May 21, 2011

Twas last Saturday, May 21, 2011, when I tried to maintain my sobriety by practicing a healthier lifestyle and not be a total borracha…so ya…it sort of worked! Ok so recap, me and the English Rose attempted to go see “The Shining” at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery and we miscalculated and mis-anticipated the immense amount of peons that completely “one-up-ed” us by getting their $10 tickets in advance…what organized jerks! So nonetheless, the show was sold out to our dismay and with blanket and bottle in hand we had to improvise a new game plan. It was approximately 7ish and faaaar too early for our bar hopping drudgery to commence. So having just recently r-ewatched “Swingers” I thought let us go and experience the world famous Dresden Room. And if you have no idea what I’m talking about, then either watch “Swingers” and be charmed by a very young and handsome Vince Vaughn or peruse the photos below:

It is like I was transported to the hey-day of LA in the 50s, which I totally adore. The bartenders are all very “mature” and no less than 80 years old.  There is just that old restaurant feel to it that it really reminds me of SF’s old-school Italian restaurants that are littered everywhere. There is nothing more that I relish than a dive bar with seedy characters or an old-school 50s-eque Italian fine dining restaurant–which is exactly what the Dresden is channeling. I want to feel as though Frank Sinatra’s ghost will appear at any moment and perform a solo of “Witchcraft” just for me and the Dresden is total “winning” this one. It was a great way to start off the night just lounging at the bar sipping some dranks and doing our girly catch-up. Then a drunken subject named “Rameal” from Orange, CA came up to ask if we were locals and whether we had a restaurant near-by to recommend to him.  Becks politely informed the gent “Uhh well the Dresden is a restaurant…” Clearly this 40-ish man was too drunk to be satisfied just eating at the bar-it’s like eating where you piss! So we gave him some recommendations and he ungracefully spilled his martini on my pants…awesome. He did redeem himself by buying us a round. Sidebar: What older man drinks martinis? I hate to be Judge Gitana but I am going to be and I feel like you are half a man if you drink martinis–why don’t you call up Carrie Bradshaw and Samantha and talk about how “she’s just not that into you.” Ugh. It’s comparable to a pretentious barista judging someone’s tastes based on their coffee order. Now I don’t know a ton about coffee but I feel like the G drink to order would be an americano because you can truly taste the flavor of the coffee–no half soy, half whipped, iced caramel latte bull. I digress…

But wait there is more–I haven’t even gotten to the best part! So Marty and Elayne are the Dresden’s resident lounge singers and they are pushing late 70s and still rocking the stage (which is literally just a piano in the middle of the room). Now Marty is the total abrasive east coast type wannabe jerk Sinatra lounge singer and probably is completely wasted by the end of his set. He has that really horribly colored shoe-polish black hair that looks completely fake and I’m not sure what the exact “look” he was going for that night but he was wearing a Boho-inspired peasant top with his graying chest hair peeking out and clearly had some face work done (so LA). Now Elayne was completely lovely and what a cool grandma she would be! They sang any popular jazz song by request and seriously, Elayne was the one-woman band–she played the keys,piano, and flute! Who knows what else.  Now I love most all jazz and totally appreciate them and how they truly lit up the room with people half their age.  I will definitely go back.

Ok on to the next….I really wanted to go to see what The Gold Room was all about because I was under the impression that it was full of local Cholos coupled with your typical hipster, thus creating this magically awkward unspoken tension in the room–LOVE IT. I wanted to go to find my Cholo Professor (see previous post below) perhaps and get some of that LA flavor and sadly, it was a bit disappointing, in that, clearly everyone there that was a veteran-pachuco-local was outnumbered by just-turned-21-year-old hipsters coming back from some concert set up the the street. Big wah wah BUT not to fear, “Laura” totally saved this portion of the night–she was a drunken ex-Pachuca from the hood and was with her handle-bar mustached machismo homeboy and their compadre. She was so friendly and funny that I can’t describe it. She was like any drunken older woman harden by love and life, yet instantly likeable, real, honest and blunt. She was full of laughs and, like most drunks tend to do, ended up spilling some dirt about her ungrateful grandson and how the middle school around the corner was named after her aunt who stood up to the racist cops during the Pachuco wars (very cool actually). So after a round (soda water for me) and some free tacos we decided to head out as there was no talent in the bar for either of us.

