We’ve been having some pretty nice weather around here lately, so on Tuesday we decided to take a little walk down south to a cemetery. I know, I know, creepy.
Before we get to that, we wanted to show you a neat tree near where we live. From far off it looks fairly normal.
Then as you get closer you realize that the buds on it look kind of… weird.
You, naturally, shove your face in there to see what’s going on, only to be presented with this “bud”.
Yeah, that’s a full sized flower on there. This tree apparently isn’t into “budding” so much as “flowering”. And no, that’s not macro photography. Each of those things is the size of your head… hand. I meant hand.
The whole city is in bloom. Flowers are everywhere, and the city crews are planting new flowers in the main city areas. Even the unkempt church lawn is getting in on the action.
OK, on to the main “attraction” of the day. There’s one huge cemetery in the middle of Linz that we decided to check out. Cemeteries are… different here. Each plot is actually raised a bit from ground level and is extremely well kept. We didn’t want to be too creepy, so we only took this one picture:
You can see how each plot is kind of like a little flower garden. The vast, vast majority have some sort of plants, and many have a ton of flowers planted there. There are also very well tended. Many have candles that seem to be replaced frequently, and most are weeded and everything. There are even stations around the cemetery with watering cans. You can just grab a can, fill it up, then water your plot. We saw several people working on plots while we were there.
I was also particularly interested in the state of the headstones. There were several headstones that had “maybe” been there since the 60s that looked brand new. It’s hard to tell though, because most plots are family plots. Even in one of those “single” plots, the headstone would indicate up to about 4 people being buried there. So it’s hard to tell if the headstone had been there since the first person was buried, or if it had been replaced recently when someone else was buried there.
It really was a nice peaceful place. The birds were singing and there was just enough wind to give the trees a relaxing rustle. We’ve obviously got some morbid questions about how you get a plot, how you “add” a person to a plot, and what the upkeep requirements are, but we didn’t feel it would be appropriate to ask. Some questions are better left unasked.
And there were a bunch of flowering trees in the cemetery. The wind was blowing a bunch of the petals off of them and they were gently floating down on the breeze. It was neat.
Trish says that is a “saucer magnolia” tree and that other flower looks like a daffodil.
and Aunt Kathy reports:
yes, we call it the Tulip Tree. It actually is Shannon’s favorite flower.
It blooms here [CA] as early as January!!