A tale of two cemeteries

Mount Auburn cemetery is famous. I'd seen it once before in 2011, though not for long -- on bike, and was told bikes aren't allowed. That pissed me off a lot; *cars* are allowed.

I finally went back today, though first going to the Belmont cemetery I'd noticed on a recent ride. That one: pretty boring. Lots of slabs, lots of American flags, just not that much there.

Then over to Mount Auburn, to park my bike and walk around. At least I got the order of cemeteries right -- it really is awesome! Huge, lots of fancy old sculptures, great landscaping. Near the end I looked at an interactive kiosk, which talked about both. The cemetery pre-dates public art museums by a few decades, so early on it served as an open air sculpture museum, which it kind of still is. And, the kiosk talked about the landscaping being deliberately chaotic, or irregular, or using what's naturally there rather than some imposed order. So at first it looks ordinary enough, though full of trees, but then a surprise fountain! And an even more surprising dell that looks really wild! And three other ponds.

I kind of got lost, actually; after the dell I thought I was still going south, until I made my Survival roll and noticed the sun on my left hand. By which point T-Mobile had given up on me, so I had a map of the cemetery but not my location in it.

Very quiet and restful in the right spots.

Until black flies come and buzz around my face. I'm guessing they wanted my sweat, especially as they went away after I sprayed myself a lot. I love that $6 sprayer from Ace Hardware.

Photo set.

Also on the way home, I passed a Mirkwood squirrel. Or at least, a really really dark furred, basically black, squirrel.