'Hopping' Through Cemeteries

Easter Saturday, now two weeks past, was an eventful day for me involving visits to three local cemeteries in the company of some likewise graveyard enthusiast friends.

First was a visit to Holy Trinity Anglican churchyard which involved some literal hopping over the washed out entrance road. The church building itself, has been boarded up since fall 2010 due to vandalism (thankfully relatively minor) and I am looking forward to the restoration of the door (it was in poor condition before the vandalism incident).

Holy Trinity Anglican Church & Churchyard, 23 April 2011.

The big hop, 23 April 2011.

View of Holy Trinity Churchyard still covered in snow, 23 April 2011.

We breezed through the churchyard discussing the various residents and their unique histories, like the Featherstone-Robarts-Holmes conundrum, Peterson children, Annibul, Lofthouse, Pruden and various other things of interest. I took pictures of a headstone installed last year and while I looked for evidence of a recent burial, which I understand has occurred, the area in question was still covered by snow. And it is entirely possible that I got the burial mixed up with Wild Rose North Cemetery.

Speaking of Wild Rose North Cemetery, that was our next stop. Oddly, like my first walk through, once again I did not get photographs of the cemetery. Very silly considering I had camera in hand this trip. There were three things that upset me during the visit:

1. I was sad to see that the glue holding a tabletstone to its base gave way because of the marker tilt, resulting in a toppled headstone. Markers affixed to bases in my opinion should be fitted into sockets or internally pinned.
2. The inscription face of a monument badly covered with lichen was carelessly scrapped off with a metal object, leaving scratch marks on the stone.
3. The amount of horse manure. Now, I am unsure if the manure comes for individuals riding horses to visit the cemetery or the T.B. horses which have a habit of getting loose. A week after the visit in fact, I saw nine horses and a foal in close proximity.

What was enjoyable was the discussion regarding some manufactured stones which we have, based on composition, concluded for the time being to be a fine coloured concrete mix. Damage to the head of another marker revealed to me, that unlike I had concluded while viewing spalling in Foxdale Cemetery of a local wolf stone, that the decorative covering may not be concrete but stucco of some sort. [EDIT: stucco is a concrete, silly me] With the examination of two markers revealing the concealed flower vases, a fun discussion was also held about various stories that could be concocted about cemetery exploration and hidden treasure.

From Wild Rose North Cemetery we moved onto St Martin's Anglican Church and Churchyard.  The church was open and nicely heated, leading me to suspect that as it has a gas stove, the church is being warmed in preparation of a Easter Sunday service even though the church no longer has, how shall I put this?--a congregation in residence.

St Martin's Anglican Church & Churchyard, 23 April 2011.

One of the tombstones in St Martin's was carved by one of my companions grandfather who does the traditional sandblasting and while neither the granddaughter or grandfather are fan of wolf stones, she does know that he purchases them and installs them upon request. So, I do hope through the connection I can learn who manufactures the wolf stones style of my area. And what exactly they are constructed of.

From St Martin's we went on a hunt for a forth cemetery, Wild Rose West Cemetery. (Which, for some reason, I was calling South at the time... probably because it is south of the North one although West is its name.) With now map, and working with only my general recall of the cemetery having plotted it out on the R.M. map, we were not successful in anything but touring the area and seeing deer.

Four white-tail deer seen while attempting to locate Wild Rose West Cemetery.

Touring back to home base, we concluded the day with pizza, hot dogs roasted over an open fire, and the culinary debate of how to make the best s'mores.