Cypress Trees in Cemeteries See that tall, skinny evergreen tree on the left in the photo below? That’s a cypress tree. If you are interested in historic graveyards, then you should leaarn to be on the lookout for these! Cypress Trees: easy to ID & helpful for finding your way! Not only are historic cemetery symbols featured on headstones, certain trees have symbolic meanings, too. Even if you don’t think you are good at identifying plants, there is at least one tree that you really should become familiar with: the cypress tree. And lucky for us, it’s quite easy to…
Month: September 2015
True Ghost Stories, with Prizes for Treats! Later this month, Teal Gray and I are hosting a special streaming radio show in honor of Halloween. Instead of just having one or two guests on the Teal Gray Worldwide Radio show as we usually do, we are inviting people to call in and share their best real life ghost story. Listeners can then vote for their favorite true ghost stories. The top 3 paranormal tales will be announced on our show the following week. And, yes, there will be PRIZES! 2 Ways to Win Ghost Hunting Goodies! First way to win: Help…
Thank you, readers! If you’ve been following my series on the meaning of historic cemetery symbols, then you know each week I share a quick explanation for that week’s graveyard symbol. In the book that I’m writing, however, which is a Field Guide to Cemetery Symbolism, I dive much deeper into the meanings behind each symbol. I also learn a lot from the conversations that each of these posts spark – either from blog commenters here, replies on Twitter, and the emails that I’ve been getting. So, I wanted to give a hearty shout out to all the readers out…
Inspired by a Newsletter Subscriber! This week’s historic cemetery symbols post was inspired by an email from Bill Dodds, a reader who subscribes to my weekly author newsletter. Like me, Bill enjoys traipsing through historic graveyards and taking photos of interesting headstones. Bill lives in Massachusetts, and he had a question about the symbolic meaning behind Weeping Willows: “As far as i can tell it started to appear on stones in the 1820’s and had about a 50 or 60 year run before it more or less disappeared again.” What do weeping willows mean on a headstone? I’m still researching…
What is the Langdon Review Weekend? Each September, during the week following Labor Day, Tarleton State University hosts a festival called the Langdon Review Weekend at the Dora Lee Langdon Center in Granbury, Texas. Attendees each receive a copy of the Langdon Review of the Arts in Texas, a literary journal that highlights poetry, fiction, essays, film, photography, art, and music from all over the Lone Star State. Throughout the Langdon Review Weekend, fans of writing, music, film, and art attend live performances, gallery showings, book signings, film screenings, and more. It’s a whole lot of fun! Art, Poetry, Picnics…
Graveyard Symbols in Fairview Cemetery, Gainesville, Texas I’m playing hooky this week! Rather than talk about one particular historic cemetery symbol, I’m going to talk about a historic graveyard that I visited last week. If you’re on my weekly newsletter, or you’ve seen me elsewhere online, you’ve probably heard me talking about how excited I was to be giving my Historic Cemetery Symbols presentation at the Santa Fe Depot in Gainesville, Texas as part of the Hill House Manor Paranormal Expo sponsored by ASAP Entertainment. The entire event was a blast and a half, and my talk went well. People…