15_the_circle | Rochester Cemetery

[OT from cottage renovations]

[I am indebted to botanist, prairie restoration activist, tour guide, Grover-in-exile and gracious co-host Pete Kollasch for the species identifications given below. more than once, actually; he named them when we were there and then again when this page was posted a few days later and I hadn't remembered.]

(click through these thumbnails for higher resolution images)

Rochester Cemetery

Sunday afternoon offered an opportunity to visit the Rochester Cemetery. the term 'visit' is quite inadequate, though: any time one can spend in such a place is more like a pilgrimage.

it is a small remnant of Iowa's tallgrass prairie savannah, where management practices happen to have allowed it to remain remarkably undisturbed. a wide diversity of native species flourish there, with volunteer assistance from individuals and organisations involved in the prairie restoration movement who have been working to preserve this priceless gem.

setting

the cemetery is in a quiet location in gently undulating terrain bisected by an unpaved side road. the surrounding woods enhance its sense of being removed from everything around it -- a feeling that is quite evocative of what it's like being in the Grove. the grounds are dotted with burr and white oaks which create small woodland niches.

one gets the impression that when it was established its founders chose the loveliest spot they could find.

monuments

the old stonework fades to comfortable shades and textures. each marker is coming to rest at its own angle of repose.

these markers, each on its own axis, are slightly reminiscent (on a smaller scale) of the megalith quarry at Rano Raraku on Rapa Nui.

though the memorials were placed to provide a focus for memory and grief, as they ease into the setting and the angles and edges become softer and smoother, the starkness fades, surrounding the visitor with a sensation of comfort.

wildflowers

for a place consecrated to the dead it is teeming with life.

Wood Betony (pedicularis Canadensis)

Bastard Toadflax (comandra richardsoniana)

Birdsfoot Violet (viola pedata)

Violet Wood Sorrel (oxalis violacea)

Wood Phlox (phlox divaricata)

Wild Geranium (geranium maculata)

Wood Anemone (anemone quinquefolia)

a newcomer to the place can, I hope, be forgiven for going overboard with the shooting stars. I had never seen them before and was quite taken with them. though they were actually a week or two short of their peak I was more than impressed.

Shooting Star (dodecatheon meadia)