sunday drive

Since today was a perfectly perfect fall day, we hopped aboard the old green Land Rover and took off for a Sunday drive. We took in a little antiquing, a bit of ice cream, and meandered through a rural cemetery. It's been so incredibly dry here, there wasn't as big a display of autumnal colors as I had hoped. Most of the leaves on the trees were a dry, drab, gray-brown.

The countryside in my neck of the woods is flat as a pancake.  The corn has all been harvested and there's nothing left but the dry flax colored bits of remaining stalks.

There's not much to see, except for the occasional farm house, water tower or abandoned barn which I snapped through the passenger side window. I'm sure if this old place could speak, it would certainly spin some fine old Americana.

At the antique center, I simply must try on every interesting hat I see. This particular one rivals Orson Welles' coffee table-ish hat in Macbeth, don't you think?  It definitely has a Shakespearian thing going on. This vendor offered both hats and books. My kinda guy.

We took the back roads home and stumbled upon the Somerford Cemetery, in Madison County, Ohio. Every year, I like to take at least one lovely autumnal walk through a cemetery. I enjoy the history, as well as all the various forms of funerary art. There is something very compelling, full of human truths, that draws me to these places of solace and beauty.

Somerford has a section of very old graves, most of which are covered with fuzzy moss, which is wonderfully atmospheric, but makes reading the inscriptions almost impossible. As you can see from the photo, many are sadly in need of repair. This one is accompanied by an unusual metal stand holding a stone orb. Last year, I posted a list of symbols in tombstone art, but I'm not sure the meaning of this separate orb. Is it somehow connected to Mormonism?

This smiling spider felt obliged to pose for me on one of the mossy grave stones.