Ok then two uneventful bars later…we end up at El Compadre, which ironically, I had been to a year earlier and indulged in flaming margaritas. It was a great way to end the night because El Compadre is mostly a Mexican restaurant rather than a bar, although they have all the drinks imaginable. We just decompressed the earlier events of the evening until we noticed what handsome waitstaff beholds us! (Jeez, I always go for the help!) So some flirting, then some free shots (ugh of Jack!) and free chips later, it was time to politely end the night like proper ladies….until my slootzy side kicked in and we have gone back every Saturday since then…ugh…another post….maybe…

May 14, 2011

As mentioned on my facebook, I have been to a few of the Hollywood Forever “film” screenings. Since most folks that don’t live here aren’t privy to what the hell Hollywood Forever is (it sounds like a wax museum to me) it is actually a cemetery where all the old stars (i.e., Cecil B. Demille, Charlie Chaplin, etc.) and some rich Armenians and Russians are buried. In turn chauvinistic LA fashion, Angelinos not only love their films, but they loooove their dead classic celebrities and what better way to merge the two than watch old films atop their graves? (And no, you do not literally sit on graves-there is a grassy knoll where they set it all up–see picture below). The first night they premiered “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” starring Liz Taylor, in order to commemorate her life and legend. I had never seen the movie before and it was truly an amazing performance by her and boy, as my sister said, Paul Newman was a fox! If you haven’t seen this play-turned-movie, I would absolutely recommend it because the dialogue alone is truly phenomenal. I should probably watch it again because as I will get to later in this post…ya….things got a little fuzzy. So this film is about 2 + hours and I brought some wine and so did my female counterpart/companion and I don’t know what it was–be it the film, being outside, being in a cemetery or being next to some fine under-aged rockabilly latinos, but I had it in my un-conscious mind to drink both bottles of wine on a hans SOLO mission and proceeded to get extremely intoxicated. I think it must have been the mason jars I brought to drink the wine with because they are deceptively deep and I became full-fledged wine-o status after that night. The end of the movie was a bit of a blur, as I was stumbling back to the car and uh…pretty much the rest of the night.

We somehow ended up at Jones’ bar in Hollywood and at this point, I was in and out of consciousness and it is truly a struggle trying to remember everything.  Not that I needed any more to drink, but hey, when you are drunkers, it just over takes you and the power to keep the party going was alive and well within me. So whilst I was waiting for the barkeep to bring me a drink an older 42-year-old South African man stealthfully swoops in for the kill. His opening line was, “I need some advice and some woman’s intuition on a business deal.” Yikes…intuition is my new buzz word and South Africa must have totally known it! As the kind, amicable drunk that I am I said something like, “Well suuuuuuure partner!” (Well, I probably didn’t say something like that, but that’s what ran through my head–what actually came out is debatable.) Basically I had a little bit of ego and drunkenly believed I could solve any problem-business, personal, romantic or otherwise at that very moment. As I recall, his query was something about not trusting a man in this business deal he was trying to undertake and he wasn’t sure if he should go forward with it or not. I think I said something like, “Well if you are already having doubts, then that is your intuition telling you ‘no.’” From this point on, I really can’t recall what the hell else we talked about but what I do remember is he had the googly-eyed look of slowly but surely falling in love with this charming, attractive and drunkenly assertive woman that he re-named “Ruby.” Not only do I love a nice cholo, but I also like older men…like a finely aged wine, they mature with age and have that silver-fox-ness I adore. HOWEVER, 42 might be pushing it and his fair South African skin (he was Dutch) was not very forgiving to the aging process (or maybe my vision was so blurred I saw more wrinkles than there really were?). Since I can never say no to anyone, I ended up giving him my number…geeish and somehow flew on my magic carpet home where I proceeded to have one of the worst hangovers in my life. I was bedridden, incapacitated, sensitive to light, sound, movement, children (well thats always) and everything else with the exception of pure silence. My Sunday was shot and I spent the day holding myself in fetal position in my covers, watching Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes while fading in and out of sleep. Man, what a dainty amateur I am! South Africa texted me the next day and I instantly felt sick to my stomach and did not have the heart to respond. Poor South Africa.  All I have to say is: What an absolute shit show that was.

