All Saints/All Souls

The above is a foto from a cemetery in Lithuania on All Saints. This was borrowed from a Filipino page in English. They had remarked something like "they decorate as we do". Over these days, the Catholic world does visit graveyards, and even some countries that once were Catholic do the same. Some bring flowers, some bring candles. Some do it on the weekend, some on November 1st, some on the 2nd.

But, in the United States, even in a large Catholic cemetery, the only color visiting is the changing of the leaves.

Sunday afternoon and the living creatures were mostly wild. I did not see a handful of people, and i was a part of a party of two.

urban graveyard

near Prospect

graves of the Union dead

what you can see from Lake View

Now, at this time of year (as i have done before) many people travel to Lake View Cemetery to photograph Daffodil Hill.

A few feet away is Jeptha Wade's monument. He was the cemetery's first president and gave land to the city for a park, which now has the Art Museum. On this hill one can see the lake, hence the name 'Lake View'. There, below is an electrical generating plant.

  and this vantage of  'the Angel'

Merlin

 merlin, pigeon hawk

in front of this cross, the bird was visible

Merlin is a falcon. In the Peterson Guide their winter range distribution in the eastern US is mostly coastal, and somewhat deeper from the Gulf Coast, with two isolated pockets. One pocket is extreme southwestern Pennsylvania, and the other extreme northeastern Ohio. Now, sometimes i have noticed that birds are rarer and have been noted to be in a particular spot, continue to be in that spot. But years pass, and a juvenile bird is a juvenile for a year (generally), and the same spot the same species is seen. It must be different individuals, for the bird is not eternal.

Now, i have read that merlins have been spotted, over the years, near a certain particular section of Cleveland Calvary Cemetery. I drove up to a section marker, and parked, stepped out, and saw Merlin on a tree. I took numerous photographs, birdy did not mind. While driving about beforehand, many blue jays were flitting about and cawing.

Merlin is not a bird legal to hunt. In the last few years, two separate harlequin ducks were spotted in parks. They were mentioned on the internet, and people came to view and shoot. Most came with cameras. Both ducks were killed. Duck hunting is legal. It takes a selfish son-of-a-bitch (either stupid, covetous, and/or mean) to take a trophy, or just kill a rare (even if just for the area) individual for shits and giggles. I do not expect this merlin to be shot. But now, i am not eager to pin point the spot; although if i had not read where the spot was, i do not think i would have seen the bird.

a Chinese stone

It has been a cold harsh winter. I have not gone to the graveyards to photograph.

I went for the first time, in late November, to Cleveland West Park Cemetery. I drove through on a cold and rainy day.  I saw this stone in Chinese script. Last century, the Chinese who died in Cleveland had the tendency to eventually have their remains exhumed, and repatriated. I wanted to get this translated, for i am ignorant of Chinese. As of yet, nothing. 

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postscriptum: 30 June 2023.  google lens says the vertical reads, "Monument to Soldiers and Civilians Martyred in June 7th". On that day the Japanese army attacked the Marco Polo (Lugou) Bridge, the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-45) began.

The horizontal might be Mugong Huazhong 1946, postscriptum: 9 July 2023. (according to google), but it isn't. I was informed that it was read in the wrong direction, "Four on base are read right-to-left: zhonghua gongmu (Chinese public cemetery)". The same fellow pointed out, the top two characters are "7 7", so the date IS July 7th. Well, google was mistaken, and since the top two characters are identical, it makes sense they refer to July 7th, and not June 7th, and July 7th is the historical date. Thank you to Bob Vatilla, who informed me.