Friday, August 20, 2010

A Soldiers Grave

While being at St. Kenelm and right after the walk and discovery of the legend of Kenelm, our walk continued in the cemetery itself.  I was busy snapping a few shots at some horses in a pasture across the barb wire fence where it ran beside the church grounds...... Andy strolled silently through the grave markers reading stones which fascinates him..... and he mindfully calculates dates and he even figures age ratio's for whatever century.  Math bores me so I don't pay much attention to such things.
 Unfortunately he found a new grave which always brings you home from looking at historical place marks and into the 'now' of things.  He spent a good amount of time on the rise of the hill that held the mound of fresh flowers and I eventually made my way towards it and when I got in hearing range,   ''This is a soldier'' he said.  Too new to have a headstone placed and so he was reading the temporary paper placard.  
I'm usually the one that fires up the computer first thing in the door from an outing.... finding out the history while it's fresh in my mind of any particular place.  But he was interested in the soldier's story and found his name in the news.  This has really stayed with him as he said yesterday that he couldn't get it out of his mind, maybe because of being at the grave site itself......seeing this persons finality and following it up with his story... Kind of brings the matter closer to you. 

Is it morbid to be walking in cemetery's?  We probably need to expand our hobby away from the solemnity a little.

*A link to the news story*
http://www.halesowennews.co.uk/news/local/8323404.Halesowen_comes_to_a_standstill_as_local_hero_is_buried_with_full_military_honours/

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Tomb it may concern. We love walking in cemeteries. So bloody peaceful and some of those headstones and tombs are really creepy.The lower ones come in handy as picnic tables so long as they're out of sight of any distant relatives or the vicar.No I wouldn't really, just another mad visual.I can see the notice in the village notice board. "Ghouls Tea Party in the cemetery tonight.No dancing on graves.Old bones only"

Karla said...

HA!!!! I love it!! In the south 'heart of dixie'... People do gather in cemeteries especially the private ones (not usually attached to a church) for what they call, decoration day. Like where my parents are buried is mostly family plots... my english grandfather is there too.. It's a day set aside for mowing, cleaning up tree debris etc.. And there is quite possibly a picnic!..lol So, I got that visual right along with you! Love the titles on the bullentin board! You make me think of Bob Dylan.... each line, each sentence could be a title on its own....for a brand new song. Love it!