An end to grave watching?

A YEAR OF GRAVESTONES

One year ago I posted to say I'd be trying to keep up a wee project to post photos of the changing view from our windows on every Friday throughout 2016. Yesterday saw the fifty third and final post go up, and the blog come to an end (although if there's anything worth recording in future, like a decent snowfall, I may decide to post on the odd occasion). Did it achieve anything?

'Achieve' is too strong a word, but I'm glad I managed to document the changes across the seasons. With so many trees down below, and one high enough to be at eye level up on the fifth floor, the view was very different in June to the one that I began with in January. In retrospect it was a daft decision to go for weekly posts, as the transitions don't always happen that quickly, although come Autumn there were quite big differences between one Friday and the next. I should maybe have gone for a more flexible approach.

But I'm glad I stuck with it. As it became obvious that one week's post was much like another I had to find other ways to make the blog interesting (if only for myself). And that took me down to ground level and wandering around the cemetery. For me that was the best aspect of keeping the blog going, that I got to know what was down there much better than before. Whilst the original intent was to show the changes in the vegetation, and going to down to see it provided some interesting details, it was the graves and memorials themselves that provided the greatest fascination.

Forgotten names and occupations, a sculpture dedicated to stillbirths and a memorial to the biggest rail disaster in UK history, there always seems to be something fresh to discover. New graves too, with burials taking place on an irregular basis, and plenty of visitors to the deceased. Watching the gardeners was often interesting, and the men trying to raise old fallen stones back into their original position.  

So my regular Friday photo sessions will no longer be de rigueur.  I can stick to looking out for the occasional photogenic sunset.  But I don't see my walks around the dead ending next year.  There are still discoveries to be made in this small but fascinating world of memories.