21 June 2009
I love where we live. But what does it say about this area when the most beautiful open space within (easy) walking distance is a cemetery?
Okay, you can't fly a kite or play frisbee there. But it is a great place for walking, once one gets past the macabre feeling of recreating with the bones of our local ancestors. The edge of the cemetery abuts the edge of our neighborhood. But the cemetery management people don't like the idea of uncontrolled entry onto the grounds. So they have put a fence around the entire property. The formal entry gate is almost 4 km from our house by road.
For years, there has been a battle simmering between the cemetery management people and our neighbors. The fence is repaired and reinforced by one side. A new hole appears. The fence is repaired again with "no trespassing" signs added. Another hole appears. And so it goes.For California, the cemetery is old. It was established in 1863. Its designer was Frederick Law Olmsted, the same landscape architect responsible for the layout of New York's Central Park, the grounds of the US Capital Building, and Stanford University (Go Bears! Beat Stanford!)
Scattered around the grounds are a variety of statues. Some I love, like the angel at the bottom. Others I just have to scratch my head over, like the sphinx-like creatures in the photo at the top.
4 comments:
So great to have a new entry to read - and I love each and every one you write Bill.
I think, although our aesthetic tastes today may disagree with sphinx-creatures on our tombstones, it makes a lot of historic sense to decorate a tomb with sphinxes. Think about the invocation of power, longevity in the afterlife, historic awareness etc that is brought up by the sphinx.
I'm happy to see the cemetery again.
And what's the current status in the hole/fence battle?
Status of the fence:
The "no trespassing" sign is up and the main hole is open across from St. Theresa's. I don't think things have changed there in the past year.
The fence is more or less intact (with a few small breaches) elsewhere in the neighborhood.
But, the St Theresa parking lot is now fenced in and every time I try to go through there it is impossible.
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