Cemetery view

On the way to collect milk this morning I stopped at the cemetery at the top of the hill. I love walking around it, and Bean always gets the zoomies there. Perhaps the spirits of those laid to rest beneath the ground are channeling themselves through her?

Apart from the crazed dog, it is a place of great peace. And the views in all directions are stunning.

The cemetery covers about an acre of land. It serves a large rural area, but has surprisingly few graves. Within it's boundary there are no more than 25 burials: the earliest from the late 1800s, the newest from 2022.

While walking Bean I was stopped in the village one morning this week, by a woman who parked right in the middle of the road to lean over and talk to me through the open passenger window. 

Could I tell her where the local cemeteries and church graveyards were? I pointed her back in the direction she had just come, towards this very cemetery at the top of the hill, and another one on the other side of the hill. 

No, that's not at all what she wanted, she grumpily told me. And asked where "the rest of them" were. Having no idea what she did want I suggested she carried on the road she was on, and she would find the next village where there might be something more to her liking. 

I was rewarded with a daggers look and "Do you actually live around here?" at which point I disengaged, apologised for not being able to help her, and suggested she moved her car out of the middle of the road. 

I carried on our walk, and turned to see her drive off in the opposite direction a couple of minutes later... when I large truck and trailer full of gravel was bearing down on her.

Hopefully she found what she was looking for. And hopefully she was more polite to the next person she encountered. It pays dividends to smile from time to time. And to add the words "please" and "thank you" when asking for help. I wish I had the brass neck to point that out to rude people.

Everybody around here is so friendly and helpful that her attitude was quite a surprise. Not a local me-thinks.