Yet another beautifully illustrated collection of photos of famous people’s graves, this one focuses on predominantly American musicians of the late 20th century. Special attention is paid to the tokens visitors leave on their pilgrimages: guitar picks, empty liquor bottles, unsmoked cigarettes. I was pretty thoroughly fascinated.

As with any collection of grave monuments, one could quibble with the inclusions: John Belushi as a legend of rock? At least the story of his funeral and three graves is interesting. Was Easy E a rock star? Minnie Ripperton? Karen Carpenter?

I suspect that the problem with filling the book was that so many musicians’ families — aware of the ongoing problems at Morrison’s grave in Paris — have opted not to release their loved ones’ ashes and/or to announce a gravesite where fans could pay their respects. Beatles’ fans have Strawberry Fields in Central Park, but there’s some question about whether Yoko had John’s remains buried or scattered at all. The same holds true for Kurt Cobain: I’ve read elsewhere that fans go to a bench in a park near the house where he died to remember him, but that isn’t mentioned in this book at all. Is the story true, but just not widely known?

If you’re interested in mortuary commemoration or people’s relationships with cemeteries — or, I’ll include grudgingly, musicians of the past — this book is for you.

I got my copy from Amazon: Stairway to Heaven: The Final Resting Places of Rock’s Legends

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My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This is a great idea, though poorly executed. The concept of this book came to the authors when they visited the grave of Gertrude Stein and Alice Toklas in Paris, where they had a religious experience. They hoped this book would “encourage readers to discover the joys of pilgrimage.” Unfortunately, while they may name the cemetery where the object of pilgrimage waits, they don’t provide burial ground addresses. Also absent were actual birth and death dates, so you could time your pilgrimage symbolically. Most sorely missed: the book doesn’t even describe the tombstones.

Rather than focusing on graveyards, as implied in the title, this directory is filled with generally unenlightening capsule biographies. “The Wright Brothers owned a successful chain of small bicycle shops but were consumed by the idea of flying.” Really? Luckily, the writers succeed better when they pursue agendas: “this Puritan minister helped establish intolerance as a way of American life” (Cotton Mather) or “although he denied having AIDS, an autopsy proved otherwise. The Liberace Museum charges six dollars a head and its attendance rivals Graceland’s” or “Novelist, playwright, feminist, and lesbian” (Virginia Woolf).

I found additional frustration in the incompleteness of the book’s choice of subjects. It lists Bela Lugosi (Holy Cross, Southern California) and Peter Lorre (Hollywood Memorial Park, ditto), but not Boris Karloff. How can they mention Harvey Milk (whose ashes were scattered), but not Dan White (buried in Golden Gate National Cemetery)? Many of those included must be personally significant: Typhoid Mary, Nixon’s spaniel Checkers (Bide-a-Wee Pet Cemetery, Long Island), Anthony Trollope (Can you name anything he wrote?), and Joan Hackett (Even knowing that she starred in Will Penny doesn’t help me). Did you need to know that Charlie McCarthy (Edgar Bergen’s dummy) was not buried, but is displayed at the Smithsonian?

In terms of death lore, the book’s scope is once again limited. It reports correctly that Jayne Mansfield is buried in Pennsylvania, but doesn’t mention her plaque at Hollywood Memorial Park, where rumor says black magic rituals are performed. There’s no reference to the Walt Disney cryogenics controversy, only a note that he lies beneath Forest Lawn.

One of my favorite elements of the book was a reader’s annotation — this was a library book — which said that while Frank Lloyd Wright had been buried in an unmarked grave in Wisconsin, as the authors reported, his widow moved his remains to Arizona. I’m not the only person catching omissions.

The authors’ biographies said they were working, in 1991, on a second volume. I hope they’ve learned from the first.

Cheap copies can be had from Amazon: Dead Ends: An Irreverent Field Guide to the Graves of the Famous (Plume)

This review originally appeared in Morbid Curiosity #2.

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From the very first page, the breezy tone of this book put me off. It’s written in a cheerful star-stalker paparazzi style that doesn’t take the concept of poking around graveyards respectfully enough for my taste.

Even so, it is a surprisingly comprehensive guide to the famous dead of California. Ranging beyond the Forest Lawns and Hollywood Forever, the guide pokes into Angelus-Rosedale (one of my favorite Southern California cemeteries), visits the crypt of the new Cathedral of Our Lady of Angels, and explains how to get into Westwood Village Memorial Park, which is not nearly as easy as it should be.

