans 9 Comments
(Lafayette Cemetery No. 1. New Orleans, LA)
If you’ve been visiting Life in the Bogs for a while, you know that I occasionally like to hang out in cemeteries. They are peaceful places filled with history, sculptures, and great landscaping. I usually take lots of photos when visiting cemeteries. The photos go into a file, then into a back-up file, and that’s pretty much it except for an initial viewing of one or two when I post about my latest visit to a cemetery.
It occurred to me yesterday that ’tis the season to be dragging out some of my cemetery photos. One of the my favorite cemetery tours was Lafayette Cemetery No. 1 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Located in the Garden District, Lafayette No. 1 is one of the oldest cemeteries in the city of New Orleans and has been featured in several movies.
Our visit to Lafayette Cemetery No. 1 took place on a beautiful, bright, sunny day. That’s hardly the proper mood for Halloween ghoulishness so I took some of the photos to my Photoshop laboratory and worked some mischief on them. They are best viewed large (click on the image to see the large version).
I’ll bring you a few more throughout the week in celebration of Halloween (which, as you may recall, I mentioned in yesterday’s post as a holiday I don’t really celebrate but figure I’m entitled to change my mind).
And the winner is…
The winner of the first ever Life in the Bogs Give-Away is Marcie whose Daily Practice is beautiful and inspiring (and she’s VERY good at naming/captioning her art). If you haven’t seen Marcie’s images, head on over and have a look. Congratulations, Marcie!
I will probably do this again sometime during the course of my outdoor commitment so stayed tuned.
Today’s walk
I went out early today. Except for the crowing of the neighbor’s rooster, the birds were oddly quiet, especially when you consider how noisy they have been for the past week or so. They must be hunkering down in preparation for the coming storm. We’re under a high wind advisory (with sustained winds of 25-35 mph) today and tomorrow. A line of fierce looking thunderstorms is headed this way.
(Today’s view of the pond.)
The woods are heavily carpeted with leaves now. I have to tread with care as I can’t see what is under the leaves and can easily be tripped.
(By the creek this morning.)
I don’t think there will be many leaves left on the trees once this next front blows through. As it is, many of the trees are already bare. The landscape is taking on the brown hues of mid- to late autumn.
But there are still a few late bloomers still hanging on, and some green left to be found in the meadows.
I can feel that storm coming. I don’t know if that’s one of the blessings or curses of having arthritis. Either way, it’s a pretty painful day. I wonder if that means it will be a bad storm?
Let’s hope not.
Life in the Bogs 
Ah, we have something in common ~ like you, I enjoy hanging out at cemetries, taking in the history and also the architecture of the adjoining church, when there is one. I’m right into family history, so cemetries are up there near the top of the list for research. Your New Orleans cemetry looks very old indeed.
It has only just occurred to me today that your pond view is going to become quite bare, and very soon by the sounds of it! Did I mention before that we don’t enjoy the effects of the autumn leaves changing colour and falling from the trees in my part of the world (too much heat), so I hope you will forgive me for my ditzy moment! I’m thoroughly enjoying autumn in your beautiful garden. 🙂
Joanne: I didn’t realize that you don’t have the color (or colour) changes that we have here. I was reading somewhere recently that the changes here don’t have anything to do with temperature, but with the amount and angle of daylight. I’m thinking it has more to do with the type of trees and the way they’ve adapted, but I’m not a scientist (and it seems to me the scientists don’t necessarily have it all figured out either).
What are your autumns like? Do the leaves drop at all? Or is it just a matter of change in temperature?
The beautiful autumn trees simply don’t exist in our area and I long for a crunchy carpet of colourful dropped leaves every year! Our pecan nut tree loses its leaves, as does our neighbours magnolia tree, although without any of the coloured fanfare of your gorgeous trees.
Last January I wrote a post about the weather here, (obviously during a dose of over-heated-ness!) which is on my “incognito” site, where I am lamenting the absence of autumn leaves being present in my life. It is here, http://anniepotts.wordpress.com/2010/01/18/summer-in-australia/ if you care to read it.
That’s an interesting theory that the scientists have. When you think about it, if the sun is lower, the temperatures are cooler. So, would the same apply with the angle of the daylight? We’ll no doubt never know the answer ourselves! 🙂
Okay, that was weird…I was so incognito that you wouldn’t realise who was talking to you! Sorry, I was logged into my annie potts site! LOL!!
lol, Joanne! I figured out who you were by context. 🙂
Lucky Marcie!
I visited that cemetery too, and enjoyed it. There was an old cemetery adjacent to the suburban Holiday Inn where I worked through high school, and it always fascinated me to look at stones from the early 1800’s, text nearly indistinct, just a few feet from pavement and Honda Civivs.
Next time you’re in the area and have time, I’ll have to take you to my two favorite cemeteries – I have a feeling Laurel Hill will knock your socks off.
Looking forward to it, J. Not sure when we’ll be in the area again, but it’s bound to happen sometime in the next 6 months or so. (Sooner if the LM ever hears from A-Z.)
I like cemeteries too. In the past, I used to visit the old ones and walk through them a lot. These are neat shots at the Lafayette Cemetery No. 1, Robin. I like the treatment or processing. I haven’t yet figured out how to take decent shots at a cemetery. Something I’ll try again at a later time. Lovely autumn pond captures! 🙂
Thank you, Anna.
The ideal time to get decent shots at a cemetery is when the skies are moody. But since I can’t control the weather, post processing helps a lot! lol!