Abney Park

[squirmelia]

On Good Friday, wintrmute and I wandered around the intriguing cemetery at Abney Park, gazing into the eyes of ivy-covered stone angels and lions, as blossom floated past in the sunshine.

We found the statue of Isaac Watts, who was born in Southampton and wrote many hymns including the one played by Southampton's clocktower. He apparently helped to landscape Abney Park.

I wondered how people had died, but then about what was still alive. In English churchyards, ancient yew trees are fairly common, but often there are other plants and animals that are also interesting. Southampton's Old Cemetery has three-edged leeks, where as in the churchyard of St Martin's in Eynsford, Kent, (edible) Roman snails can be found. In Vienna's Zentralfriedhof (Central Cemetery), pretty red and black beetles are common, and of course, in the Montmartre Cemetery in Paris, there are a lot of cats. In Abney Park, I did see a few ladybirds at least.

Comments

[miss-newham.livejournal.com]

NOBODY EATS SNAILS. If I keep saying it, it will be true...

Did you meet hopeful gay men? I felt very disappointing last time I went to Abney Park cemetery.

[squirmelia.livejournal.com]

I am not sure if the Roman Snail has been added to the list of protected species yet in this country, but it definitely sounded like there were plans to add it, which means no-one would be allowed to eat them, even if they wanted to! Definitely a good thing!

Hopeful gay men, no, just mostly people drinking cans of cider in the sunshine.