Marie Holmes - Lady of the Night

In the lovely city of Santa Cruz, CA stands the Evergreen Historic Cemetery where many California pioneers and prominent citizens in Santa Cruz history are buried. Amidst those people lies a small grave I came across strictly by chance. I happened to notice a film tube sitting next to wall containing a list of several names who had found the tube. A geocache if you will. Geocaching is a hide and seek game played with tiny containers or trinkets and GPS systems where coordinates are given and it is your job to find whatever item is left in that location. I found this strictly by chance and was not there for geocaching. Next to the geocache I noticed a plaque on a grave. The grave of Marie Holmes. I will not go into detail about who she was or the circumstances surrounding her death because there is already and excellent writeup on her on the Santa Cruz County Website (click here) . After doing a little reading on the area it seems that houses of "Ill-Repute" were all over the area. Women would come from all over the area to find that the opportunities they thought were there were not really going to come to fruition so they'd be forced to turn to prostitution for what little money they could get. It turns out that prostitution was so rampant that several books were written on the area and it's ties to prostitution. On my next trip out I will try and document some of these older areas where the houses once stood.






Lady of the Night
Here lie the remains of Marie Holmes a lady of the night who on the evening of May 5, 1898, met a lonely and untimely end with the quaffing of carbolic acid. Born in England she resided in San Francisco, Salinas and Watsonville before spending her last few months in Santa Cruz, where she died in the streets outside the Merrill Brothers Saloon.

Dedicated September 18, 1997
The Museum of Art and History Santa Cruz


So yes people this is my return to blogging and I apologize for the lack of updates for a while. Truth is I've been working on other projects such as my website and basically just getting through every day life. I'm not sure how often this site will be updated but please follow this blog because it will definitely be updated more often from now on just not as often as before. You can always find me on Facebook if you really want to. As for the other authors Jeane has written a few books since the last time she wrote. Darkowho was an occasional author has published a couple cemetery books. And Becky has been busy with every day life as well. Thank you all for your support...

Hungry Tree

This is the grave of Henry Mumford Taylor and Annie Gilmore buried at Santa Rosa Rural Cemetery in Santa Rosa, CA. The tree was literally beginning to consume the stone. I am no botanist so there is no way to tell the age of the tree. Henry Mumford Taylor was born on 3 May 1831 in Pittsylvania, VA. He died on 6 Feb 1902 in Occidental, CA. He married Annie Florence Gillmore on 28 Oct 1872 in San Francisco, CA. His wife Annie Florence Gillmore was born on 4 Aug 1844 in England. She died on 18 Dec 1913 in Santa Rosa, CA. This is the only information I could find on the two. It makes me wonder how long before the stone is entirely consumed.

Santa Rosa Rural was a beautiful cemetery full of huge oak trees. It was the rainy season and I was doing some scouting for a friend that likes to shoot models in cemeteries. My assignment was to scope it out due to the recent rains and see if it would be too muddy for a model to walk around there all day. Sadly it was too muddy for the model but it wasn't too muddy for me. I stayed there for a couple hours wandering from place to place as I always do. When I finally finished I noticed they had a map at the entrance to the cemetery. Like a kid in a candy store I walked right by it. On the map they had markers placed signifying important grave sites within the cemetery. I started my tour all over again and ended up spending another hour or so there taking the walking tour. It was a great cemetery. They even had a work party that meets once a month to clean up garbage that people left behind and do some straightening. They allow people to show up and help out so maybe I'll be heading back on clean up day. The good thing is the people cleaning up around the cemetery seem to allow the cemetery itself to naturally age. I really liked that about this work party.


This was another great tree that could be found there. Where most cemeteries would have simply chopped it down, this one did something to support it so it could continue to live. I'm a big fan of trees and I commend the cemetery for allowing this beautiful tree to just be. Of course it's now receiving a little help but still beautiful.








This is an example of the wonderful trees and foliage that could be found here as well. I'll be going back real soon...

Strange Saturday - The Ghost Tree

Ok first allow me to apologize for my lack of activity here lately as I've been getting killed by work in the real world and it's hard to be creative when I'm so darn tired.