Leaving LA behind, the book covers new ground by featuring graveyards in Malibu, Santa Monica, San Diego, and the desert. Those instances are worth the price of the book to me.

In comparison, the Northern California part of the book is condensed to less than 50 pages, so it feels tacked on. This material is much better covered by books focusing on Colma or the California Missions.

If you’re interested in old movies and keep a tab permanently open to IMDB, this is the cemetery guide for you. Otherwise, you may discover (as I did) that there are a whole lot of people you’ve never heard of buried in California. More photographs would have helped.

You can get your own copy on Amazon: Laid to Rest in California: A Guide to the Cemeteries and Grave Sites of the Rich and Famous

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My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is one of the grandest picture books on my cemetery shelf. Douglas Keister was the photographer who documented San Francisco’s “Painted Ladies,” the magnificent and gaudy Victorian houses. His cemetery photographs range here from lush green spring-scapes to luminous cerulean summer days to sunset-warmed hillsides to bleak spotlit night visions. Keister knows how to present beauty at its best angle.

Unfortunately, the book would have benefited greatly from a list of addresses of the cemeteries included. (In fact, I was shocked not to find such contact information.) Its organization is so loose that it borders on confusing. Although the book includes a beautiful photograph from the leper colony on the island of Molokai in Hawaii, the bulk of the photographs hail from Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, New Orleans, and California. I’m sure there must be beautiful mausoleums elsewhere in the U.S., but they go unrepresented.

Despite that, Xavier Cronin’s text is easy to read and full of fun information. He was associate editor of American Cemetery magazine and the author of Grave Exodus: Tending to Our Dead in the 21st Century. He presents information I haven’t seen anywhere else when comparing American mausoleums to their inspirations from antiquity: the Parthenon (probably the most copied), the Athenian Tower of the Winds, Egypt’s Kiosk of Trajan (moved to avoid being flooded when the Aswan Dam was built), and the tomb of King Mausolus at Halicarnassus, one of the Wonders of the Ancient World.

Despite the crazy layout, whether you pore over the text or simply gaze at the photographs, you can’t go wrong with this book.  It is long out of print, but it does appear used on Amazon: Going Out in Style: The Architecture of Eternity

This review appeared a long time ago on Gothic.Net, back when I was writing my cemetery column.

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This past weekend, I saw a listing for an art exhibit at Hollywood Forever Cemetery for Explosions in the Sky’s new album Take Care, Take Care, Take Care which dropped today. The art installation called Taking Care: 6 Visual Interpretations was set up on the cemetery grounds and featured works by six different visual artists. Each created works in response to one of the six songs on Explosions In The Sky album. How cool does that sound? I’d never been to the Hollywood Forever before and going there at night listening to music and looking at art was pretty fricken cool.

“Last Known Surroundings” – Matthew Lessner

This was my favourite piece of them all. The pictures were hung side by side shared similar views. Each room looking different but all overlooking a cityscape. And listening to the msuic while staring just made me feel great.

“Human Qualities” – James Fields

This was a film was projected behind a gated grave. The film was all about water and movement.

“Trembling Hands” – Matt Amato

I didn’t take a pic of this. It was a screen that had numbers rotate from 1 to 5 then back to 1. It was in a dark room and you could see the counting as you approached. This was the least of my faves.

“Be Comfortable, Creature” – Jesse Fleming

This film was projected on a huge screen, similar to a drive in.  People just sat on the grass (the only space that didn’t have graves) while watching the moving pictures. I loved that you could see the palm trees in the background.

“Postcard from 1952″ – Chris Lipomi

This was a two part installation. The first part was in a building and were planks of woods that were connected together. When you walked outside there was a structure in the middle of a large green space.  I never looked in or looked down, but many people did. I found it much more interesting watching people approach it and react the same way.

“Let Me Back In” – Alexis Disselkoen

This was the most interactive of the art pieces.  People were encouraged to lie underneath and very low tarp which lit up to the  music. It was quite calming.

After missing the chance to procure tickets to see Explosions In The Sky perform at  Hollywood Forever Cemetery, I was thoroughly pleased to find out that there would be an interactive art and listening event preceding the Explosions concert in which music from their new album would be previewed. Art and music? Yes, plz.

