Summer 2012

This blog hasn't been touched in a few years, so I should probably update it.
Weather wise.. well, we had the winter that wasn't last year and now across the country we have one of the (if not the) hottest, driest summers on record. Last August we suffered from the affects of hurricane Irene, which downed a number of trees in the New Cemetery but was less damaging than Gloria or Bob. Then came the October snowstorm which thankfully spared us, but clobbered much of MA. Then there was the winter that wasn't, with almost no freezing temperatures  and little to no snow.  In years past, when we get little snow, the grown freezes hard and deep. If we get a layer of snow, then we can expect less frost in the ground. We got no snow, almost no frost, and then winter was over. We had an early spring, everything was sprouting a full month early from the trees to the bulbs. Then just as it began to dry out and we were into red flag fire warnings, we got soaking rains and that seemed to make up a bit for the dry winter. Summer rolled along hot and humid after that, with dry spells and then rain just enough to keep us going. Here we are in August with humidity and tornado warnings and torrential downpours at times, and with trees now starting to turn or lose leaves from the stress of the summer.

What a strange ride it's been, and I have no idea what the winter will hold. Part of this weather pattern is supposedly due to La Ninya. Will she change? Will we get snow or at least cold this winter? The entire country could use the snows and the water they bring.

In our own effort to be green, we have planted over 10 trees in the last 3 years. Four spectacular Linden trees, all of which seem to be doing well, three maples, two sycamore trees, and a number of flowering trees.  Hopefully they will all survive and in time provide the shade and beauty that makes our cemetery so attractive. 

In other news, the wildlife is really becoming quite amazing at the cemetery. Not 20 years ago, sighting a turkey was an unusual curiosity. Now they come by almost regularly, sometimes in flocks of 20. We've had hens nest in the cemetery, parading their chicks around. This year we had one hen make a nest right on the stone wall overlooking North St., not a foot from traffic! Luckily she and her brood survived and were last seen (maybe it was them) blocking traffic on Church St.  

And if it's not the turkeys, its the deer! Which while beautiful to see, also bring the dreaded tiny deer ticks, carriers of Lyme disease. Also more common this year and last are bunnies. The numbers of rabbits seemed to decline as the coyote and hawk populations climbed, but while I'm sure they are still out there, coyotes seem to be more scarce this year. Perhaps that is why there are more rabbits?  

On the burial front... Cremations seem to be the in thing these days. In these very dire economic times, more and more people seem to be opting for cremation than ever before. It's quite a change for the industry in this country, although something I think Europeans have been dealing with for  a long time due to lack of space. There is so much demand for cremations that Plymouth has built a crematorium, and Blue Hills Cemetery has gotten permission to build one. 

That's about it for the update for now. 

                                                        

Drought

After torrential spring rains this year (2010) we had a summer of virtually no rain. Quite literally, most mowing stopped this summer. The grass turned crunchy and brown by the end of June, and only at the end of August did it start to make a comeback. It's times like this that I appreciate crab grass, the only thing that will come in green after a brief shower. While we are still in very dry conditions for this time of the year, things are better, if only on the surface.

Not knowing what the summer would look like (we've had a number of very wet summers in the past few years) I took advantage of a fantastic sale on trees at the local Big Box store. 4 good sized Linden trees for $11.00 each. Cant pass that up. To date, with much watering through out the summer, the trees seem to have survived. Hopefully they will overwinter well, and will continue to grow next year. Many of our ancient maple trees are not doing well, and they will need replacing eventually. Shade trees are an important ingredient in a beautiful cemetery.

Also perhaps because of the drought, it looks like the fall foliage is starting early. The oaks are already turning yellow, and they are usually the last trees to turn. Some maples are orange already, but those ones are usually the dying maples, which for some reason there are a lot of all around town.

Now would normally be a good time to plant grass seed, but unless the weather changes a bit more and we get some more rain, I'm not sure if this season will be a good one for grass seed. Hopefully next year will be more normal.

Pet Peeve - Trash.

One of my pet peeves at the cemetery is that people leave trash behind their headstones. When they come to put in new flowers or other orniments, they simply take the old stuff and place it behind the stone. This occurs in sections that have trash barrels.
I equate leaving trash behind your stone with going to someone's house, bringing a cup of coffee, and leaving the empty cup behind the sofa. You would never do that (I hope), but some people feel it's not their job to remove what they originally brought in.
There are thousands of headstones in the cemetery. There is absolutely no way anyone is going to visit the backs of every stone to pick up trash. That's why there are barrels.

Another pet peeve is when people throw plastic trash into the woods. There are large tracts of woodsy hills in the cemetery, and I have no problems with people throwing leave, grass, pumpkins, even bush clippings well into the woods. It all turns to loam eventually. But plastic, glass and metal will remain for many many years, and they will look ugly for years. Put these items in, or at least by, the barrels for pick up. Any plants or planters should have all non-organic matter removed (ie bows, plastic berries, etc) before they are tossed.

Last pet peeve is when people bring in new decorations, but do not remove the old ones. "Out with the old, in with the new" please. It's cleaner, neater, and prettier, and easier to maintain.

Memorial Day

It's two weeks before Memorial Day. Like every year, it's an insane fight to get 14ish acres of cemetery cleaned of leaves and then mowed and trimmed, while still doing burials that come up and fighting the weather. Every year its the same thing. This year seems worse, as I think Memorial Day weekend is earlier than usual. Most of the leaves have been picked up, and we've already mowed five large sections of the cemetery. But the killer is that no matter how hard you try, the grass keeps on growing, so you can mow one section one week, but you can never have all the sections trim for Memorial Day. It's virtually impossible.
Then there are the mechanical issues, mowers that break down, whips that break. It's always something. As hard as we try, and much as we break our backs to do all the areas, we will always miss something, or we will think we did everything and literally in the three days of the weekend, the grass will grow enough to make it look like we hadn't touched it. That's just the way it is.
You can please some of the people some of the time, but you can't please all of the people all of the time. But we do try.

This Saturday the 18th I was able to photograph a large number of stones on the Western hill of the cemetery. These stones are mostly from the mid 1700's to early 1800's and include slate and marble stones. The weather was cloudy but warm, which made for good photographs. I actually realize that too much sun isn't that good, because it makes the exposure too bright and creates shadows. These pictures turned out well I think. But I'm not done yet. I'll label them when I can.