While these words can certainly apply to music itself, this line is sometimes used in the context of death, where for many it takes on an even deeper and more poignant meaning.

Globally, as of 2020 (it is possible that recent world events such as the Covid-19 pandemic have upped these numbers further), approximately 150,000 people pass away each year.

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death, though, naturally, countless others contribute to that total as well.

This number is substantial unto itself, but when you multiple it by 365 – the number of days in a non-leap year – it skyrockets to a staggering 54,750,000.

You read that right, more than fifty million souls cross from this side of the veil to the next annually.

Yet for all of the death that occurs around us daily, in many parts of the 21st-century world, we remain relatively far removed from this inevitable act – save perhaps for when someone in our immediate life passes.

I could write from now until my own time is up about how I feel we as a society should return to a far greater connection with, and comfort level surrounding, the act of death and our own mortality. However, this post is neither the time nor the place to open up that Pandora’s box of a serious topic.

Instead, it will focus on a pocket letter (the second that I made following a lengthy six-year hiatus from creating this form of paper crafting project; with the first being my Cute Pastel Hued Happy Springoween Pocket Letter last April) that I recently created to send to a dear friend who lost one of their very closest family members.

Out of respect for that individual and their deceased loved one, I will adhere to the strictest of anonymity for both of them.

What I will happily and openly share with each of you is this sympathy pocket letter.

At first glance, it might look quite chipper and cheerful. A far cry from the dark tones and sombre subject matters we often associate with cards and gifts given when someone passes on.

There are, unquestionably, instances when those more solemn approaches are exactly what is needed.

Yet, at the same time, there is no shortage of others when it is just as appropriate to focus on celebrating the life and memory of those who have left this mortal coil.

I did not meet the loved one that my friend lost. I knew a little about them, though, and know quite a bit more about my friend.

They, like myself, have a naturally upbeat spirit and I suspect that their late family member did as well.

I tapped into this point (while also turning to themes that my friend and/or their relative was a fan of) when putting this pocket letter together.

To accompany the PL itself, I selected nine small gifts (one for each pocket of this PL) for my friend.

Some of them were a touch too big to fit into the slots on the clear plastic trading card sleeve itself, so I opted instead to wrap my presents separately and send them along in the same package as the sympathy pocket letter itself.

Death is an extraordinarily personal thing. How we each feel about and interact with this most human of experiences varies from one individual to the next.

At the same time, however, there are certain universal qualities to the act of death and how those we leave behind often feel, behave, and choose to move forward following the loss of someone that they hold dear.

Assuming the deceased was liked or loved (and, you know, sometimes even when they might not have been everyone’s favourite soul), a powerful sense of grief often hits us with the force of a meteorite.

And yet, that does not necessarily mean that as we are wrapped in searing pain and powerful longing we cannot find the ability to celebrate the life, accomplishments, legacy, and memory of those who have passed.

I am a big fan of celebration of life ceremonies or, if such is not possible for whatever reason, simply reflecting on the life of someone who is no longer with us.

There have been numerous times when I’ve held personal celebration of life remembrances both for people in my own circle and for various famous individuals that I admire.

Sometimes, I have also engaged in witchery acts pertaining to both helping the dead to cross over in peace, as well as to aid in the comfort of those they have left in the land of the living.

In this instance, I did not feel that either was called for and so opted instead to pour my focus into creating a lovely pocket letter to send to my friend that conveys a sense of both sorrow + grief and of the happiness that the deceased brought to their lives for multiple decades.

Sweet and cheerful celebration of life sympathy pocket letter

At first glance, one might peg this pocket letter as having anything to do with themes of death.

Upon closer inspection, however, elements that in much of the world have long been associated with death, funerals, and remembrance emerge.

To begin with, dark hues enter the picture via hits of black and navy blue.

Flowers and trees, two of the oldest and most universal connections to both sympathy and remembrance appear here in multiple spots.

Birds, another ancient symbol of death, peace, hope, and brighter days ahead also pop up. In this case, three times in total.

Further, butterflies which symbolize much the same (as well as happiness and transformation) are also tucked throughout this pocket letter.

Various cultures also associate rabbits and/or hares with death or see them as an omen that loss may soon follow.

Arguably far more see rabbits as a sign of hope, positivity, and optimism.

Either way, I feel there is often a place for bunny or hare imagery in the context of death and so decided to include a depiction of this precious creature here, too.

As well, the words that were used are ones that I felt suited the individual who passed, their grieving family, the promise of brighter days ahead, and celebrating the life and spirit of that particular person.

The central sentiment of “For You” indicates that this PL is a gift for my friend – and anyone else in their life that they may opt to show it to as well.

Personally, since childhood, I have associated both the moon and the sun with death (as have many cultures across the span of human history).

The sun is often viewed as the more upbeat of these two celestial bodies, so in keeping with a sense of positivity, I made sure to include a sweet little anthropomorphic sun here, too.

The overall colour palette is one that I feel conveys a sense of comfort and serenity, while at the same time also being chipper and positive. Reminding the viewer that death and life will, so long as hearts beat on this planet, coexist in harmony.

Such has always, and (presumably!) will always, been the case. There is beauty, solace, and inspiration in this fact, and I used each of those things to help propel the creation and overall design of this pocket letter for my sweet friend.

Be it in the context of sympathy/loss or otherwise (as this design certainly lends itself to myriad other occasions and reasons), if you would like to recreate or simply take some general inspiration from this project, read on for a complete list of materials required to replicate this sympathy pocket letter.

