There was an abandoned-looking old cemetary on the side of busy Route 206 I passed dozens of times in the last several years. Every time I was tempted to pull over and stroll through it. There is something about picturesque abandonment that lures me . . . but each time, I was in too much of a hurry or ambivalent about whether it would be trespassing.
This past Sunday, I decided I needed an adventure, and I hopped in my trusty URFmobile (named after part of my license plate) and drove off. It was much further out than I had recalled - I was about to turn around and give up because I had already reached Hillsborough - when I saw it. Now, alas, it has been taken care of - the lawn mown, baby trees planted and staked, every inch of it groomed. I came too late. But still I wandered through it. Most of the gravestones were from the early to mid 1800s, and several had carved decorations. Many had pious poems, alas, erased by time, the elements, and the chemicals from the thousands of cars driving by within 15 feet hourly on the busy highway.
I took cell phone pix of a few of the headstones (yes, I know - why don't I get myself a nifty bitty digital camera to carry around? Inertia, I guess. One of these eons I will . . . ) and include them here.
A band of woods bordered the cemetery on the non-highway sides, and I found berry bushes where the birds had considerately left some berries for me. They are tiny, but so delicious - they put our cultivated berries to shame, for the most part.
I am glad for the people buried there that the church has decided to take care of the grounds, but I have learned once again to carpe diem! I would have preferred to wander through the tall grasses.
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