Dreaming Tree 1

I have been having a lot of strange dream lately. The kind that tend to stay with you throughout the day.   know that dream are just your mind wandering, and they usually don’t mean anything, but I always wonder why the mind comes up with a particular series of events in a dream.  Last night the ream I remember was something about a flooded graveyard and I was surfing though it on a wooden plank.  I saw an angel statue in the middle of the water flooded cemetery.  Then I remember walking back to a car, that wasn’t mine, and wondering if I remembered to bring my camera.  And I was talking to someone that I work with.  It was all very odd, not scary, just very strange.

Dreaming Tree 2

I just read on a dream interpretation site that to dream about a cemetery can mean an end to a habit or behavior.  So since I wanted my camera it must mean that I am going to stop taking pictures of cemeteries right? NO FREAKING WAY!!!!  Dream interpretation is funny.  To dream of surfing can mean the ups an downs of a situation or relationship, and can mean you are overwhelmed.  Well that can be true, I am overwhelmed on a daily basis! That is part of being woman, a full time worker, artist, and mother.

A few nights ago I had a very cool dream that I am going to make my husband write into a short story.  In the dream I even saw the tag line for the story…What if you had a day that wasn’t?  It was about time travel, and that is all I am going to say, I wouldn’t want to spoil the story if it gets written now would I?  That was another one of these dreams that just stuck with me all day long. That dream was so strange I would not even want to try to interpret it. I would probably be committed to the funny farm after that! Could be a nice vacation though, If you don’t hear from me for awhile, check the local funny farm!

So the weekend after I got my new camera, my husband Trever and I were driving around, running errands and looking for awesome places to take pictures.  We decided to go to Morton for lunch, and on the way , drove by a cemetery on Queenwood Road.  Because we were hungry, we decided to stop back after we had lunch.

I had Trever let me off on the side of the road, and then he turned around and pulled off in a little field access road, the only near place to park.  We wandered around the cemetery taking pictures and marveling at the pattens in the snow drifts.  Not a living soul had visited the inhabitants since the recent snow.

The snow and wind made incredible drifts around the stones. It was out in the middle of a corn field, nothing blocking the wild and blowing snow.  The textures on the drifts, and the patterns the wind had made were beautiful.

The stones were old, but there were also a few more recent head stones. Maybe recent family members wished to be laid to rest near their loved ones. Long lives, short lives, lives cut too short, too soon.

Once the cold wind got to us, we made our way out of the cemetery and back to the car.  I stopped for a few last pictures of the wrought iron fence, and made my way down the slippery slope and to the car.  Trever started the car, and we realized the car was stuck in the mud.  Trev rocked the car back and forth and we were almost out of the rut several times, but to no avail. I finally got out and gave the car a small push, just enough to get it going, only being splashed with a little bit of mud.  I guess it was my penance for suggesting he park the car there in the first place.

The Lakeview Cemetery Association was established in 1922.  Yet there are many graves dating well before that.  It is the largest cemetery in Pekin, and has some of the most beautiful funerary art in the area. I have always found cemeteries to be fascinating.  The art on the memorial stones are illuminating, showing just a little of a person’s life on them. or how they should be remembered.  Angels, urns,  drapery, masonic symbols, the list goes on.  I am drawn to taking photos of cemeteries.  The older the better.  I first saw this angel about 18 years ago while doing a high school photography project.  This is the first digital image I have taken of her though.

While driving through the unpaved paths, I found various other stones that contained beautiful imagery and carvings.  A goddess-like statue, a worm pyramid , a magnificent urn, and many others. The goddess had had a recent visitor , she had a Christmas wreath at her feet.  Most of the older graves look like they had not been visited for some time.

One day I hope to travel to some of the worlds most ancient burial grounds, but for now  I am content to see all of what our area has to offer.