Products used to make a comforting, meaningful sympathy pocket letter

-Nine pocket trading card sleeve – Platinum Series 9-Pocket Trading Card Pages from Ultra Pro

-Black cardstock

-Textured (or plain) light to medium pink cardstock

-Metallic silver cardstock (light or medium grey cardstock could be used here instead)

-All distressed texture print papers (red/pink, green, and blue, respectively) – The Old World Mat Stack 4.5” x 6.5” Paper Pad from DCWV

-“For You” cut apart sentiment piece – Paige Evans 23 Bungalow Lane Paper from American Crafts

-“Living in the Moment” cut apart word strip – Diamond Layne Sophisticated Paper from Penelope Dee

-“Blessings” cut apart word strip – Antiquities Collection Beloved Paper from Kaisercraft

-“Pretty” cut apart word strip – Vintage Girl Vintage Cards Paper from Photo Play

-Decorative edge scissors – Paper Edgers Sunflower Scissors from Fiskars

-Mini stapler (to attach ribbon pieces to the lefthand side of the PL) – Tiny Attacher from Tim Holtz

-Dark red/brick ink – Stop Sign Ink Cube from Pink & Main

-Olive green ink – Crushed Olive Distress Ink from Tim Holtz

-Turquoise/teal ink – Tumbled Glass Distress Ink from Time Holtz

-Various chipboard stickers (flowers, trees, etc) used throughout this project from an unnamed package of Crafts (Dollarama) brand stickers

-Various die cut pieces (photo corners, birds, flowers, etc) – Handmade Die Cut Cardstock (Pieces) from K & Company

-Various die cut pieces (tags, wagon, sun, etc) used throughout this project from an unnamed package of American Crafts Dear Lizzy die cuts

-White flower (daisy) crochet trim – Vicki B Wraps from Bo Bunny

-Pink velvet ribbon – {Noteworthy} Addie Trims from Making Memories

-Pale olive green ribbon – {Noteworthy} Addie Trims from Making Memories

-Turquoise/aqua blue crochet trim – Botanical Fancy Ribbon from Fancy Pants Designs

-Navy blue seam binding (or ribbon)

-Narrow silver and black ribbon

-Aqua/blue and white feather print washi tape

-Dimensional foam, pop dots, or similar to elevate some of your layers

-Adhesive, such as a tape runner, of your choice (I often use my Scotch Tape Glider)

How to make your own sweet and cheerful celebration of life pocket letter

Much as with my Cute Pastel Hued Happy Springoween Pocket Letter earlier this year, I feel that the majority of pockets are fairly easy to get the general design gist of simply by looking at them.

That said, some pointers for recreating this specific sympathy pocket letter include the following:

-For each of the three rows of pockets, use the same background cardstock or paper colour (pink for the top row, black for the middle row, and blue/aqua for the third row).

-In the same vein, I opted to repeat the same background paper colours on two out of three pockets on each row, only switching things up with the central pockets.

-While the pockets on this kind of trading card sleeve do have some room to them, there is a rather finite amount of space in each of them.

As a result, if you wish to include bulky and/or larger sized components on your pocket letter – such as, in this case, the central premade die cut frame piece and the white crochet flower trim – it is usually best to adhere them to the top (outside) of the plastic sleeve.

-There are scores of different ways to dress up the “binder side” (the side with three holes) of your trading card sleeve. And, by the same token, numerous ways to attach embellishments and trims to this area of your pocket letter design.

Some of my favourite ways to attach trims, stripes of paper or cardstock, etc to the left-hand side of my pocket letter include sewing, stapling, tying them throughout one or more of the holes, a strong liquid adhesive (hot glue tends to melt the plastic sleeve, however, so I would not use that directly on the clear plastic of your trading card sleeve), brads, eyes, and sturdy washi tape.

-If you wish to conceal the area where you have attached your side trims (etc), you can likewise do so in a number of ways.

These include, but are not limited to, topping that spot with any of the following.

-One or more bows

-One or more flowers

-Fabric or paper leaves

-Large rhinestones

-Large buttons

-Flat back cabochons

-Die cuts

-Chipboard pieces

-Good sized stickers (you will likely want to add further adhesive to the back of the sticker to help it stay securely in place)

-Washi tape

-Metal charms

-Die cut wooden pieces/charms

-Resin/acrylic/(other) plastic charms

-Feathers

-Small bells

-Pop-poms

-A tiny shaker pocket in the shape of your choosing

-If you were making a celebration of life/sympathy/remembrance pocket letter for someone else and did know a fair bit about the deceased, you may wish to weave more of that individual’s interests or other elements pertaining to their life into the design of your PL.

The melody does in fact linger on

Largely regardless of one’s personal spiritual path and beliefs (or lack thereof) regarding what may happen to us when we die, most of us can readily acknowledge the grief and profound impact that losing someone we care about often causes.

Though that individual no longer walks amongst the living, their memory is recalled by those who knew and loved them.

The ability to easily record images and videos (not to mention digital words) of those we care about is a very new happening in the course of human history.

Thanks to modern technology, in some cases at least, people can be remembered not just by word of mouth and well-guarded memory, but also via things such as photos, videos, and social media.

This helps, I find, the deceased to feel all the more like they are still here with us and am very grateful that these forms of technology exist, therefore enabling us to remember the departed with even greater clarity.

Prior to the advent of such inventions, the only ways a person’s likeliness could be visually recorded was in some form of art (painting, sculpture, carving, etc) or the creation of a death mask.

I am strongly of the mind that no matter if a person’s name echoes down through time or not, the universe remembers us as we existed.

Everything in said universe contains energy and, as per the First Law of Thermodynamics, while energy can be changed from one form to another, it cannot be created or destroyed.

