Spring Flowers at Bow

I have been following a blog called Spitalfields Life by the Gentle Author for a little while now. The latest post called Spring Flowers at Bow is delightful. See http:// spitalfieldslife.com/. Or just google Spitalfields Life.

Hopefully, my attempt at splitting the URL is okay. I just had to share with someone and I thought my friends at Top Dog were most likely to understand my pleasure.

 

Lovely Esther, I shall go back there. This was such perfect touch.

"The numberless dead of East London – the poor buried for the most part in unmarked communal graves – are coming back to us as perfect tiny flowers of white, purple and yellow, and the sober background of grey tombs and stones serves to emphasis the curious delicate life of these vibrant blooms, glowing in the sunshine."

I often wonder why people with access to Crocus don't harvest the stamens for the 'saffron'. Perhaps it's a specific crocus which yields this.

 

Just gorgeous Esther. How I love a beautiful old cemetery.
Yesterday I happened upon a little video of a 'very active cemetery' in the Shoalhaven. At the very end was seen a ghostly smoky movement across the screen. The little cemetery, Harley Hill, is deep into bushland and just happens to be where my Charles and Mary Granger are buried. (One wonders if the ghostly movements belonged to them). We went past it today and were very tempted to go into the bush to visit but thought better of it, being the middle of summer. We didn't want any nasty surprises....snakes.
If we had a crocus or two instead of snakes.......

 

What we call autumn crocus is not a crocus at all it just resembles them, botanical name is Colchicum autumnale. Saffron crocus belongs to the Iradaceae family and its botanical name is Crocus sativus.

 

Archie's Mum: On my first trip to Germany with the big lad we were driving down from the hills near where we were staying when we spotted a cemetery that was so pretty with its spring flowers we just had to stop and take a photo. It was such a lovely setting with its flowers and view. It is such a shame that so many cemeteries are left to deteriorate.

 

Spitalfields Life is a brilliant site, I missed that post so will check now since I was born " within the sound of Bow Bells"
There is a cemetery not far from here which has a regime which encourages wildflowers. It may look a bit scruffy from time to time but is glorious when the spring flowers are in bloom.

 

Harley Hill was one the main cemeteries for Berry, NSW. To get into it though, you really have to have your wits about you. The headstones have deteriorated, it is badly overgrown and as I mentioned earlier has a reputation of being 'very active'. So, sorry I will give it a miss until the local council decide it might be in their best interests to have a tidy up. Thankfully I have photos of Charles and Mary Patience Granger's headstones. Charles was overseer at the Berry's estate, called Coolangatta now a winery.

 

What a lovely way to spend an afternoon. Nothing like a peaceful cemetery full of Spring flowers! New life among the past life. Thank you for introducing me to a lovely new site.

 

My grandmother always said she could hear them from her house as a child. That was in the 1880's/90's.

 

Thank you Esther, I did find that mentioned, I guess that is the difficult one to get hold of.
Image 7217 in the above post caught my eye, & I wondered at the extra small headstones on the graves..

 

AM where is this cemetery? It is one that I must have missed around that area, I am always on the lookout for my Sharpe, Gray, and Graham families from around Berry.

 

Me too Wendy. I've just emailed and asked them, we will see if I get a reply.

 

On Beach Road, Berry.
Coming from your end, turn right on that sharp corner at the northern end of Berry shopping strip into Tannery Road. That will take you to Beach Road. Beach Road comes out the other end at Gerroa Road. So you could come in from either end.
Please don't go in the summer
Have you tried Aust cemetery index?
It's way past David Berry Hospital. I think.

 

Is it on the left hand side of the road? coming from Berry end, and very over grown with trees coming up through some graves, if so I have been there a couple of times we even got ticks for our trouble. I will take a look at Aust cemetery index.

 

Try Google Earth. not a place to picnic.

 

Hospital visible above words' Tannery Rd.

 

That's the one.

 

Lots of after dark. Even before dark.

 

Thanks AM and Wendy I thought that I had miss this one, I never knew the name of it. My lot are not there, some are in Berry and Gerringong and some at Nowra, only the old people stayed down here all the younger ones moved to the north coast.

 

They look like footstones to me. Some graves have a large headstone and a smaller foot-stone. Although it also looks like the headstones may have been moved from their original places and arranged around the wall, which sometimes happens when graveyards get overcrowded, in which case the smaller stones might belong to different graves. Will be interesting to see what the answer is.