I was going through some pics today and came upon this pic which I've worked with in Photoshp before. I was taking a picture of the shadows because I found them interesting. Does anybody notice anything weird about this picture? I didn't at first either. But notice how all the shadows of the trees start from the base of the tree and branch out. Keep in mind this is an untouched photo. Look at the shadow on the bottom of the picture. I see a shadow but no tree to support the shadow. The way the picture looks the tree that once stood there is off to the right. Then why does it's shadow still remain? I'm not sure if that was the tree that once stood there. That's just speculation. But there is definitely no tree to support this shadow...hmm

Francis Joseph "Lefty" O'Doul

Lefty began his career in the minor leagues as a pitcher for the San Francisco Seals and from 1919-1923 played for both the Boston Red Sox and New York Giants. His arm began to give him problems so he was returned to the minor leagues where he converted himself to a power hitting outfielder. He was resigned to the New York Giants as a Platoon Player where he went on to bat .319. O'Doul was traded in 1929 to the Philadelphia Phillies where he won a batting title for hitting .398 with 254 hits, 32 home runs, 122 runs batted in, and 152 runs scored. In 1932 he won another title while playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Lefty ended his playing career where it started with the New York Giants in 1934. Then in 1937 Lefty signed to be the manager of the San Francisco Seals minor league team. He stayed there from 1937 to 1951 before going on to manage several other minor league teams. Although Lefty wouldn't take credit for it he was involved with the development of another famous baseball player by the name of Joe DiMaggio . Lefty simply said "I was just smart enough to leave him alone." Lefty was also instrumental in making baseball popular in Japan and even named the Tokyo Giants after his old team back home. He was the ambassador for baseball before and after WWII. Although Lefty is gone the restaurant and bar he founded is not. It can still be found on Geary St. in San Francisco serving Lefty's original Bloody Mary recipe. It is said that the original bartender from 1960 is still employed there. I had been by the place a million times but never actually went in. I guess I'll have to save it for my next trip. Lefty now rests at Cypress Lawn Cemetery in Colma, CA. A great addition to my collection of baseball greats. And a great piece of San Francisco history.

San Francisco Presidio Pet Cemetery

Dating to around 1950 the San Francisco Presidio Pet Cemetery can be considered one of only two cemeteries left in San Francisco. The other is of course the San Francisco National Cemetery also located at the Presidio. The Pet Cemetery is the final resting place of the pets of many Army personnel that were stationed at the Presidio in and around the 1950's. It was featured on the news one night and I decided that I was going the next day to check it out because I had no idea it was there. Turns out that it's not only home to cats and dogs but hamsters, gold fish, lizards, you name it. Many of the markers bear the names of the owners who happened to rank as high as General in some cases. I personally like the animal cemeteries just for the names alone. Where else are you going to see a weiner dog named Woody? A bunch of construction is going on in close proximity to the cemetery which is probably why it made the news. I don't know what all the construction is about because I didn't listen to that part. I just knew I had to get to this little cemetery before they blocked off the road or something. It's an interesting little stop on a trip to San Francisco. Much more interesting than the uniform military cemetery that we call the National. Here are a few more pics that I took while I was there...



Here you see people (tourists) on one of the many sight seeing tours you can take around San Francisco. The building in the back is what I believe to be military barracks. The Presidio is huge and dates back to the late 1700's when the Spanish ran California...








Here is a wider view where you can see more of the size of things. The orange/brown fence in the back is where they're doing the construction...