In other words, all of the energy that has ever been or will ever be in this universe already exists. It may be recycled, if you will, in various capacities, but it never truly disappears.

Nor, does the melody that softly plays throughout the heavens above for each and every one of us who has ever lived and who will, inventible, pass away in due course.

I know that my friend and their family will long cherish and hold tight to the memory of the relative that they lost.

And that, if at some far-off distant point, that person’s name and recollections of them do eventually fade away, this individual’s life force will still continue existing in one form of energy or another.

Long before modern science, the ancients knew, understood, and appreciated that we were never fully gone and there is no reason why we should lose sight of this fact in the 21^st century.

Have you ever made a sympathy pocket letter? What is one of your favourite ways to offer comfort and support to somebody when they lose a loved one?

The post Sweet and Cheerful Celebration of Life Sympathy Pocket Letter appeared first on Witchcrafted Life.

Daily (often multiple times) for weeks now, I have been checking to see if Bloglovin’ was back up again this month. As of the time of writing, it still is not.

Prior to adopting Bloglovin, which is a free service with no cap (that I am aware) on the number of sites users can follow, I used Google’s feed reader.

This was a terrific feed reader and I would still likely be utilizing it were it not for the fact that Google shut it down ages ago now (despite impassioned pleas from users for them to keep it alive).

There are certainly other feed readers beyond Bloglovin’ out there. However, the majority of them only allow you to have a relatively small number of blogs that you can follow for free with their service (25 – 100 tends to be the norm across freemium feed reader providers).

Beyond that cap, they want to charge you to upgrade in order for you to be able to follow a greater number of sites. Such costs are typically applied monthly, quarterly, or annually.

Ideally, I would prefer not to have to pay for a feed reader. That said, if Bloglovin’ continues to be down for long periods (or never returns altogether), I will have to come up with some sort of alternate solution here – be it free or paid.

As will, no doubt, many others who have stuck with the Bloglovin’ platform over the years – even after its mid to early 2010s heyday.

To add insult to injury, not only is the feed element of Bloglovin’ down, but the very same error message (in the screenshot above) appears when I click over to the page that normally shows me the extensive list of blogs that I follow.

Nooooooo!!!

Therefore, if I cannot gain access to that list (which I do not have recorded anywhere else), I will need to refollow those of you who comment here through whatever alternative to Bloglovin’ that I end up going with.

I am hoping that things don’t come to me having to abandon Bloglovin’, but by the same token, missing out on commenting on many of your sites in recent weeks is not something I want to continue experiencing all summer (or longer!) by any means.

If I am a regular or even semi-regular commenter on your blog, could you please leave me a comment below with your site’s URL so that I can start composing a new list of my regular blog reads to use if/when I do have to switch to a different feedreader? (Thank you very much in advance!)

And by the same token, I know that a fair number of you follow this site via Bloglovin’. So that we don’t risk losing touch, please feel free to sign up for my newsletter (located on the upper right-hand sidebar of this site).

At present, this simply emails each new post I publish on Witchcrafted Life to your inbox, so you won’t be inundated with actual newsletters (though, one day, I may start sending the occasional one out) and will still be able to follow along here if you are not planning to decamp to a different feedreader yourself.

As well, if you happen to use or know of any reliable, enjoyable feedreaders that are either free or very well-priced, likewise please share it/them in the comments below.

(I will be investing a number of Bloglovin’ alternatives featured in this post on the subject, but would love to hear more about your faves and recommendations, too!)

And, as you likely deduced after reading the above paragraphs, this is the sole reason why I have not been leaving blog comments on many of your sites over the past 3 – 4 weeks. I am very sorry about that, everyone, and really hope to get this issue sorted out ASAP!

Now, on with our latest edition of Magick, Crafty Makes, and Me.

In Leo Tolstoy’s renowned classic, Anna Karenina, he penned the line, “spring is the time of plans and projects.”

This is a sentiment that I very much agree with. However, I do feel that it usually rings even truer for me during the fall.

After all, they don’t call Samhain / Halloween the Witch’s New Year for nothing! And what new year would be complete without a few new hopes and ambitions?

As winter waned and the first telltale signs of spring returned – despite the ever-worsening state of my physical health (I do not have any positive updates to report there, unfortunately, and so will say no more on the topic for the time being) – I was suddenly struck with one of the biggest waves of creativity that I have ever experienced.

It struck me like a bolt of lightning sent down by my muse and, I am very happy to say, is still going strong.

I have been floating on a crafty cloud nine all spring long and have jotted down literally hundreds of possible project ideas over the past few weeks.

This has been a joyous state to experience and one that is doing wonders in the process for my mental health, which is a terrific added bonus.

Periods don’t like this don’t come along every day for a lot of us and I am trying to soak up and be grateful for every second of amped-up creativity.

Weather wise, despite the fact that snow stopped falling in our neighbourhood a touch earlier than most years (late March vs the usual some point in April), we had next to no proper spring this time around.

Cool weather tinted in shades of worn pavement and faded blue flannel filled the bulk of our days. Enough rain to have one wondering if Amazon sells ark kits torpedoed itself at the ground for days – sometimes even weeks – very nearly on end.

Now, to be fair, I rather adore cool, grey weather and share Wednesday Addams’ sentiment that it is, “so nice and gloomy”.

Yes, I am one of those souls who tends to find damp weather, mild temps, and the need for multiple layers well into June to be an enjoyable experience.

That said, I am not averse to sunshine and can scarcely wrap my head around the fact that with the Summer Solstice/Litha having come and gone for another year, the days will now grow shorter until winter’s rebirth at Yule.

I don’t know if I would personally go so far as to say that I feel seasonally shortchanged, but I am definitely looking at my receipt very closely as I exit the weather store.

To my mind, the best positive to experiencing a far damper and cooler spring than usual is that it has done wonders to keep the annual horrific wildfire season that consumes (quite literally) much of BC in its fiery bite each spring/summer/early fall largely at bay.

So long as I live, I doubt I will ever forget the incredibly vivid red and orange coloured skies of last year’s forest fire season, as we spent days on end hosing down our house and yard to try and keep any live embers in the air from igniting our property.

(See this post of mine for unedited photos of exactly what I am talking about.)

All the while, sitting for about a month on evacuation alert, our most important documents, electronic devices, and a few treasured items neatly piled near the front door to grab at a moment’s notice had an evacuation come in.

Mercifully, that did not happen. Nor was our home or yard damaged by the huge blazes that roared loudly mere kilometres away.

However, the record-shattering heatwaves last year did do damage to some of the lofty evergreens in our backyard, with a decent smattering of their branches still bleached a distinctly rusty brown hue.

This spring was unquestionably a nippier than usual one, but that does not necessarily guarantee that we will be in for a gentle next three months.

Few things can turn more quickly on a dime than Mother Nature’s mood and it is anyone’s guess as to where the temps, total hours of sunshine, and wildfire levels will each land when all is said and done for another summer.

In the introduction to the Winter 2022 Edition of Magick, Crafty Makes, and Me, I made the war in Ukraine the focus of those initial paragraphs.

Though I was hoping beyond measure that come the next edition of MCM&M, his horrific conflict would be over, the realist in me knew that such was, objectively, quite unlikely.

And as we surely all know, this devastating sham (on Russia’s part) of a war still rages on fiercely. Its end even less certain than the outcome of a whole season’s weather report.

Though media coverage (as it is apt to do) has let up a bit regarding this bloody conflict, I continue to follow credible news sources very closely regarding the war in Ukraine and have every intention of doing so for as long as the fighting continues.

Far closer to home, this spring has not been without its fair share of serious happenings as well.

As some of you may recall for the spring edition of this series, my sister came down with Covid in the winter. Thankfully, she did not require hospitalization and was gradually able to recover. However, no sooner had she started to feel a bit more like her usual self again than she contracted this terrible illness for a second time.

Very luckily, it was milder for her than the first experience and she is once again on the road to recovery.

Still, it is almost unbelievable that she fell ill with Covid twice in such a short time frame. Though no doubt her immune system was weakened by the first bout (as surely just about anyone’s would be) and that made her more susceptible to contracting this virus a second time.

Again, while my sister is doing fairly well at this point all things considered, sadly, I cannot say the same for my paternal grandfather.

Earlier this month, completely out of the blue, he suffered two very serious strokes in rapid succession. Tests quickly revealed a blood clot in his brain which is too large to safely be operated on and so will need to be managed through medication.

Right now, his medical team is optimistically saying that in time, with PT, meds, and so forth, he may be able to regain about 70 – 80% of his pre-stroke abilities and motor skills.

Naturally, everyone in our circle is hoping and praying for that to ultimately prove to be the case, but it is far too early on at this stage to know for sure.

He and my grandma are both in their early eighties and have been married since the 1950s. They have weathered their fair share of serious health issues over the decades, but this is definitely the very worst medical situation to strike either of them so far.

I worry not only for my grandpa himself but also for my grandma and know this will, understandably, take a very serious toll on her.

Everyone who can is rallying around them and trying to help in any way possible.

Given that once a person has one stroke (let alone two), your odds of experiencing another one are quite decent, I don’t think any of us will ever feel like my grandpa will be safely out of the proverbial woods on this front.

Hopefully, though, he will be able to make a sizable recovery and continue to be active and enjoy life (including gardening, which is one of his biggest passions) for a long time still to come.

There is scarcely any good way to segue out of such a heavy topic, so instead of switching subjects again in this intro section, let us proceed with the Spring 2022 Edition of Magick, Crafty Makes, and Me.

Which, for those of you who are joining this series for the first time, is a link love post featuring online content that caught my eye during the past three months, coupled with a peek into what has been transpiring lately in my own life.

Magick, Witchcraft, Paganism, and Spirituality

–How to Make Your Own Scrying Mirror: Scrying is one of my favourite forms of divination and ways to enter into a meditative state of mind alike.

Should you wish to try your hand at scrying or are already a fan who is looking to add a new scrying mirror to your spiritual toolbox, this lovely, easy-to-follow DIY scrying mirror tutorial from Moody Moons has you covered.

–How to Write Powerful Poetry Spells: Long one of my very favourite ways to utilize the written word in my spellwork, magickal poetry is a powerful, expressive, and deeply personal approach to creating spells that anyone – whether they consider themselves a poet already or not – can engage in freely.

This eloquent and insightful look at the subject is bound to have you reaching for the nearest quill and paper.

–Signs a Deity is Calling You: Not all witches/Wiccans/Pagans believe in and/or work with deities, but a decent percentage currently do or would like to integrate this element into their practice.

If you have ever wondered about how to know if/when a goddess (though the general premises laid out in this post apply to the gods as well) may be reaching out to you, this wonderfully in-depth look at the topic has got your back!

–Ten Reasons Tarot Is Super Effective and How To Make It Work For You: Over the past decade or so, I have enjoyed witnessing tarot (and oracle) cards skyrocket all the more in popularity. While, perhaps not surprising then, at the same time the general public is gradually becoming more aware of what tarot actually is (a powerful tool for insight, growth, guidance, and divination) and what it isn’t (a magical fairy tale type of way to instantly know the future).

In this post on the official Llewellyn website, author Sasha Graham guides tarot newbies through some of the wonderful perks of working with this much-beloved tool. And, by extension, reminds seasoned card slingers of some of the reasons why we are such devoted fans of this awesome item.  

–Threshold Magick for Troubled Times: A supportive and thoroughly apropos – given all the immense problems that are rife in the world these days – look at a great form of magick that can easily be utilized by just about anyone who has access to a (safe) threshold.

–The Secret Names of Magical Herbs and Plants: This enjoyable piece delves into the subject of why, historically, certain plants + herbs were known by alternative folk/magical names and how both those who may still need to conceal their practice today (as well as others who are out of the broom closet) can utilize these old school monikers for some of the world’s most magical green offerings.

–Witchy Apps to Keep on Your Phone: Truth be told, outside of a select few, I have never been the biggest of app users (or, for that matter, cell phone users, point-blank). However, there are a handful of apps that I adore and I am always open to adding more entries to that list.

Penned last October, this handy post from the blog #Lazy is a terrific roundup of some of the best and most relevant phone apps for those who veer in a witchy/Pagan/contemporary spirituality direct.

To no one’s surprise, I’m sure, given that I am a Cancer, the Moon app in particular nabbed my eye. Which one leaps out at you the most?

Cardmaking, Scrapbooking, Paper Crafting, and Other Crafts

–Altered Vintage Bottle Tutorial: As of late, I have felt a strong pull towards making altered items. While not new to the act, I haven’t created too many of them in recent years and (much as with pocket letters) have been missing doing so.

Having recently read Anna-Karin’s tutorial post for how to make a vintage-inspired altered bottle, I am chomping at the bit all the more to hopefully make some “off the page” papercrafting/mixed media project this year.

If you are as well, swing on by her post and lap up the creative gorgeousness at work there.

–DIY Farmhouse Candle Holders: It is safe to say that contemporary farmhouse décor had taken off like wildfire in recent years and that it is a trend which is fast becoming all the more of a classic in its own right.

Though my personal décor tastes don’t veer too much in that direction, I admire the style and find that smaller farmhouse-y pieces can often be a cinch to weave into a wide array of home decorating styles.

The selection that Andrea rounded up in this post is inspiring – especially since there is no stopping one from following the general premise but putting their own creative décor spin on these great DIY candleholders.

–Easy Repurposed Antique Chair Spindle Wind Chimes: Like many a crafty/artistic soul, I tend to be drawn towards finding ways to reuse, repurpose, or otherwise find uses for items of all sorts that still have life left in them.

By far one of the most ingenious projects of this nature that I have hit upon in recent months is this super creative approach to turning old chair legs into beautiful wind chimes. B-R-I-L-L-I-A-N-T!!!

–How to Make Beautiful Tissue Paper Pompoms: Beautiful is an understatement! These generously sized DIY tissue paper pompoms are flat-out gorgeous – while also being relatively easy to make.

You could whip up a few for year-round décor, create sets to cycle throughout each holiday season, use them for parties and weddings, or gift a bouquet’s worth of tissue paper pompoms to someone special in your life.

(On the same blog, Crissy’s beginner’s tutorial on How to Make Fabric Covered Flowerpots also leapt out at me.)

–How to Make Affordable Scrapbook Paper Wall Art: Though this post is currently eleven years old, the idea – turning beautiful pieces of scrapbooking paper into wall art – is no less at home in today’s DIY décor arena than it was in the 2010s.

–How to Make Paper Bead Jewelry: Much as with dried pasta, in our childhoods a fair number of us whipped up creative jewelry that involved making paper beads.

This resourceful type of DIY bead tends to cycle in and out of vogue a bit but has remained popular amongst plenty of crafters and jewelry wearers alike – especially when you end result is as lovely as the examples Amy shares in this great tutorial post.

–101 (free) Fall Sewing Tutorials: Much like the staff at many magazines, crafters often work on projects months in advance of a particular season.

With that thought in mind – and being a lover of all things autumn related – given that fall’s return is a mere three months away, I wanted to share this wonderful roundup post which features 101 different free autumn sewing tutorials for the sewers amongst my readers.

What’s Shaking in My Life and On My Radar

Having covered some of the heavier things that occurred in our lives this spring in the opening portion of this post, I will switch to more upbeat fare instead.

As mentioned above, my creativity has been going a mile a minute lately! And while my health does not allow me to keep pace with all of my crafty ideas, I have still managed to get in some paper crafting this season with (very realistic) plans for more as summer unfolds.

In addition, I have deep-dived again into another craft that I have adored and participated in since I was about 5 or 6 years old: cross stitching.

I love, love, love cross-stitching!!!

For me, it is relaxing, super enjoyable, and conveys a sense of the time-honoured tradition of needlework that has been an important part of countless peoples’ lives over the centuries.

Much as with the rest of my craft supplies and finished projects, the arson fire that we experienced in October 2016 annihilated my cross stitch stash and what was, up until that point, very nearly a lifetime’s worth of work. Dozens of projects spanning my childhood to my early 30s were gone in the blink of an eye.

And, though in hindsight I have no clue why I didn’t do so (perhaps because I started stitching many years before digital cameras hit the mainstream market? ), I had never taken photographs of them. Therefore, the only place they live on now is in my memories.

Life might knock me down, but I always spring back again and that sentiment applies to the majority of my long-standing passion as well.

Though I have done a small bit of cross stitching in the ensuing post-fire years, the bulk of my crafting attention has, objectively, been devoted to paper crafting. Rest assured that I do not see that changing anytime soon.

However, it can be a lot of fun to alternate between two or more different craft pursuits (which in this case, can sometimes even overlap – such with handmade cards that feature small cross stitch designs on them or stamp sets that mimic the classic Xs we all associate with cross stitchery) and I love that this recent surge of creativity has led me to connect with cross stitching again all the more.

Now, as a crafty witch operating on a very tight budget, I have been happily trawling the web for free and low-cost patterns that align with my current tastes in cross stitch designs.

Having hit upon a number of great sources (which I am thinking would make for a fun post here unto itself) and with some aida cloth and embroidery floss that I picked up a few years back, I now have a couple of fun new WIPs (works in progress) on the go.

I have also been binge-watching the cross stitchery side of YouTube as of late, where many who post about this passion tag their videos with the charming word “Flosstube”.

Doing so allows others with an interest in the subject to search for this term and be greeted with more video choices than there are colours in DMC’s current colour palette.

In time, as I have hopefully completed more projects, I plan to share some of them here with you – especially since I know that there are plenty of fellow cross stitchers amongst this blog’s readership.

In other news, this Friday was my little brother’s birthday (though as he is currently living outside of the country, it is not possible to celebrate it in person with him). A mere sixteen days from now, my own (GF) cake day will return.

Yep, we are both Cancers. Though being fairly close to on the cusp, I feel that he actually embodies a lot of Gemini characteristics.

Then, twenty-six days beyond that point, my sweet hubby will get to blow out his own set of candles.

The three of us are pretty much the only summer birthdays in our immediate family, which is a lovely point to share in common.

Fun, related fact: Hand on my heart, I was conceived on Halloween 1983.

Really, is it any wonder then that I would grow up to live a life where I #MakeHalloween365 and celebrate my most beloved (and spiritually significant) point on the calendar the whole year through?

And speaking of All Hallows’ Eve, from the day after my birthday onward, I gear up for spooky season all the more. Pretty much viewing July 11^th to October 30^th as one long, fabulously exciting countdown to the BIG DAY!

Which reminds me, with everything that has been going on in our lives and in the world at large so far in 2022, I have scarcely had a moment to sit down and ponder my Halloween costume for this year. Will I bust out a past fave again or opt for something new?

That is a question that I will hit upon an answer for in the next few months, as I prefer to have my Halloween ensemble planned out well in advance.

If you dress up for October 31^st, how early in the year do you tend to start thinking about your costume choice?

Alrighty, as few things in the universe make me as happy as Halloween season, this seems like a good place to wrap up discussing some of what’s been going down in my/our life lately.

Now, let’s hop with both feet forward into a fun mixed bag of various online stories that caught my eye, inspired me, or otherwise stood out over the past few months.

–Embroidery Artist “Paints” Lush Landscapes Using Only a Needle and Thread: Prepare to pick your jaw up off the ground when you gaze upon these stunning works of embroidery art created by the immensely talented Jade Deanna.

–Five Organization Tricks for Highly Sensitive People: Being an HSP myself, posts that relate to this topic are ones I tend to lap up with gusto. As well as often nodding along in agreement as my eyes scan from one paragraph to the next.

That was certainly the case for me when I read this Apartment Therapy piece absolute some great ways HSPs can successfully organize their homes.

–How Stanley Tucci’s Big Night Helped Kick off an American Dining Revolution: No doubt like many other people, I can clearly remember a lot of the more “grown-up” movies that my parents allowed us to watch when I was little.

For me, at the age of 12 – 13, one of those was The Big Night.

Though life (aka, my health) took my future in a different direction, growing up I was deadest on becoming a professional chef with their own restaurant(s).

As such, the plot of this now-classic film from 1996 imprinted itself in my memory all the more and The Big Night still remains one of my favourite movies twenty-six years after it was released.

This look at how The Big Night impacted something far broader – the modern food revolution – is an engaging piece that has a lot of merit to the premise it puts forth and which is apt to resonate with foodies, chefs, and fans of both contemporary dining and modern cookery TV shows alike.

–19 Ways to Get a Little Self-Care Outside: This post is a wonderful look at a plethora of different ways many of us can experience/engage in realistic self-care in the great outdoors. In addition, it is a lovely reminder to all of us that few places are more peaceful, soothing, or enjoyable than when we are in the arms of Mother Nature.

–Six Different Types of Stones Used for Graves: This one is for all my fellow taphophiles, history lovers, and family genealogists out there – as well as anyone else who may be keen to learn more about a handful of materials that were used to construct headstones throughout the centuries.

–10 Famous Authors and Their Favourite Libations: This charming post takes a gander at the favourite tipples of ten world-famous authors (from Maya Angelou to Oscar Wild) and may very well have you reaching for your own personal fave by the time you’ve finished reading it.

–13 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Buying Anything For Your Wardrobe: Living in a small house with laughably little in the way of closet space, I try to be very mindful of what I buy as I know wardrobe real esteem is at a premium.

Though I do not follow the “one item in, one item out” approach religiously, it does come into play sometimes – as do a number of the points in this handy post that is a must-read, IMO, for fashion fans with closets of all sizes.

The Promise of Brighter Days Ahead

It has long been said that hope springs eternal. One need only look at the course of human history to see the truth in that statement.

Many of us have an ingrained sense of hope that runs so deep it might as well be part of our DNA.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that we are pie-in-sky optimists, wildly pollyannaish, or naïve. Rather, that we hold tight to the possibility that the majority of difficult/stressful/even seemingly dire circumstances we encounter will prove to be ones that can ultimately be overcome or able to be well managed.

Hope has long made me think of sunrises. Just as our good friend Sol comes barrelling back into our lives each morning, so too does hope have an incredible ability to reappear time and time again.

It is a form of comfort, resilience, and self-preservation. We need hope and, in order to exist, hope itself in turn needs us.

Hope has been out in full force all the more across many of our lives in recent years. Between the pandemic, numerous serious global conflicts, the soaring cost of living (which inflation has failed – in much of the world at least – to keep pace with for decades now), a wide array of natural disasters, and plenty more, if hope was a tradeable commodity, it would be the hottest stock on the market.

I love hope. It has genuinely saved my life on more than one occasion and is something I steadfastly hold tight to in the face of just about any situation. Worst case, it doesn’t help. Best case it does and in the process, hope makes getting through dark, difficult times a little less challenging.

Spring and summer are seasons that lend themselves all the more to hope and the ability to look at the glass (of lemonade) as being half full.

In the sun-bathed months, it is sometimes a touch easier to deal with our worries and troubles, anxieties and stresses. Now always, and not for everyone, of course. But for some of us, that is the case and no doubt plays into why we are particularly fond of the balmy side of the calendar.

I adore each season and lean into the perks of all four. While at the same time, continually growing and learning as a person thanks to the challenges inherent to every one of them as well.

Summer’s return unto itself is rarely enough to set every wrong right. Thankfully though, it can help to lift our spirits and provide us with wonderful new memories, languid days of relaxation, and, I find at least, scads of nostalgia.

Both literally and figuratively, summer comes with the promise of brighter days ahead.

Rare is the summer my mood is not lifted at least part of the time and even the most difficult summers of my life have been peppered with fantastic experiences that I look back on with great fondness.

It is anyone’s guess as to what the state of the world or of their own lives will look like when, in roughly three months’ time, the summer edition of this post will appear here.

Hope tells me that at least a few things may be better. Or baring that, not considerably worse off than they presently are.

And in the process, it enthusiastically reminds me that we are a mere three months away from the return of pumpkin season!

No matter what the coming sizzling hot weeks may throw at us, that fact alone is darn near enough to keep a perpetual jack-o-lantern-worthy smile on my face all summer long.

At the same time though, I will try to savour the present season and appreciate the blessings and challenges alike that it holds in store for us.

From the bottom of my heart, sweet friends, I wish each of you a tremendously safe, happy, wellness-filled summer that is illuminated as much by hope as it is by sunshine.

Which of the links above caught your eye the most? What are some elements of summer (or winter in the Southern Hemisphere) that you are most looking forward to experiencing?

The post Spring 2022 Edition of Magick, Crafty Makes, and Me (Also, is Bloglovin’ Dead? – Please Read!) appeared first on Witchcrafted Life.

Eventually, time in the guise of the Grim Reaper catches up with all of us. Before that happens, though, if we are fortunate, we get to enjoy at least a few decades on this side of the veil.

As I was reflecting on the passing of time a little earlier this month, I was struck by the fact that we had hit the point in the year at which my next birthday now lies less than two months away.

I was also stopped square in my tracks to realize that roughly half a year had passed since the last edition of my ongoing Cemetery Journeys blog post series that was launched in the summer of 2021.

We kicked off this series by first visiting Kelowna Memorial Park Cemetery in Kelowna, British Columbia.

Then, in the afterglow of Halloween and Samhain, with November’s piercing chill returning to our days once again, we headed a touch further north in the province and spent some very enjoyable time at Mt. Ida Cemetery in Salmon Arm, BC.

In the third installment of this exciting series, we are going to land fairly close to smack, dab in the middle of these locations. Doing so on a delightful spring day where – true to seasonal form – the light frequently shifted from vividly sunny to moodily overcast.

Throughout the previous two Cemetery Journeys entries, I discussed some important points to keep in mind when exploring the cemeteries of Western Canada (British Columbia is Canada’s westernmost province and as such has a shoreline that is lapped by the mighty Pacific Ocean).

These include the fact that while settlement by non-First Nations people has only occurred in this part of the world over the past two hundred years or so (and even then, most areas were settled more in the range of 175 – 100 years ago at this point in time), the indigenous communities that filled not only BC, but Canada as a whole, lived in these rugged lands for millennia before the first Europeans are known to have set foot on Western Canadian soil.

Dovetailing with that point is the fact that as a result, there are no truly old non-First Nations burial sites to be had in this province.

Hitting upon cemeteries with headstones that proceed the 1890s – 1910s is worth celebrating and is not something one finds at every community, town, or city here in British Columbia.

Luckily, however, for history adoring taphophiles like myself, our current region of BC has been settled (again, by non-First Nations people) from about the middle of the nineteenth century onward.

As a result, some – though not all – of the burial grounds in this general area include headstones that predate the 1900s. Albeit often only by a matter of years or a couple of decades.

Still, I will gladly take that and usually make a point of trying to find the oldest headstone I can when visiting a cemetery (at least on my first trip there).

Despite living less than half an hour’s drive away from it, quite some time had passed since I last stepped foot on the hallowed ground that is Pleasant Valley Cemetery in the nearby town of Vernon, BC.

What better time to do just that than the early to mid-days of spring, when the natural world is bursting to life again and one can navigate the great outdoors without the need for double digits worth of thermal layers.

Enter our latest visit to Pleasant Valley Cemetery (a name that untold numbers of cemeteries in the English speaking world are called, believe me, I know ), which took place on a mild, subtly breezy springtime afternoon during which the sky bellyflopped back and forth between radiant sunshine and heavy grey clouds looked as though they had a lot to get off their chests.