The event, named ‘Taking Care: 6 Visual Interpretations’, highlighted the works of six different visual artists in response to one of the six songs off of Explosions In The Sky’s forthcoming album Take Care, Take Care, Take Care. This was my first time on the Hollywood Forever grounds, and probably the best first visit anyone could have at Hollywood Forever. The nature of the exhibit lent itself to exploration around the beautifully manicured lawns of the cemetery as well as through the grand marble buildings scattered around the property.

Map of the exhibits.

The lighting itself was a sight to see; there was very minimal lighting outside (only a few small lamps lighting the way) forcing the viewer to rely on the faded glow of the city lights from across the way. The lighting inside the buildings played heavily on contrast; some areas were pitch black, while others were illuminated by an almost blinding fog light placed at the end of a hallway.

Stark lighting inside one of the buildings.

As for the art installations, there were some great pieces as well as some less awe-inspiring ones. Favorites included the installation created by Matt Amato, set the the song “Trembling Hands” (also my favorite song off the album so there may be some bias involved here). The installation consisted of a tightly-shot video clip of crashing waves with a tease of sunlight at the end. My second favorite installation was this illuminated fort thingy created by artist Alexis Disselkoen and set to the song “Let Me back In”. There were mats set beneath the fort for viewers to lie on while lights installed inside the fabric periodically flashed in sync with the song.

Illuminated fort thing.

Regarding my lesser favorite works, I’ll just dismiss them as having gone “over-my-head”. Honestly, I just didn’t get them. One of the installations consisted of a pile of stacked wood surrounding a deep, dark hole. Um, ok.

Anyway, I look forward to revisiting Hollywood Forever this summer during their summer film series. I also plan to visit during the daytime to better view the grounds and meditate. There is something about cemeteries that are just so peaceful.

Hollywood forever Cemetery

6000 Santa Monica Blvd.
Hollywood, CA 90038

]]> http://cemeterytravel.com/2011/03/13/brief-thoughts-about-a-book-you-shouldnt-miss/ Sun, 13 Mar 2011 14:31:28 +0000 Loren Rhoads http://cemeterytravel.com/2011/03/13/brief-thoughts-about-a-book-you-shouldnt-miss/ The American Resting Place: 400 Years of History Through Our Cemeteries and Burial Grounds by Marilyn Yalom
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The definitive text on burial grounds in America, this provides a guidebook for all your cemetery quests. I honestly cannot rave about it enough. Yalom provides solid information, leavened with a touch of personal reflection inspired by the graveyards she visited. My only regret is that Reid Yalom’s exquisite photographs are grouped at the front of the book, which necessitates a lot of flipping pages back and forth. Final thought: This is the cemetery book you need to get. It looks dry and intimidating, but I promise you it’s anything but.

Copies are available on Amazon: The American Resting Place: 400 Years of History Through Our Cemeteries and Burial Grounds

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From Fatty Arbuckle to Daryl Zanuck, many of the legends of Hollywood can be found between these covers. The rough maps guide you to the cemeteries of the stars, but once inside, directions can be a bit vague. (This is true of all the “Permanent Citizens” series, which were published before the advent of GPS.) Leave yourself lots of time to wander.

Unlike most of the other books in this series, this one doesn’t limit itself to a single city — which is, perhaps, much of its trouble. Permanent Californians covers two enormous Forest Lawns (Glendale and Hollywood Hills), along with Westwood (where Marilyn is buried), Holy Cross (last address of Bela Lugosi), and Hollywood Forever (back when it was still called Hollywood Memorial Park), before moving north to Colma, San Francisco, Oakland, a handful of Mission cemeteries, and some miscellaneous graves (Jack London, Luther Burbank, John Muir). There’s too much ground here to cover in depth. Despite that, the book is a whole lot more helpful than asking the officials at Forest Lawn where you can leave flowers for Walt Disney.

Unfortunately out of print and expensive when you can find it, this book truly is a bible, especially if you’re living in Los Angeles. Copies occasionally turn up on Amazon: Permanent Californians: An Illustrated Guide to the Cemeteries of California

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This review initially appeared in Morbid Curiosity #5.

Hollywood Forever is quintessential Southern California.

Hollywood Forever
6000 Santa Monica Blvd.
Hollywood, California
Telephone: (323) 469-1181
Email: info@hollywoodforever.com
Established: 1899
Size: 62 acres
Number of interments: 86,000
Open: Every day 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.