That Thing Thursday

So me and this little guy had a standoff the other day. We were trying to figure out who was going to make the first move and who was going to stay there and look like a chicken. I have to say that if he charged me I would have had to run. I can't have a squirrel giving me rabies or something especially when my whole life my mom scared me to death with the threat of 20 shots to the stomach from a big needle. I don't know if that's true or not but it sure doesn't sound appealing. And why the stomach? Anyway he/she ended up ignoring me for the most part as it was probably used to people walking around the cemetery. Sacramento City Cemetery is one of the busier ones I go to and being wide open it seems a good place for people to walk or just have a nice quiet outdoor place to sit. So I decided to follow it around a little bit to see what it was doing.
It kept a good distance as long as I was moving and then ignored me once I stopped. It would stop now and then to chew on a nut and then move on to doing some digging. I think I became more interested in the squirrel than it was in me. I'm pretty sick minded sometimes and for some reason I always drift to these ideas of having to survive during a disaster or something. I figured given that type of situation I wonder what squirrel tastes like? Not that I had planned on eating this little thing but just hypothetically. It seemed to have some meat on it and I've heard of country people eating them all the time. I prefer to stick to what I know which is mainly cows and chickens but after those were all gone I figured if I could get that close to a squirrel they'd be on my list after all the regular things were gone.

And now I realize I must be very tired this morning because I just spent 20 minutes writing about a squirrel and how I'd probably eat it if I had to. Looking at this picture I may have to opt for something else. Squirrels may just be safe based on cuteness alone. And now I'm rambling about a squirrel. My job has made me absolutely crazy...

Fort Ross Cemetery - Fort Ross, CA

I decided to take my girlfriend with me on a job inspection the other day that was about 4 hours away from my house. It was up the California coast and instead of being bored by myself for 4 hours I figured why not have some company? So I brought my girlfriend along for the trip. As we were on our way up the windy coastal road she's looking at the scenery left and right and says "Hey did you see that cross over there?" I was trying not to drive off the cliff so I didn't see what she was talking about right away. As I got a little further down up the hill I saw an old cemetery on the side of the road. I had been up here a few times and never noticed it...mostly because I was driving. On our way back we decided to see if we could figure out how to get in. Driving slowly by it we saw a spot to pull off the side of the road and from there it was just a matter of walking right in. There was not much to see except for a number of Russian Orthodox crosses in the ground. It wasn't until I got home and looked it up that I realized what we had seen.

Fort Ross was the southernmost establishment of Russia between 1812 and 1841. In 1809 Ivan Kuskov sailed into what we call Bodega Bay and returned with beaver skins and over 1000 otter pelts. It was then ordered that an establishment be made in this area. It's name derives from the Russian "Rus" but much like every other foreign word that enters the English language we assumed they were saying Ross. The fort was also used as a central hub between Alta California and Alaska to get supplies to smaller bases along the coast to Alaska . The colony consisted of Russians, Aleuts and what they called Creoles (the product of Russian men and Alaskan or other Native women).

The cemetery was excavated in the early 90's as a research project to determine how well Russian Orthodox customs could be followed given the multiple ethnicities and beliefs that were found to be active there at the time. They also discovered that there were 131 graves. This is about 80 more than previously thought. Many of the crosses had likely deteriorated over the years and could not be accounted for. Although there are accounts of some Europeans being buried with a box over their grave none of these exist. The only think still standing are several of the Russian Orthodox crosses and a large one seen in the picture at the head of the cemetery. All of the graves face east as dictated by the Russian Orthodox canon.

Sometimes I feel like I get more out of a cemetery like this than the ones on a grand scale. The scenery and the history sometimes outweigh the art. Just over the hill to the right the Pacific Ocean beats against the rocks. Although there was not much to see here I could have stayed their all day listening to the waves beating the shore and feeling the cool ocean breeze...

Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp March 19, 1848 – January 13, 1929

Wyatt Earp is buried with his common law wife Josephine Sarah Marcus in Hills of Eternity Cemetery Colma, CA. Originally I had planned this post to be a writeup on the life of Wyatt but as I was doing research I realized that Wikipedia has a very extensive and well done semi biography. (Click to read). So what you will have here instead is just my general observations. Sometimes when I hear someone famous is buried somewhere I get to the grave and say "That's it?" Expecting something on a monumental scale and then you get just a normal stone that anyone else would have just walked past. This happened to be one of them. Not that Wyatt was rich or anything. I guess it just seems that famous people are put on this pedestal no matter the extent of their fame so you think you're going to see something magnificent when you get there. What you see here is just what Wyatt was. A normal person that did extraordinary things. That lived a hard life in the Old West with gunfights, bars, saloons and the occasional arrest for being into prostitution. There have been several accounts of Wyatt's life in biographies and even Hollywood movies. Probably the best known and coincidentally sold in the office of Hills of Eternity is the Wyatt Earp starring Kevin Costner and Dennis Quaid. They also made Tombstone starring Kurt Russell and Val Kilmer in 1993. This list goes on and on but both were decent movies and worth watching some weekend when you have nothing better to do...

