Irish Churchyards / Gaelic Lament

I'm just back from a beautiful trip to Ireland and thought I'd post a few cemetery pictures I took, along with this beautiful video I came across today on the Facebook page of Cemetery Records Online, called "Gaelic Lament".  It's about the beauty and healing qualities of the laments of the Gaels in Ireland and Scotland.  The video also has some incredible scenery and awesome cemetery images.  

And here are some of the cemetery images from my trip.  Enjoy!

Various churchyards from around the Glens of Antrim, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom:

Images from the church cemetery at the Hill of Tara, County Meath, Ireland:

Two Creepy Images for Halloween

 

Creepy:  

Death Makes Its Mark

(Otherwise titled: Main Reason Not to Have Your Image Put on Your Tombstone!)

 

Eerie:

The Floating Head of Maynard

(otherwise titled: My Mom Goofing Around Behind Her Grandparents' Tombstone, with Body PhotoShopped Out!)

Happy Halloween, everybody! 

Essential Items for a Graveyard Hopping Kit

I love graveyard hopping, but I am by no means a pro.  My daughter and I often come across situations where we wish we had some sort of tool to make our tombstone searching easier.  This stone at right, for instance, had been completely covered over with grass and weeds.  This picture was taken after several minutes of two of us tugging and ripping at the weeds with our hands - and we still didn't get the entire stone uncovered!

We've thought of making up some kind of kit that we leave in the car, so we'll have the tools we might need when we're at a cemetery.  Here are a few of the items we think would come in handy.  We'd love to know what kind of things you bring to the cemetery, and why you bring them!  We're considering:

• a canvas tool bag to keep everything in
• grass clippers (probably just hand clippers - not electric)
• a camera (we always bring that anyway)
• extra batteries for the camera
• a kneeling pad
• a notebook
• pens or pencils (more than one)
• an edging tool (I'm questioning this one - I'm not sure how it would look if you were "digging" around with an edging tool.  Would people object?) 
• In certain circumstances we could've used a loppers - but again, I don't know if it's acceptable to take one into a graveyard and start lopping away at the brush to get to the tombstones!
• a spray bottle of water
• a sponge or a very soft brush

Have you ever had someone question what you're doing as you're cleaning off headstones?

  

I'd love to hear some of your ideas for a graveyard-hopping tool kit ideas.  What do you bring with you to a cemetery?  What other things have you found you've needed?  Do you keep a kit in the car?  What tools should a graveyard rabbit have?

(Here are a couple where a loppers would've come in handy....)