Ghost Upon the Floor

 

 I know this isn't the Sleepy Hollow update I was looking forward to. When I finally sat down, after returning home from Sleepy Hollow, New York, to organize all the photos I had taken on my memory cards (both the one I took, and the new one I had to buy at a Walgreens when my original card filled up)-- I realized I had quite a few photos.

 And so I am uploading them in the order they were taken, and will update in sections. This first set is simple, from a rest area somewhere in the Catskills region of southern NY. There were signs posted that the woods were private property, and they kept me from going into them too deep. But the quiet, trickling creek and the leaves still, so slowly, falling, were too autumn, too breathtaking and too gorgeous for my camera to resist.


 The leaves aren't Sleepy Hollow, but they were the perfect introduction to my long weekend in the Hudson Valley. Driving across the most southern part of my state, I saw the trees exploding in reds and oranges and yellows and deep greens we have not even begun to see here yet. It was as if fall were exploding louder driving across the state, culminating in the small, iconic hollow on the Hudson River.

 You may view my photo album here:

Catskill Region Rest Stop

 I give you, the true face of evil. Running through the cemetery this past week, I noticed how, on a hill where there are sparse trees, the leaves of the trees had begun to fall. Off there branches, crunchy, colorless and dead. Leaves with the texture of November, but without even the slightest hint of the deep oranges and reds the changing colors bring.


 Apparently, my area of upstate New York has been having the worst dry spell since the 1950's. Any threat to any part of autumn happening is an unspeakable horror, in my book. Think: Christmas being cancelled for a young child-- but one thousand times worse.

 I am hoping this does not go on much longer, and hoping that we get some much needed water pouring down from the sky very soon. We must have fall, in all its glory.

 This past weekend, I visited Forest Lawn again. Unlike trips of the past, where my intentions consisted only of wandering the cemetery, walking among the stones and finding new monuments and areas to photograph, this visit had a more specific purpose.

 I was looking for my great-grandparents' grave. My mother mentioned this to me the week earlier, and I was, of course, absolutely interested on where these relatives of mine were in the great cemetery. I've visited Forest Lawn so many times, but I'd never gone with the intention of finding a specific grave site.

 And so I set out on Saturday afternoon with my partner. The people at the office were extremely helpful, looking the names up on what appeared to be a DOS based system, and then going to a very large, very old, very heavy and very informative bound book of maps of the cemetery's different sections. I did not know what to expect, or guess where they could be. The woman at the desk gave me directions on the larger map of the cemetery to the section they were in, and a blown up guide of the section, with varying, possibly larger stones and monuments marked, in the hope I could use them to find my way to where my grandparents were.

 On our way I came across some interesting items of note. Autumn had begun to shine in the cemetery. Early fallen leaves crowded some of the roadways, and these gorgeous few leaves had begun to burn a bright orange red near section D, where my relatives were.

 I hadn't expected it to take long, but it began to take longer than I felt it should have. I took about 10 minutes to realize I was looking at the section map from the wrong angle, and once figured out, another ten to realize where the graves marked on the map where. I made my way through what I thought was a direct line to where my relatives should be... And I found a tree. A large tree, which literally encompassed several stones. Markers laid in the ground, toward the base of the tree, were almost covered with age and earth, and two stones stood back, behind the leaves.

 Around the tree, several stones I had to feel to read, as time had worn so much of the inscriptions away, appeared to have circa 1800 dates, and I began to wonder if my great-grandparents were among these older, nameless graves.



I was walking to the front of the section when I spotted their names, and found them.  By their own tree, in this older section of the cemetery, with decidedly unique designs and structures to their stones. A rough, well preserved, coral-like boarder lines their stones, and I have to say I've never quite seen something like that before. Their urn had a wildly strong weed growing out of it, and at the base, had a green plant which easily may have been planted when the stones were made. I intend to go back and clean up the urn a bit, perhaps put a new, fall-hearty plant in there. I snapped dozens of photos of my great-grandparents stones, and also of the surrounding area. I'm always fascinated that there are so many areas of the cemetery I haven't been in, and the unique beauty that lies within.

 You may view my photo album of the trip here.

Forest Lawn, 09-10-11 (Start of Fall, Trietleys)

How beautiful, how simple, how perfect- how needed this fallen leaf is; the beginning of the season.

Found by my mother in front of her house this morning.