Joseph Paul "Joe" DiMaggio (November 25, 1914 – March 8, 1999)

Most of the time when I profile a specific person it's necessary to spend a ton of time researching what they did to make them sound important. Well still some may not know Joe DiMaggio or even care who he his because they think baseball is stupid. But come on people it's Joe freakin DiMaggio. One of the greatest players to ever play the game. I've known where he was buried for the longest time but was never in the area to swing by and take the pictures. So a couple weeks ago I just decided to take the two hour drive out to Colma, CA and get the pics.

Joe had a huge resume of baseball accomplishments. He was a 3 time MVP and 13 time All-Star. He is best known for his 56 game hitting streak and at one time was voted Sport's Greatest Living Player. Joe was born Giuseppe Paolo DiMaggio, Jr in Martinez, CA. The 8th of 9 children born to Italian immigrants Giuseppe (1872–1949) and Rosalia (Mercurio) DiMaggio. Joe's father Giuseppe was a fisherman by trade and managed to work his way from Ellis Island to where he eventually settled. A town some of my friends may know Pittsburg, CA. Giuseppe worked hard and after 4 years he sent for his wife and oldest daughter. Giuseppe hoped that his 4 sons would become fisherman like himself and generations of DiMaggios before them. Joe would have nothing to do with it as the smell of rotten fish nauseated him. Joe would rather be p
be playing baseball. And really who could blame him? Joe's father couldn't see any reason why playing a game could lead to a successful life. These were old times and if you weren't working hard you weren't going to survive.

Joe was playing semi pro baseball when his brother Vince was playing for the San Francisco Seals. The seals were down a shortstop and Vince talked the manager into allowing Joe to fill in. Joe made his professional debut October 1, 1932 however his major league debut came May 3, 1936 with the Yankees. He led them to 9 titles over his 13 year career. He was also the first player to be signed to a contract worth more than $100,00. Quite a contrast to today's contracts which offer several million for basically doing nothing. The league minimum was $400,000 in 2009. A ridiculous amount for sitting on the bench.

I could go on all day listing his accomplishments but like I said before. Do I really need to say any of this? Doesn't everyone know who Joe was? The DiMaggio descendants and relatives are still scattered throughout my hometown of Pittsburg, CA and I can't help but think of Joltin' Joe every time I see the DiMaggio name. Sadly Joe succumbed to lung cancer at the age of 85 March 8, 1999.

Yet Another Mystery

Inside Cypress Lawn Cemetery in Colma, CA there is what I refer to as "The Big Tree Thing" I have only been able to find one reference to it on the internet. It appears in a book called Alive in Necropolis and is referred to as "The Fern Grotto". There is definitely a stone structure underneath it all. Peering around the side I can see what looks to have been a walkway with a handrail made of tree branches. There is also an old bench that I could see looking over the edge. I know it's somebody's last resting place but who's? I talked to another person that visits here regularly and she said that not even staff can tell her who is buried here. I'd estimate the structure somewhere between 40 and 60ft tall. Around the side it has a gate with a sign that of course says "Caution Keep Out". It looks like one of these days when nobody is looking I'll have to risk life and limb to jump the fence and see what's in there.

This is a picture of the foliage that has crept up over the side of the structure over many years. I love this structure but I'd still like to know the story that goes with it. I'm hoping someone out there can tell me a little something about it.

