A Spooky Gravestone For Halloween

 

I've featured this gravestone before on my Church Grounds blog, but it's so delightfully macabre that I had to use it for Halloween as well.  

It's one of the oldest stones I've encountered at the Albany Rural Cemetery and one of the distinctive.  It features a winged skull - a popular image of mortality in old New England and some downstate burial grounds, but not so common here in the Albany area.  The center tablet is framed with a wonderful carved border of vines and flowers. 

It's also one of a few stones featuring a Dutch inscription and marked the grave of Elsie Gansevoort Winne, wife of Frans Winne.  The grave was originally located in the churchyard of the Reformed Dutch Church at the intersection of State Street and Broadway, but was moved several times over the years (including to the Washington Park) before ultimately being laid in the Church Grounds lot at the Rural Cemetery.

Noose & Scythe

This ghastly Grim Reaper appeared quite suddenly on State Street on Saturday evening.  And I do mean suddenly.  He wasn't there when I walked down this street on the way to an ATM two blocks away, but was there when I came back up the hill just a few minutes later. 

I'm not sure if the figure - placed by the Justice Building at the Empire State Plaza - was intended as a protest or a prank or a decoration.  But it was quite seasonably spooky on a October evening...and gone by early the next morning.

Downtown Mummy

An Ancient Egyptian mummy pauses to check out a vintage vehicle on display at Saturday's classic car show on North Pearl Street. 

(The mummy has been out and about to promote the Albany Institute of History and Art's new exhibit, The Mystery of The Albany Mummies.  I visited the museum yesterday and highly recommend seeing the exhibit.)

The Hydrangeas of Saint Agnes

Large headstones are flanked by beautiful hydrangea bushes on Founders Hill in Saint Agnes Cemetery.

Two of my pictures from a recent detour (I usually spend my free time researching in the adjacent Albany Rural Cemetery) through St. Agnes are currently part of a photo exhibit in the Concourse in the Empire State Plaza.  If you're in the area, do check out the exhibit!

Leaves and Bloom

Autumn leaves float amid a blue-green algae bloom in Washington Park Lake. 

The presence of the algae bloom in the lake (and in Buckingham Pond) was mentioned in the news yesterday and large, neon yellow signs have been posted to warn visitors about potential health risks from contact with the "pond scum." 

Despite the warnings, I watched a man stroll past said signs and toss a tennis ball out into the water for his dog to fetch while a woman let two small children play at filling cups with gravel and water at the shallow par near the Lake House. 

Cemetery Butterfly

A lemony-yellow butterfly enjoys the red clover in Albany Rural Cemetery on a gorgeous autumn afternoon.

Autumn Twilight