Saturday 23 May 2009

A Curious Encounter in a Somerset Graveyard

It was one of those rare occurences in a graveyard, the feeling of being watched. Normally it turns out to be the graveyard cat or a concerned churchwarden who has received a tip-off about a strange person who keeps lying on the ground next to graves. On this occasion, it was was neither. I was engaged in capturing an image of a headstone [the 104th of the brief visit I was making to discover new material to share with you, the readers of this blog] and as I moved away, I saw a brief movement in the corner of my eye. Did someone or something wink at me?

I was almost struck dumb as I realised the flowers carved on the stone had faces. Now the Victorian stone mason may have been displaying that he had a sense of humour or I might have been imaging things and . . . as someone remarked on this blog before, it had nothing to do with 'Chardonnay' - I am Temperance!

Photographs were duly taken and scrutinised once downloaded to my laptop. There is, in my mind, absolutely no doubt these are faces and I was minded to recall the popular 1950s childrens television programme - The Flowerpot Men. Bill and Ben were the names of the two characters who lived by the potting shed. Their friend, I kid you not, was Little Weed - a weed in a pot - who was prone to shouting in a high-pitched voice 'Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed!!!!!'

Phew, that's enough reminiscing, but could the character of Little Weed have been inspired by the flower faces on this headstone? Let me know what you think? I doubt there are other examples of this unless, dear readers, you know otherwise?


The flower above has a smiling face, while the one below looks very glum. Poor thing!

4 comments:

  1. Gee, they remind me a little of "the man in the moon" face!

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  2. Such a delightful read. I know I am somewhat strange, but I have always found graveyards to be peaceful and calming - not during a funeral, though. Seems to me, there, one can get their thoughts going in the right direction.

    I am not familiar with the program, but it sure sounds like it could be the case, to me.

    Beautiful photos!

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  3. Love your scary build-ups to cliffhangars! you could be "The Shadow." These look like sunflowers with the yellow lichen growing on them here and there. Sunflowers with gfaces, definitely. THere's a cryptic message here...

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  4. Perhaps the flowers are in commemoration of a whimsical personality! I think i would like flowers with faces on my gravestone...yes, indeed, I would!

    How wonderful of you to notice them!

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