Jessie: In Northern New England, tidying the gardens for a long winter’s nap!
Today we are continuing the celebration of Julie’s release of The Plot Thickets which centers around a cemetery gardening project. I wanted to ask you all how you feel about cemeteries. Do you find them to be tranquil, often beautiful locales or do they send a shiver up your spine?
Barb: Congratulations, Julie! I cannot wait to read The Plot Thickets. Portland, Maine’s Eastern Cemetery is right across the street from our house, the view I look out on as I write in my study. Cemeteries make great neighbors–very quiet. Founded in 1668, Eastern Cemetery is the oldest historic landscape in the city. I love watching people strolling there, by themselves or clustered in tour groups, as I eat breakfast at my dining table
Liz: Congrats, Julie! I love cemeteries. My best friend in high school and college lived right across the street from one and we used to walk around it at night and just enjoy the quiet. I also love Mt. Auburn Cemetery–I could walk around there for hours.
Edith/Maddie: Congratulations, Julie! Can’t wait to dig into the book. I stayed in a retreat cottage behind a Quaker cemetery on Cape Cod earlier this month, a burying ground surrounding the nineteenth century Meetinghouse on three sides. I love strolling through it, and have borrowed a good number of the names for my historical Quaker mysteries over the years. Not spooky, not even with a full moon rising over it as it did while I was there!
Sherry: I love the covers of the Garden Squad books and can’t wait to read The Plot Thickets! Growing up we had family friends who lived next to a cemetery. My friend and I loved to walk around it and look at all the gravestones. I have to say when I spent the night I was fairly certain I’d see all
Jessie: We live near a cemetery too, and I always think of it as such a peaceful place. Like Edith, I always enjoy reading the names
Julie: Thank you, everyone! I love wandering around cemeteries. My grandmother used to drive me
Readers, how about you? Do you stroll through cemeteries on leisurely walks or hurry past as quickly as you can?
I agree with you ladies, cemeteries are peaceful and fascinating. I love to read gravestones, read the old names and see the different stone carvings. Mausoleums are still spooky to me, though – too many Dark Shadows memories associated with those lol!
I love to read the old names too!
Congratulations on the release of “The Plot Thickets”! It’s a fabulous book that I loved reading. Happy to spread the word about it’s release too.
We have often found ourselves at old cemeteries and yes I do enjoy walking through them exploring the tombstones, checking dates and wonder what their lives were like.
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Thinking about the lives of the people buried there would be a great creative activity!
Used to live in an apartment that was next to a cemetery. It was so quiet & peaceful. I still love cemeteries. Some of the older ones are covered in a lot of shade so it’s a nice place to walk in the dog days of summer.
One of the cemeteries near me is quiet shady and pleasant in the summer! It is a lovely place to walk!
I was visiting my parents grave on the day of the wedding anniversary and crying my eyes out. Thought I would have the place to myself but no, there were quite a few joggers one in his pajamas. I was there in the morning as my parents were married in the morning on the day my dad was discharged from the Marines after serving for 4 years.
I have never seen a jogger wearing pajamas! I am sure that was not what you had in mind when you planned to visit a peaceful resting place!
I find cemeteries so peaceful. There is one nearby that I’ve visited for some quiet writing time. The history is always fascinating, too!
I have never written in a cemetery, but now that you have mentioned it, maybe I shall give it a try! The closest I have come was painting in one that overlooks a tidal river. It was a lovely, scenic spot!
As mentioned yesterday, I love cemeteries. I love looking at old names (in that roller-blading incident, I almost had the name Dicky Arbuckle stamped across my forehead). And they are so peaceful. Allegheny Cemetery in Pittsburgh is filled with stories, too – such as the grave of the first person to successfully use an insanity plea to avoid a guilty verdict in a murder case.
What a great story about the Allegheny Cemetery!
Julie, I think I mentioned to you before that my grandfather was the sexton of the local Catholic cemetery while I was growing up, and he and Grandma lived in the caretaker’s house for years. We spent lots of time wandering the graveyard, and one of my aunts used the opportunity to take some of us cousins around looking for critters. That’s how I learned about periodic cicadas, for instance.
The public cemetery was right across the street, and my family lived on the other side of it, so I often walked through it to get to my grandparents’. To this day I love cemeteries, for the peace and beauty that is often found there.
It is easy to understand why you would have fond feelings about cemeteries!
There is a fabulous cemetery in Park City, Utah that dates back to the early 1800s and it’s at the bottom of the mountain where I hike, so I go through it a lot. It has old wrought iron gates and a shed with a book where all the causes of death are listed, on pages in plastic covers. Things like mining accidents and diseases with very strange names.
That sounds like a fascinating resource for a historical mystery writer!
Congrats on the release of, The Plot Thickets, lovely book cover.
I agree that it is a lovely cover!
I’m not usually a cemetery wanderer. But I did enjoy it when I wandered around the Mt. Auburn Cemetery last month.
That one is a favorite with so many people!
Mount Auburn is beautiful and the setting for a scene in Iced Under.
I love old cemeteries. They are so peaceful. I’m not at all afraid to visit them at night except I don’t want to trip home over a tombstone in the dark. 🙄
You have inspired me to imagine a mystery where it looks like someone tripped over a gravestone in the night, but perhaps it was actually a murder!
I like strolling through old cemeteries. My Sister used to live across the street from four cemeteries. It was a very quiet neighborhood. My grandmother was buried in one of the cemeteries and we used to visit her , she passed away when my Dad was eight years old. Lots of stories in those cemeteries.
How lovely that you were able to visit often!
Can’t wait to read this book! I am a big fan of cemeteries, especially in Europe. I don’t know if it’s still allowed, but I used to love to go into one in London – can’t think of the name – and watch people do rubbings. They make for interesting wall hangings.
I adore rubbings and love to make them when I travel!
I love cemeteries. They are peaceful as they should be. I used to go to the historical cemetery in Austin, Texas to sketch when I was in college as it was so quiet. Plus, I love the old gravestones and sayings.
The sayings can be so interesting!
Before I became disabled, I would leisurely walk through cemetaries looking at the markers. Thank you for sharing. God bless you.
Our pleasure! Thanks for reading the blog!