A Dead Good Time 2

Yesterday I posted some photos taken in Bristol's Arnos Vale cemetery. The active part of that cemetery is beautifully tended whilst the older areas have become a nature reserve. Prior to visiting that, I popped into the Catholic burial ground, Holy Souls Cemetery, next to it.

This was different in character, partly because it was much smaller and partly because the first area you enter has a number of overgrown graves and gravestones clad in ivy and other climbing plants. There was also a grave marked by a rather ostentatious crucifix - I've never seen anything quite like it.

In the past, I used to find the sight of an overgrown cemetery sad and felt this was somehow wrong. My feelings have relaxed on this over the years and now think there is something in being left to rest - truly - in peace which is organic. Dust to dust... 

Of course, overgrown gravestones also make great subjects for photographs:

Andrew

A Dead Good Time 1

A few weeks ago, after lunch on a Saturday, I embarked on a random walk. Shortly after starting out, I realised I was near Bristol's Arnos Vale cemetery. Like many people, I like the peace and tranquillity of graveyards and cemeteries. 

As someone who enjoys spending time alone and loves to go on urban walks with just his iPod Shuffle for company they offer a space for reflection quite unlike anywhere else. There is a reverence about them which comes as much from a proper respect for their place in society as much as from any supposed consecration of the ground itself.

Arnos Vale is unusual in that it has a visitor's centre and actively encourages people to come and enjoy the grounds which contain the cemetery, gardens of remembrance, chapel, war memorials and a nature reserve. As such, one can move from the tended and pristine lawns with rows of graves to the wooded areas where the graves lie peacefully amid the fallen leaves of seasons past.

If you live in Bristol, it's worth a visit (I may even pop out there again myself this afternoon); if not, enjoy the pictures:

There will be more pics from this shoot appearing over on the the widow's window, which I update (almost) daily.

Andrew