Out and About || Hastings Cemetery

Hiya!

If you are sick of my obsession with cemeteries, now is the time to back away. Actually I'm kinda feeling the overkill too so I'm promising some non-cemetery shenanigans at some point in the near future....but first have at this lot.

I can't believe I'd written Hastings cemetery off as being tiny (it looks so from the front as we whizz by in the car) when it's actually huge. We spent about 90 minutes there and saw about a quarter of it.

So, why the fascination with cemeteries? Well, they're outdoors so you're surrounded by nature, they're free to visit, they're peaceful and I love history. I guess I've been fascinated with death since I was a teenager. When I was a teen I had a bit of a rough time because of my mum's then-partner, and I developed my first mental problems then. They manifested in a couple of ways - I was terrified of my mum's partner (and of being in the house alone with him), and I was terrified of dying, which is reasonable when you're forced to live with a violent, alcoholic abuser of women. Do you remember book clubs? Well I joined one when I was about 16-17 and bought a book which was all about death, all the gory stuff which happens afterwards, and it took away the unknown and eased my fears. The issues with my mum's fella weren't so easily explained away, unfortunately.

Moving swiftly on....I guess it fascinates me that people would make such elaborate and beautiful memorials to their dead. I love the workmanship, the art of it all. You rarely see elaborate gravestones in the modern age, so there's a wistfulness, a romanticism of days gone by.

There's one small area which was my favourite part. It was under the cover of trees and very overgrown. As you can see from the photo below a tree has swallowed up and broken a gravestone. It'll probably totally engulf it in time.

This one on the left looks like a fireplace. The right one is modern but I like it.

Thanks for looking!
Leah xoxo

Holiday Post VI - Pretty St Mawes and St Just

Hiya!

Don't worry, I'm nearly at the end of this series, which I'm sure will be of great relief those of you who still read this blog! ;)

St Mawes Castle

We didn't actually go into St Mawes Castle. If you walk downhill from the castle you will arrive at the harbour, where there are a few shops, and a couple of pubs. It's a lovely picturesque quaint little place, and if you ever get the chance, do go. As we knew the main 'prize' for the day was going to be St Just in Roseland church, we didn't walk down to the harbour, but I regret that now!

 Then we drove the few miles on to St Just church, which is absolutely spectacular with its sub-tropical vegetation and waterside location. I visited the church about 10 years ago and was keen to go back. J really enjoyed it, and we stopped and had sandwiches on a bench in the tranquil graveyard. We were visited by a cute little robin. I changed the aperture setting on the camera so the background would be blurry and passed the camera to J as he was closer to the robin. We found all the wildlife we saw in Cornwall was friendlier than you'd expect. It's not just humans who benefit from the peace and quiet!

Oops, I quite obviously did NOT take this one ;)

A gravestone from 1608

It was absolutely lovely in the church - not just in the surroundings - but the silence inside. There were lots of little gifts like bookmarks you could buy in the church, and they'd even left tea-making facilities so you could sit and have a cuppa. Everything was there to be paid for in honesty boxes. I was so touched by their trust that I got a bit weepy. Hormones!

If you're ever in this neck of the woods, you must check out this beautiful place. It'll bring you real peace.