Beauty in the Grove

This is taken at Spring Grove Cemetery. I'm doing a four-week 'class' through OLLI (Osher Life Long Learning), learning more about it. Last week we had an introductory lecture, and the remaining three are 'tram' tours around the cemetery - unfortunately I'm going to be missing next week. Its a really beautiful place. The cemetery dates from 1844, when members of the Cincinnati Horticultural Society formed a cemetery association, and the first burial took place on September 1, 1845. In 1855 Adolph Strauch, a renowned landscape architect, was hired to renovate the grounds. He took his inspiration from contemporary rural cemeteries such as Père Lachaise in Paris, and Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His sense and layout of the "garden cemetery", comprising 15 lakes, trees and shrubs, is what we see today. In 1987, the association officially changed its name to "Spring Grove Cemetery and Arboretum" to better represent its remarkable collection of both native and exotic trees, as well as its State and National Champion Trees. On March 29, 2007, the cemetery was designated a National Historic Landmark.

I wont be posting again for the next ten days or so as we are flying out to San Antonio, Texas tomorrow to visit our son who's in the airforce at Randolph Airforce base. We'll see him on the weekends, and then we're going into the Hill Country and then to the coast for a couple of days, during the week.

Have a great week everyone! I'll catch up when I get back.