During my visit this year I spent a lot of time on my own, just driving around visiting cemeteries I've already done to get updated stones, or looking for new ones to photograph. Then of course I had to visit Capt Jesse's house, which is looking worse with every passing year. This breaks my heart but there's nothing I can do about it, nothing anyone can right now besides the people that own the title, and they're not interested apparently. I've often thought about how cool it would be if I were living back in Nova Scotia and could buy the house and have it moved to wherever I'm living, stabilize it so it's safe, and reconstruct whatever needs it (likely that's pretty much everything, realistically) and then use it as my quilt shop. Now that would be cool. An unrealistic dream, but that's why it's called a dream. Another spot I always make time for is this beautiful spot in Kemptville. It's a branch of the Tusket River that runs under the Gray Road just around the corner from Capt Jesse's house. It's beautiful and quiet, all you hear is the water ... I could stay there all day.
Of course I had to spend some time in the Tusket Lakes Cemetery, which continues to be my favourite. Not because it's full of Grays, because it isn't, there are only 2 Gray girls there ... one married an Andrews, the other a Hurlburt. But the residents of this particular cemetery are among the oldest in the area, so to me it resonates as something special. Plus it's so secluded and quiet, with the stone wall and trees all around, I do love it there. When my time comes I figure I'd like to be buried either there or in the Plymouth Cemetery. My sister and I came up with a "plan" for all that, for a chuckle you can read the Tale of the Ancestral Eye.
I learned a new trick before my trip this year. I had been contacted a few months back by a distant (7th) cousin and we were working together online in working out some old family mysteries on her tree, which of course connects to mine in a few ways. I was able to clarify some things for her, which was great -- it's funny how satisfying it is to solve a mystery, even a small one.
Then she told me about a neat trick she'd seen on a video online to help read old dilapidated gravestones. All headstones are not created equal. There are some that are so old yet stand the test of time so well that they are still easily read hundreds of years later. Take this one of Sarah Crocker Hatfield ... it's 182 years old yet still in great shape, well made and clear to read. I don't know anything about stone itself, but just from my experience and wanderings in many cemeteries it's obvious that is is one tough cookie when it comes to longevity. 
Then we get the ones that don't hold up so well, and they aren't even this old. This one on the left is a great example. It happens to be in the Arcadia Cemetery, but I find them everywhere. It's another type of stone (to my eye anyhow), and it does not hold up well over time. To the left is how it just normally looks now. Then I watched the video she sent me and tried the method they used and voila - AMAZING! As I travel around from cemetery to cemetery to the Archives, all over the county, I take a few things with me everywhere: camera, notebook, pens, scrap paper, a stick, a rag, and now included in my little bag of tricks: flour. Yep, regular all-purpose flour. You just wipe it on the stone and it fills in all the engravings and suddenly you can read it all. It took some practice, especially on a windy day which, let's face it, is almost every day in Nova Scotia. But I quickly learned that if I cup a bit of flour in my hand, start at the top of the stone and work my way down, gradually smooshing (yes, that's a word ... or it should be) the flour into the crevices as I go, then I wipe off the excess with my rag and take a perfectly legible picture of the stone. Of course it doesn't work on very white stones, but I'll work on a remedy for that. I tried adding some coffee grounds to whole wheat flour and using that on a white stone, and it helped a bit but not really. But being able to at least finally read these ones with the white flour is an awesome thing. No more incorrect dates or wrong names because I had to guess at what it might say, and the best part is -- it's only flour! It blows off into the wind or washes off in the next rain with no damage done to the stone at all. My little cemetery bag is gradually getting full with all the new supplies I'm dragging around, I may have to make a new bag before I go next time. 
No comments:
Post a Comment