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 of ghouls if I looked out the window. When we started the blog the header (now the picture of all of us) was of a gravestone. I finally found the photo at 10:30 last night.
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 some of the very oldest headstones. are also a few small, family graveyards in our village that can be seen if one through the woods and beyond tumble-down stone walls. I always feel as if there are spirits in those asking me to pay attention as I go by.
Julie: Thank you, everyone! I love wandering around cemeteries. My grandmother used to drive me ough “her” cemetery, and tell me the stories of the people who were buried there. That memory fueled part of the story for the book. Lilly was so used to the names on the and knew their stories, so when things seem out of order, she notices.
Readers, how about you? Do you stroll through cemeteries on leisurely walks or hurry past as quickly as you can?