I have been upgrading my computer system this week, so unfortunately, there will not be a new blog post today.
I was planning on sharing a new Stone Story this week, but with all the latest tech updates, I didn’t get a chance to complete my research. Stone stories can take a lot of time and research to form fully, especially when your reading takes you down exciting rabbit holes.
My fiancé is helping me upgrade my computer, which means I will have more time to focus on writing and photography and less time dealing with technical difficulties. I appreciate all the work he has put in this week, helping me get set up.
That being said, I am still fine-tuning my new setup and getting myself set up with new editing software. I should be back to a regular posting schedule next week.
I have been slowly getting back into my regular routine after a fun two-week vacation. For today’s blog post, I wanted to provide a little recap of my holidays and give you a sneak peek of some upcoming blog posts based on my summer cemetery adventures.
I did quite a bit of traveling during the last two weeks, getting the chance to explore the Ottawa Valley and some of Southern Ontario. My fiancé and I spent some time in Ottawa visiting family and touring a bit of the city. Of course, I tried to fit in as many cemetery visits as I could. I had the chance to visit the grave of the Unknown Soldier on Parliament Hill and witness the changing of the guard. We popped into the lobby of the haunted Chateau Laurier to look at its beautiful architecture, and I even had the chance to stop in at the office of Haunted Walk to say hello and browse their gift shop.
After Ottawa, we made our way to Perth to visit some friends and explore a bit more. We explored the quaint little town and had to stop in at the Mammoth Cheese for a quick photo – I do love a fun roadside attraction. One of my favorite things we did while in Perth was take a short road trip to visit the Mother Barnes Homestead and the grave of the Witch of Plum Hollow. When I was planning our trip and saw how close we would be to Plum Hollow, I knew we had to take the opportunity to visit. The story of Mother Barnes is a very interesting one, full of folklore, politics, and witchcraft. The stigma of which can still be felt today. I look forward to sharing her story and my visit with you in an upcoming blog post.
Another fun thing I did on vacation was take my mom on a Guess Where Trips adventure. They sent me the Historic Haunts tour to try out, which just so happens to have some cemetery stops! We had a great time exploring Kitchener, Cambridge, and Waterloo and its outskirts. I don’t want to get into too much detail here about our trip because I will be writing a full post about our adventures soon, but I will say it was a super fun experience!
Guess Where Trips
If you’re not familiar with Guess Where Trips, I highly recommend you check them out! They offer fun road trip itineraries that will take you to lots of hidden gems. They include interesting facts and stories about each location and great restaurant suggestions. Our trip took us to a haunted historic house and art gallery, mill ruins, a unique tombstone, and a haunted museum. We learned a lot on our trip, and I have a lot to write about for upcoming blog posts.
The last leg of our summer vacation took my fiancé and I to Toronto. We were there for the Sammy Hagar Best of All Worlds Tour. It was a great show, with Lover Boy opening for Hagar. While we were in town, we took the opportunity to hang out with some friends and do some exploring in the downtown core. We checked out a few board game stores, visited our favorite brewery, popped into the new location of the Prehistoria Museum & Store, visited the Monkey’s Paw, and tried an amazing new Mexican place. My favorite stop though, was our visit to the Toronto Necropolis.
The Toronto Necropolis has been on my cemetery bucket list for a while. Can you believe I had never visited any Toronto cemeteries before? This cemetery was high on my list because it is the final resting place of the father of zombie movies – George A. Romero. It’s also a gorgeous cemetery and one of my new favorites. This cemetery also holds some other notable graves and, I look forward to sharing my visit with you.
In total, I made 19 cemetery visits on my holidays and collected a lot of content for upcoming posts on the blog. It was a great vacation and one that made me reconsider my career. If only I could make traveling, photographing cemeteries, and writing about them a full-time job!
I hope I piqued your interest with all the upcoming stories. Don’t forget to subscribe to my blog if you haven’t already, to get new cemetery posts straight to your inbox every Sunday. Stay tuned for next week’s post about my Guess Where Trips adventure.
I hope you also got to enjoy some time off this summer to explore, relax, and reconnect with friends and family. The season is so short you need to fit in the summer fun where you can.
The leaves have almost all fallen and the icy weather is making its cold return. Winter is almost here!
It’s been a great summer and fall season for cemetery visits. I hit my target and surpassed it—visiting over 100 cemeteries! But, I am not a fan of winter and trudging around in the snow, so I mostly hibernate in winter. I plan on taking full advantage of cozy-couch-time to catch up on my reading; the AGS Quarterly, back issues of Markers, and my ever-growing to-be-read-pile of fiction and non-fiction. Now that I have a better handle on my blogging and social media schedule, I want to take advantage of this downtime and introduce some new things on the blog.
For one, I would like to start a book review series, featuring reference material and cemetery-related books. I’ll take a look at some of my favorite past reads and reference books, as well as document what I am currently reading. I am always looking for recommendations as well, so feel free to post them in the comments!
Secondly, I also want to take this time to do some much-needed portfolio updates. I have collected a lot of new photos this year, that need sifting through and editing. I will flag these updates on my social channels when there are new photos up. I may also play with the layout of my portfolio section on the website—we’ll see!
Thirdly, I will be planning more road trips for next year! I have gotten into the habit of using Google’s My Maps to create maps for cemetery road trips. I love researching areas and discovering abandoned and hidden cemeteries, as well as roadside attractions and oddities. All this research may spawn some blog posts along the way as well.
Speaking of which, expect more posts on the blog! I have a lot of posts on the back burner right now. Many were started months ago but were put aside because I was busy with road trips or personal matters. Many posts are half-started, or just bare-bones at the moment. Some are just ideas floating around in my head. I had planned a few spookier posts for the Halloween season, but unfortunately, they never came to be. October is always super busy for me, and those posts just got away from me. I’m hoping to get those specific posts polished and ready for next Halloween season.
If you have any blog topics you would like to see me cover, please send me a note or post in the comments. I am always looking to hear feedback from readers.
Cemetery Photography by Chantal Larochelle 