Tags:
Being Neighborly
A wonderful group of people gathered at the old (pioneer?) cemetery in Malagawatch for the annual cleanup. By the time I got there just after 8:00 a.m., a goodly team of volunteers had already made great progress. There were plenty of rakes being put to good use, plus no fewer than 3 tractors dumping dirt to fill in spots that had sunken in and spreading lime on the soil to help the grass grow nicely.
It was a good mix of people from Marble Mountain to Orangedale and in between. There were Richard with his equipment spreading fill dirt, Martin & Gabi raking and clipping and filling, plus they brought food to share, Irene was overseeing and raking and spreading, plus she brought food to share, Donna, Hughie with his Clara Belle spreading lime, Donald was filling and raking, Cheryl was raking and bagging and dumping, and myself plus some names I can't recall. I got a nice bag of leaf litter for my compost.
It was visiting day for the dogs in the cemetery. Richard's black lab, Barley, Donald & Cheryls mongrels Star and Cindy, plus a cute little Maltese with pretty bows in her hair all had a good time visiting their canine and human friends.
That is a beautiful cemetery. As is typical for the old cemeteries, it is set at the water's edge, overlooking the lake because bodies were transported by boat before roads were built. It is surrounded by woods and nicely groomed, making it look like a lovely park. Some of the graves closest to the shoreline date back to the original settlers and you can read on the headstone the name of their place of birth in Scotland. Very interesting. It's a great place to visit and I recommend a visit if you have never been there.