Meaford Cemetery

In search of good places to walk, I have discovered that Lakeview Cemetery here in Meaford is one of the best in town, at least during the winter.  It has driveways back and forth, as well as two long lanes into the main cemetery, which gives lots of room for an hour's walk.  And they seem to keep the drives snowblown quite well over the winter, which gives really good footing for a brisk safe walk, which is what I need right now.

I've now gone walking here quite a few times, in varying weather.  These pictures were a few days ago; we have quite a bit more snow now, maybe 16" on the level here at home. 

One of the nicest features for me is the long entrance road past the gates before you get to the open cemetery.  You're really walking through the forest for the first 10 minutes.

And it's quite an interesting forest, with a variety of trees, and a steep bluff to the north, the old Algonquin glacial shoreline.  You can see out to Georgian Bay through the trees.

The big old Sugar Maples in the main part of the cemetery aren't forest, but they certainly give you the feeling of walking among 'trees with character'.

I've started to notice too the varying styles of tombstones in different parts of the cemetery.  Compare the photo above to this one, which has far more taller and older monuments.

And this, which must be the oldest section, with numerous 19th century graves, marked by the simple slabs with rounded tops.

And of course among these are the tragedies, like this child who died at age three months nearly 140 years ago.

So far I've only noticed one monument with an actual sculpture, this beautiful stone angel.  I suspect that most of the graves are Protestant, with only a few Catholic graves.  But there is only one cemetery in Meaford.

There's a long lane out the back of the cemetery which is no longer used as far as I can see, but you can still walk it.  It adds a nice 15 minutes to my walk.

The main walk back to the car has a long row of big old Blue Spruce, with their long fat cones loaded at the tops of the trees.

At the moment, the snowblowing is really helpful for me, marked here by the snow blasted against these big maples.  Makes it really easy to go for a brisk walk and feel safe on my feet.  No need for Yaktrax here.  Virtually no traffic to watch out for either, and I usually only meet 1 or 2 other walkers.   I got in a good 45 minutes this morning.  Mrs. F.G. has come walking with me here too, which is a bonus.  She's faster than me, so I have to push myself to keep up!  I have to keep reminding myself I'm only 8 weeks post surgery, and have only 8 days to be ready for the next one!