when I think of fall, I think of cemetaries ...

Okay, that sounds morbid, doesn't it?? But in a way, there's the whole symbolic thing, as nature shuts down for winter, the whole "lion in winter" thing about aging, etc. But actually, it's because in Cleveland we have the Lakeview Cemetary, one of the best in the nation ... and it's MORE than a cemetary, it's a gorgeous park, with immensely beautiful statuary, carved by Italian master craftsmen imported from Italy to do just that. They settled in a small area around the cemetary that has since become "Little Italy," which is home to countless great little Italian restaurants.



But the cemetary they worked at is a beautiful place, and I love to wander it in the Fall and Spring, photographing the place. It's filled with significant Clevelanders, ranging from President James A. Garfield, to John D. Rockefeller, to Elliot Ness, and Ray Chapman, the only pro baseball player killed during a game (took a nasty fastball to the head). And of course, plenty of everyday Clevelanders (such as my great-grandparents, Benjamin and Elizabeth, who emigrated to Cleveland from England in the 1910s).



Naturally it's a wonder too ... the place is filled with huge Japanese Threadleaf Maple trees, amazingly overgrown for decades, and just literally a cascade of color in the fall ... it's almost like a natural waterfall of red hues ... just stunning to see.




I need to get back there, but now I spend too much time on the weekends working on or around the house, but I WILL get back there one of these days, just because it's such a beautiful place. Yes, there are dead people there ... but it's such a wonderful place, you almost envy them for spending eternity in a gorgeous museum of natural beauty and the stonecarver's art.