Donner Party Survivors and Descendants

I thought just about everyone had heard the story of the Donner Party but was surprised to find somebody who hadn't. So I will summarize for those who have not. The Donner Party set out west in the 1840's from Illinois. Led by Capt. George Donner, Jacob Donner and James F. Reed the original group set out with 33 people in 9 covered wagons consisting of family and hired hands. Frances Donner (grave in the picture) was among those in the party and the daughter of George Donner. In 1846 the original Donner Party landed in a place called Little Sandy River with another group of emigrants traveling to California via wagon and horses. It was here the two groups decided to take different routes. One stayed on the California Trail that they had been following and the others became part of the Donner Party and decided to take the Hastings Trail which they thought would get them to California faster. When they reached the Sierra Mountains in October a snowstorm blocked their way over what is now known as Donner Pass. Running low on supplies the emigrants had to begin slaughtering their oxen but they could see that it was not enough. So fifteen (10 men and 5 women) set out for Sutter's Fort 100 miles away. When one leader couldn't go on another would take his place and soon they became lost and ran out of food. The survivors then had to resort to cannibalism to survive. By the time they reached safety only 2 men and all 5 women had survived. Rescue parties where then formed and sent back in waves forcing some of the rest to also resort to cannibalism .

The surviving Donners went on to raise families and many of them moved to Northern California. Here you see descendants of Jacob Donner (Georges' Brother). Frances above went on to raise six children with her husband William R. Wilder.

Today many people travel from where I live to Lake Tahoe on trips to the snow. On our way there we can all drive over Donner Pass in our cars. And I don't think a time goes by that the Donner conversation doesn't come up. We all look around in the car and think to ourselves..."If something happens who would I eat first?" It's a sick thing to think about I know. But the Donner story reminds us of what lengths people will go to in order to survive...

Edward F. and Ethel M. Smith Married over 60 years

Today is a day you're supposed to celebrate your love for that special someone in your life. I'd like to take some time here to celebrate some love I found in the cemetery. Edward and Ethel Smith. What originally caught my attention was the epitaph "The Mystery of Love is more profound than the mystery of death". And then on the very bottom "Together Forever". That's something we say about ourselves and even other people all the time. "Oh they've been together for ever". So I did a little digging and although I can't pinpoint the exact marriage date I could tell that Edward and Ethel were married earlier than 1920 from census records and already had 3 children Francis, Melvin and Edward Jr. Which puts my estimate of being married in the neighborhood of 65-70 years. Their marriage survived The Great Depression and two world wars. The death of Edward in December of 1978 was most likely more than Ethel could bear and she passed 3 months later in March of 1979. I would love to know more about this wonderful couple that no doubt after being together that long withstood anything and everything. Sadly Edward and Ethel can't tell me their story but there must be other people out there like them. Ones that give me hope that love can and does last forever. In some cases it's just not meant to be...or maybe it is and nobody knows until it's too late Happy Valentines Day Everyone.

Andre "Mac Dre" Hicks

Bay Area hip hop legend Andre "Mac Dre" Hicks was born in Oakland, CA on July 5, 1970. At the age of 19 he released his first single "Too Hard for the F*ckin Radio". Between 1989 and 1991 Mac Dre was busy making a name for himself releasing 3 consecutive albums. By this time he'd moved to Vallejo California's Country Club Crest neighborhood or as it was called "The Crest". In 1992 Dre was charged with conspiracy to commit bank robbery when it was thought he had ties to the "Romper Room Gang" who had robbed several Bay Area banks. This was due to many references to the gang in his songs. This didn't stop Dre from working because while in prison he recorded the album Back N da Hood via prison phone. To hip hop fans in the Bay Area this album remains a classic. After his release from prison in 1996 Mac Dre immediately went back to work on his music releasing album after album of classic material. Then in 2000 Mac Dre relocated to Sacramento, CA and started the label Thizz Entertainment. Mac Dre was able to gain a huge following in the Bay Area and a few other cities and seemed content to just release the music he wanted to release and not be tied to the restrictions and rules of a major record label. Dre built his career on the underground music scene and still remains one of my favorite hip hop artists today.

