Finding A Cemetery On The Drive Home

Morning arrived and I let the dogs out once again, made myself breakfast and packed everything and everybody into the car. I began heading south once again on the Port Kent Road. And once again, I saw no other cars moving in either direction. The dogs and I seemed to have the whole countryside to ourselves. I was driving across the flat landscape when I noticed hills popping up all around me. This one in particular caught my eye as it dramatically demonstrated the sandy soils of the area. This could be a scene from Cape Cod, but it's actually from inside the northern Adirondack Park:

And just around the bend I passed a road up a hill to the Mound Hill Cemetery. I've always been tempted to drive up there and look around, but this time I figured I had time. Besides, being so high up on a hill, there might be some scenic overlooks. So I drove up the steep entrance road and encountered a large, well kept cemetery with these large flowering bushes dotted across the lawn. I'm not sure what they are, but my mother just called hers a Snowball Bush:

There were no scenic overlooks onto the surrounding flatlands, but it was a peaceful, lovely experience and I left the dogs in the car as I walked around snapping pictures:

There were very many graves considering how sparsely populated is that part of the country. I supposed that meant it had been a cemetery for a very long time:

Indeed, some of the tombstones were quite old, many even unreadable:

This one was of a Civil War veteran born in 1821, but I saw many which were older still:

And right next to his tombstone was his wife's She lived twentytwo more years after his death, probably tending the farm they'd started together:

And one much more recent death where the family was leaving many mementos. I was moved to see how much this person had been loved and, (this won't surprise you given my love of dogs), by the small statue of their beloved dog which the deceased had presumably left behind:

My own dogs were waiting rather patiently, which wass unusual for them. I guessed that was because they could see me and because there were no other people at which they could bark:

Old pines and cedars were sentinels on the hill:

But I did have many miles yet to travel. I'd only just begun. It was still early in the morning and the dogs were anxious to get me back into the car. Daphne and Clover, you can see, were quite concerned about what I might be up to and if I would be returning soon. So I left the cemetery and resumed my journey homeward: