Ashley at Blandford cemetery

So, while Ashley was here, we took her to Blandford Church here in Petersburg – the cemetery at the church has been used since the early eighteenth century with the earliest marked grave dated 1702.  The cemetery’s gravestones, sculptures, and tombs represent a diverse array of eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth century styles of funerary art. In addition, some plots feature exquisite examples of nineteenth century decorative iron fences.   

The other photos from that day are in the Blandford Church and Cemetery folder of my Picasa Web Albums.  The cemetery is 189 acres and is the second largest cemetery in the Commonwealth of Virginia, second only to Arlington National Cemetery.  It is also the location of the first Memorial Day celebration in the United States.

The church is also one of six known buildings in the world in which every stained-glass window was crafted by Louis Comfort Tiffany which, sadly, you are not allowed to photograph.  After taking the tour with one of the wonderful ladies that works at the Blandford visitor center, we walked around a small part of the cemetery snapping pictures.  I would really like to go back and spend the day there walking around looking at the many beautiful headstones.  Huh, I never thought I would actually think that something like that was worthy of being called ‘beautiful’ until I actually stopped to look at them.  I guess – well I know – its something that I, personally, do not like dealing with/thinking about – mortality.  I’ve heard that as you get older, you think about it more often *shrug*  All I know is that I was struck by how beautiful the place was and how it really wasn’t as scary as you might imagine – of course this was also in the middle of the day on a sunny winter day – make that a moonlit night in summer and … well… I might have been a bit more creeped out (especially after hearing the ghost story the tour guide told us ).

I don’t know if I’ll ever be like the Victorians and spend the day at the cemetary with a picnic lunch or anything but, I’ve previously thought it would be cool to take some rubbings of some of the older tombstones for framing.