I have fallen in love with a cemetery (again). There were a bunch of cemeteries on route 6 heading out onto the outer Cape but Old North caught my immediate attention due to the overabundance of sakura trees. We headed out to visit it at 7 am to try and catch the fog that had settled heavily over the area the night before.
I’m a sucker for ambiance and fog in a cemetery does not disappoint.
We even got buzzed by a crow who then tried to pretend that we weren’t all that interesting. Crow was my constant companion over my week on the Cape, sometimes loud but always watching.
Here in this part of the state, the graves are old, and even the ones that aren’t quite as old, look really old due to the constant salty air, poor weather, and the many lichens that thrive in this humid environment.
I’m very fascinated by lichen. It doesn’t even need soil to survive and yet, it is also so very fragile. It has a tenacity to it – digging into the pure rock itself for survival – a reminder that plant is one of the things that can beat rock. The low fog made all of the lichen glow with an otherworldly light.
Also, beach plum! This is a native that I have been wanting to meet for so long but it took seeing it in full bloom to gain the realization that we were already better acquainted than I thought. The white blossoms were a delight for the nose as well as for the eyes.
I have plans for beach plums (and sourced some that aren’t in the cemetery to come back and harvest when they are ripe later in the year), but, for the time being, got to enjoy them in all of the spring glory.
Everything was covered with fresh dew from the mists.
The best part of the week, hands down, was getting to watch the leaves unfold. When we drove up on Friday, everything was covered with fuzzy tree flowers which made the scrub forests bright yellow and vibrant. Every time that we went outside there was fewer flowers and more leaf. This is some varietal of oak – I just love all of the tiny water droplets. And that beautiful pink color – my favorite.
The exact shade of pink as the sakura blossoms. Nature knows how to match.
Sakura is a plant that I spent a great deal of time getting to know this spring. Its association with ephemeralness and impermanence is why it is so often planted in cemeteries. We had a cool spring which made for perfect flowering tree weather and Sakura made an especially good showing. Just as the trees in my neighborhood were fading, we traveled and found more of them on the Cape.
All in all, it was a lovely morning in the cemetery.