In 2004 while in Kansas City, MO a car pulled up next the the vehicle Mac Dre was riding in and opened fire. The vehicle swerved off the road and ran into a ravine where Dre was thrown from the vehicle. Autopsy reports determined that he was killed from a single gunshot wound to the neck. Nobody really knows who Mac Dre's killer was but a Kansas City rapper by the name of Anthony "Fat Tone" Watkins was believed by many to be involved. In 2005 Fat Tone was found murdered alongside Jermaine "Cowboy" Akins allegedly killed by a good friend of Dre in retaliation for Dre's death. He is now serving time for the crime. In 2006 Mac Dre's headstone was stolen a local rapper by the name of AP .9 put up a $10,000 reward for it's return. Obviously the headstone has been replaced but I'm not sure if it's the original or if sometime or somewhere somebody will try and sell it somewhere. For this reason the cemetery office will not disclose it's location. It took 4 trips Mountain View Cemetery before we found Mac Dre's gravesite searching through more than 8000 graves.

Although hip hop is often filled with violence Mac Dre seemed to stay away from that after his release from prison. The Bay Area hip hop scene was shocked and saddened by the death of one of the greatest Bay Area rappers to ever live. In my opinion Bay Area hip hop is now saturated with a bunch of people all doing the same thing...trying to be like Dre. Thizz Entertainment is still a label out here today but it's not the same without Dre. I don't know if my opinion is swayed by the lack of Mac Dre or if the hip hop scene out here is really saturated with rappers trying to be Mac Dre and still using his name to promote themselves.

On a side note I must credit my girlfriend with the find. I will not disclose the location out of respect for Mac Dre's family.

Tombstone Tuesday - An interesting find

Click the picture for a larger version...But does anyone know what this epitaph may mean? It was just sitting there with nobody's name on it. The nearest grave was about five feet from it. The epitaph seems to have a hidden meaning. Of course I could just be fooling myself because I have no idea what it's intended meaning is. The part that gets me is "We have worn our white robes in defiance of the world in this the last travail." It keeps going through my mind every time I look at it. The stone is from Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, CA. Jeane has helped with the symbols but I'd still like to know if anyone has any ideas on the epitaph itself.

February is Black History Month

Born a slave in 1844 Obediah Summers worked as a servant for a top soldier in the Confederate Army and in 1862 was captured by the Union. The Union forces gave Obediah a choice. Fight for the Grand Army of the Republic (a part of the Union Army) or return to the south and remain a slave. Obediah made the wise decision of joining Company A of the 18th Regiment of the United States Colored Forces. After his discharge in 1866 Obediah became a preacher at the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Around 1891 he decided to build his own church The Old Bethel Church on 15th Street in Oakland, CA. About the same time he was appointed the first African-American chaplain of the state legislature. No doubt a huge step for a man of color given the time period.

Today Obediah has a marker in the Grand Army of the Republic plot in Oakland's Mountain View Cemetery. But it wasn't always like that. You see up until 2005 Obediah Summers was buried in the unendowed section of Mountain View Cemetery. It wasn't until a docent by the name of Dennis Evanosky, who happens to be the Civil War plot expert at the cemetery, discovered the location of Summers body that procedures to remove and re-inter Summers' body began to take place. Since it was not a national cemetery permission was not needed to remove Summers' body, however it was discovered that he was also buried with an infant grandson which halted the procedures. Evanosky would have to seek permission from the city of Alameda before proceeding with efforts. Since Evanosky was neither family nor did he have to resources to hire a lawyer. He was able to locate Summers' great grand-daughter Myrnna Adams. After 2 years of efforts petitioning the cemetery Summers remained buried in the undendowed section. Adams has become too tired of the fight and the only thing Evanosky could do is have Summers memorialized in the section he belongs in. Summers was also a member of the Masons and Odd Fellows in his lifetime as well as other organizations.

Summers died in Oakland on March 15, 1896. He was 51.

Things left at gravesites part three...

Fake flowers and a fire truck. The strange thing was this child died in 1958 but the fire truck was fairly new. Perhaps a grieving mother after 50+ years. Sometimes I think the pain must never go away...












Sometimes I think people do too much. This one had the fake flowers, butterflies and this strange bird that seemed to be made of real feathers. Kinda creepy...