2009 was Hollywood Memorial Park’s 110th year, which makes it the oldest surviving graveyard in Los Angeles. Once the height of fashionable final addresses in the Los Angeles area, Hollywood Memorial Park, also called the Cemetery of the Immortals, served as the final resting place for Peter Lorre, Cecil B. DeMille, Tyrone Power, Mel Blanc (whose headstone reads, “That’s all Folks!”), director John Huston, and many others from the fledgling film industry.

In the late 20th century, the cemetery fell on hard times, especially after the 1994 Northridge earthquake destroyed monuments and damaged the mausoleum, throwing over the marble statues of the apostles and shattering the stained glass skylights. In stepped Tyler Cassity, who had grand plans for making cinematic history turn a profit. He started by legally shedding the dignified (if funereal) Memorial Park and changing the cemetery’s name to Hollywood Forever.

One of the most inspiring restorations is the spiffed-up Douglas Fairbanks monument. In true Hollywood style, Fairbanks’s widow paid $75,000 in 1939 ($1.2 million in today’s dollars) for a marble sarcophagus raised in front of a classical Greek wall adorned with a bronze silhouette of the actor. Running up to the shrine is a 100-foot reflecting pool. In the past, the pool had been full of litter rotting beneath a scum of algae. Now bright water lilies bloom there.

More impressive is the pink granite column standing on the edge of the central lake. At her death in 1952, Hattie McDaniel’s last wish had been to be buried at Hollywood Memorial. After all, she had been the first Black woman to sing on the radio and her career spanned over 300 movies. Most remembered for playing Scarlett’s Mammy in Gone with the Wind, McDaniel had been the first African-American recipient of an Academy Award. She belonged among the cinematic pioneers — but was rejected because of the color of her skin.

In October 1999, nearly 50 years after her death, that indignity was commemorated — if not made right — by the placement of a cenotaph to her memory. McDaniel’s grave remains undisturbed in Rosedale Cemetery (where she broke the color barrier), but now she has a monument among the immortals, as she wished.

Another legend has long rested in Hollywood Forever. Rudolph Valentino lies in a vault toward the back of the mausoleum. When he died suddenly of a perforated ulcer and ruptured appendix in 1926, mourners thronged the graveyard. For years, women in black left roses at his marker.

Hollywood Forever has assembled a video scrapbook to Valentino’s memory. Consisting of publicity stills, newspaper clippings, QuickTime film clips — all accompanied by a musical soundtrack — the short video tribute gives a greater appreciation for the beauty and talent of the legendary screen lover. Newspaper stories, clear enough to be legible, float above a background of mourning badges and film reels. My only criticism? It would have been nice to have the film clips captioned, so viewers could track down the complete movies themselves.

One of the most popular ways the cemetery continues to draw people in is by showing movies on its mausoleum wall on summer evenings, keeping the memories of its permanent residents alive.

Also well-attended is its Dia de los Muertos celebration. The community comes together to build huge altars. Attendees are encouraged to dress up as skeletons. South and Central American dancers and musicians perform. This year’s event is scheduled for October 22.

Show biz icons of the current day also call Hollywood Forever their final home. Rozz Williams, singer for Christian Death, has a niche covered in lipstick kisses in the new columbarium. Both Johnny and Dee Dee Ramone have monuments near the lake. Hollywood Forever once again conveys immortality. The famous are dying to get in.

Useful links:

Hollywood Forever Cemetery homepage

Hollywood Forever on Facebook

Join their event mailing list.

Hattie McDaniel’s cenotaph

GPS information from CemeteryRegistry.us

My adventures at the 2011 Day of the Dead

Books I’ve reviewed that reference Hollywood Forever:

Permanent Californians

Laid to Rest in California

American Resting Place

I captured the shot of this second rose in the same cluster of flowers.  As you can see, these were live pots of flowers, rather than the cut variety.  There’s always a very definite different between live and cut specimens.  I’m glad that I was able to permanently capture the beauty of these miniature Suns.

To finish off this set, this last photo is from a bush on the grounds of the cemetery.  The flowers are white, but it’s worth noting that the buds are kissed with a pale pink blush before they open into lovely white blooms.  I took several shots of various roses in this particular bush, but this was the only result I really liked.

I keep telling people that you can take over a thousand shots and will often be lucky to get even a few that are worth being proud enough to share with others.  I’ve taken to sitting some of them down to show them the truth of that statement.