Qu'appelle Cemetery

I live in a small town and one the perks of this is ready and easy access to the local cemetery. I love that five minutes on my bike gets me to a beautiful old cemetery with some really neat looking headstones. I couldn't find a whole lot of history on the Qu'Appelle Cemetery other than it contains nine identified war casualties from the First and Second World Wars. There is also the grave of Bishop John Burn, who died in 1896 (this gives you an idea of how old the town of Qu'Appelle is).

As you can tell from the snow in the photos, I have been holding onto these for a while. One of the things I am working on with this blog right now is posting more regularly and efficiently, so I don't end up posting winter photos in the summer. I'm still really new to blogging so I'm working out a few kinks, please bear with me.

There are quite a few of these pillar type headstones. I guess they were popular back in the day. It certainly speaks to the idea of ascending towards heaven, if you believe in that sort of thing. I enjoy the aesthetic and grandeur of them.

I like the idea of contrasting life and death as a bird has built a nest in this tree. Since it was winter time I don't think the nest was actually in use but it would have been at one time. Its also interesting to think of the bodies of the dead physically feeding life into the tree. This is why cemeteries are magical places. Its where life and death meet and transform each other.

Even stone monuments to the dead fall and decay, nothing lasts forever.

So, that's a late winter view of the Qu'Appelle Cemetery. I look forward to bringing you more photos from other Saskatchewan cemeteries. I would love to hear your thoughts on life, death or if you just find these things beautiful, like me. Please comment below. Until we meet again.