I'm not sure what the significance of the sheep was. But a sheep nonetheless.















And here's the one I spoke about in my last post. The box of Cheez-its. He also had a couple bottles of water, a hat with cards stitched in, and a can of Arizona Tea, and solar powered lights that would light up at night.

Things left at gravesites

In Jewish sections of cemeteries you often see stones left on the markers signifying their visit to a loved ones grave. Here you see that many people have visited this grave or possibly one person grieving over and over. Sometimes you'll see a plain stone that looks like it was found on the ground at the cemetery but other times you'll see special stones or stones of different colors that have been left behind as well. This one also has a traditional floral arrangement that we're all used to seeing. Once in awhile I'll pick a stone up that looks like it has fallen off the grave and place it back atop. I wonder if it's just a random stone or just one that has been blown off by the wind.

In this picture I found what appeared to be a mask that was left behind. I wasn't actually sure if it was a mask or not or if I should even call it a mask. It appeared to have a human like face so I'll go with a mask for lack of better explanation. It may be that the weather created it or that someone actually took the time to carve out some eyes. Either way an interesting find.
















This is also from the Jewish section. I loved this statue and if it wasn't sitting on someone's grave it would be sitting on the mantle of my fireplace. It was forever chiseled into an eternal embrace. It was also smooth to the touch. A great piece of art.











If it was acceptable for men to use the word cute it would definitely describe this small statue. I really like the small statues people leave behind. Just little reminders that didn't cost thousands of dollars yet still make a statement. This one seemed so focused on the book that it made me think the person buried may have been an avid reader. Great little angel that I was happy to see.







Not only could this marker been worthy of it's own post with the piano keys on the top but a great representation of other things left behind. The statue on the right was great. They had live plants, a bottle of water, and even a stone. So basically all bases were covered on this one. I've seen tons of things from little cars for kids, fake flowers, real flowers. toys, balls, skulls and even a box of cheez-its that really filled me up while I was skipping lunch. I'm kidding about eating the cheez-its of course but I'm a sucker for some cheez-its. A lesser man may have eaten them.

Alfred D. Taliaferro M.D. - Mt. Tamalpais Cemetery

A native of Virginia Alfred D. Taliaferro M.D. has the distinction of being the first M.D. in the Marin County area. He was widely respected and liked by many. After all who wouldn't want a doctor to like them? He was one of the first Europeans to settle in what is known today as Fairfax, CA. Fairfax was originally a land grant of around 6600 acres given by the Mexican government to Domingo Sais on August 10, 1839 in return for his military service to the Mexican government. Domingo then gave Taliaferro a large park like area of the land. Probably to try and sweeten up the doctor in case he needed his services. Upon visiting Taliaferro with his wife Charles Fairfax (also from Virginia) fell in love with the land and Taliaferro had the land transferred to him and his wife Ada who made it their home. Taliaferro also served in the California State Assembly and later went on to become a State Senator.

I happened to notice this bust on the way out of the cemetery and stopped to take a closer look. I found it a little creepy as I do most busts. This one had green moss growing on it's eye which gave it an even creepier look. I often wonder how much likeness an artist captures when they do these carvings. Then I think of Mt. Rushmore or something and realize that I'm most likely looking at what they actual person looked like before death. I think that's what creeps me out the most....

That Thing Thursday

I got a chance to visit Mt. Tamalpais Cemetery in San Rafael, CA yesterday and I'm not sure who was more scared. We had a short standoff before this little doe made up her mind that I wasn't going to hurt her or try to eat her. She went on about her grazing in the grass and I went about my business of taking pictures. This cemetery was so full of wildlife and so peaceful. I think I may have found a new cemetery to add to my list of favorites. I'll definitely be visiting again.

A fungus among us.

Lately I've been obsessed with these mushrooms you see growing in the middle of the grass at some cemeteries. Many people probably have them growing on their lawns or on trees around their house as well. Note: do not put these in your spaghetti. This one had an interesting shape so I decided to take a picture. Found at Galt-Arno Cemetery in Galt, CA.