elaby | Photos from Mt. Calvaire Cemetery

I keep wanting to update my journal to tell you about LIFE and the HOUSE and to PARTICIPATE IN THE ONLINE EXPERIENCE WITH MY FRIENDS, but then I remember that my job has been such that I've worked overtime every day for the past month, and when I get home, I'm so tired I'm lucky if I can unpack a box or make dinner. But Monday last, when Rachel was at her knitting group, I walked over to the cemetery across the street and took some pictures.

Our street has three cemeteries on it. The closest one, Mt. Calvaire, is newish (as in the oldest dates of death are circa 1855), flat as a football field, and arranged in perfect lines. There's another tiny one that's also pretty new in the center of where three streets make a triangle. The last one, farther down, which I haven't explored yet, is old and rolling, shadowed by trees and filled with moss-covered obelisks. It's reportedly full of the graves of members of secret societies. I can't wait to go there XD

Statues like these flank the entrance to the cemetery. There must have been some kind of program where you could donate a statue in someone's name, because there were lots of identical ones dedicated to different people. I'm not sure who this is, but she her clothing has some impressive drapery.

Here's the one on the other side of the entrance. She's set her wreath down, I see.

St. Anne, teaching someone how to read, it looks.

St. Pierre. He has keys! It just hit me that he's probably St. Peter. #captainobvious

St. Paul, with a sword. I met a guy walking his dogs in the cemetery who said you could tell what all the saints stood for because of what they were holding. I think I'd need to know more about Christianity to make an educated guess.

St. Jean! Jean d'Arc, maybe? If so, this one's for you,

_melisande_ :) Maybe she has a candle? She also has a really intricately carved shawl.

St. Thomas has a saw.

St. Simon has a... saw... as well? And bare feets!

This is kind of a cool shape for a gravestone.

St. Martin has armor, and unlike every other male saint here, no beard! Interesting.

I liked this carving of Mary. This is one of the few gravestones in this cemetery that doesn't feature a French name.

Look, it's me! I thought it was cool how shiny and reflective this one was.

There's a hill at the back of the cemetery, and this is the view from partway up it. It's a very well-manicured place, with lots of cypress trees. I spent much of my time there trying to remember what kind of trees they were, which entailed reciting a lot of poetry (first it was "My shroud of white stuck all with yew, oh prepare it" from Twelfth Night, but I wasn't satisfied with that - I knew the name of the tree appears in Poe's "Ulalume" but I couldn't remember past the first stanza.)

Poor armless angel. CLAMP-worthy wings, though.

She's lost a hand too but at least she's still got one. And a very nice tree to stand in front of.

Obligatory art shot.

This one's very pretty. I also like the branches in the corner.

So pretty I took lots of pictures!

I appreciate his gentle expression.

Many of the gravestones were in French.

Uh, so, this one.

I really don't know why anyone would immortalize the vehicle of their child's accidental death on his gravestone! But if it made them feel better, whatever. It's such a bizarre thing that it makes me think of all kinds of weird explanations, like that the railroad company was forced to pay for the creation of a monument but insisted that they put an advertisement on it.

Unfortunately the text below the names is too small and worn to read.

I took a picture of this one because the name "Exzilda" is the coolest thing I've ever seen.

St. Marie (Mary, I'm guessing) also with very pretty fabric.

PATIENCE ON A MONUMENT. Can you tell I was thinking about Twelfth Night a lot that day?

Here's the whole monument.

This is how I know the name of the cemetery. There are also the Stations of the Cross shown in pictures along the path up the hill. Rather a well-thought-out cemetery overall.