It was Monsieur Soleil who won out in the end, but the mix of both types of light helped to add all the more of an atmospheric quality to our cemetery outing.

I shall soon invite you all along with me as we take a leisurely stroll across the gently sloping hills and tree-flanked pathways of Pleasant Valley Cemetery. First, however, let us briefly delve into the history of the community in which this burial ground is located: Vernon, BC.

A quick overview of the history of Vernon, British Columbia

Located in the northern end of BC’s well-known Okanagan Valley, which itself is situated in the Southern Interior area of this province, Vernon is a town with a rich history and yet, it often seems to play second fiddle to the larger nearby city of Kelowna.

This makes sense in many ways, of course, given that Kelowna is the biggest city (“biggest” being a somewhat relative term here ) in the entire Okanagan Valley.

However, Vernon is a terrific community unto itself and one that I feel deserves no less time in the limelight than Kelowna.

Located about 440 kilometres (270 miles) to the northeast of Vancouver, the area that is today known as Vernon was initially discovered and settled by members of the Interior Salish Okanagan people.

The name for Vernon in Salish was Nintle Moos Chin, which roughly translates to “jumping over creek”.

This title stems from part of a local body of water (now called) BX Creek which was narrow enough in some spots to jump straight over from bank to bank.

In the 19^th century, as missionaries such as Father Pandosy who we met when chatting about the history of Kelowna, began to make their way into the interior of British Columbia, Nintle Moos Chin would be renamed Priest’s Valley by the local English speaking community.

During at least part of the 1870s, it also went by Forge Valley in reference to politician, businessman, early Okanagan settler and rancher, Price Ellison’s blacksmith shop. In 1884, Price married Sophia Christine Johnson, Vernon’s first school teacher.

Today the Ellison name lives on throughout various corners of the Okanagan Valley, including both the lovely unincorporated community of Ellison and Ellison Provincial Park.

As that same century wore on, the area’s English name would again change, this time landing on the one that it holds to this day: Vernon.

A name which was bestowed on the community in honour of Mr. Forbes George Vernon, an early member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, who along with his brother Charles Vernon, owned one of the largest early ranches in the area.

Just as you will find many people residing in these beautiful areas today, the original First Nations inhabitants of Nintle Moos Chin/Vernon often lived in close proximity to the two lakes that this city houses: Swan Lake and Okanagan Lake

The latter is the largest lake in the whole Okanagan Valley, spanning the continuous distance from Penticton in the Southern Okanagan to Vernon in the Northern Okanagan (the two are about 1.45 hours drive apart from each other).

A few decades before intrepid missionaries and other early non-First Nations inhabitants started to set up the seeds of a township in what is now present-day Vernon, the area was explored in the 1810s by fur traders.

It is believed that a few decades later, a man by the name of Luc Girouard was the first permanent white settler in Vernon. He built a cabin in the area c. 1861 and would go on to plant Vernon’s first commercial orchards as well.

Little by little, the community began to grow, getting a sizable push towards developing from a small fur trading camp to a full-fledged community thanks to the 1863 discovery of gold in some of the eastern corners of the Okanagan (such as Mission Creek, Cherry Creek, and the Monashee Mountains, respectively).

Some feel that Vernon really got its start when, in 1863/64, the land that would become that township was purchased by Mr. William Campbell, who began – but did not complete – building the community’s first store.

This business-in-the-making was bought up by a stonemason named  Mr. John Imlay, who had such illustrious projects under his belt already as working on the Parliament Building.

Much as in Kelowna to the south and Salmon Arm to the north, early Vernon was peppered with numerous ranches and, as time went on, no shortage of orchards either.

Speaking of which, in 1890, Lord and Lady Aberdeen – whose contributions to and influence in shaping the early history of the Central and Northern Okanagan areas lives on in numerous forms to this very day – purchased the Coldstream Ranch from Forbes Vernon. By 1892, they had planted at least a hundred fruit trees at the ranch in the hopes of accelerating the orchard industry in the area.

It is from the name Coldstream Ranch that the community that came to exist around it would later be named The District of Coldstream. Today, this community continues to thrive and is part of the Greater Vernon area.

In no time flat, Vernon and its surrounding communities would indeed succeed as a thriving fruit-growing (and later also viticulture) corner of Canada. Sun-kissed produce offerings grown in the hearty Okanagan soil are enjoyed by locals and shipped to food merchants around the globe to this very day.

Interestingly, throughout part of the 19^th century, what would become the downtown core of Vernon was known as Centreville, a name that is rarely mentioned anymore and certainly no longer formally used in any capacity that I am aware of.

That downtown core would go on to form the city’s first business district, which came into being in 1885. This same year Vernon got its inaugural post office and a proper townsite was laid out and established for the city.

In addition to having a post office, Vernon was starting to blossom care of other firsts including a schoolhouse, hotel, and general store. A mere two years later, a Hudson’s Bay Company Store appeared on the scene as well.

Thanks in no small part to the abundance of cattle ranches that Vernon housed at the time, the area rapidly became a popular and successful economic hub for the Okanagan Valley.

Numerous forces drew early settlers to Vernon from corners near and far of Canada, as well as America, Europe, and elsewhere in the world.

The booming cattle and fruit-growing industries were two of the largest. Though, I am sure that the balmy summer weather that this region is so well-known for only helped to sweeten the deal for some of those early newcomers.

Growth and development in the area were aided all the more when the Canadian Pacific Railway (aka, the CPR) laid track that ran through parts of the Okanagan and on into the Shuswap, which is the region immediately following the Okanagan to the north.

Things did not stop hopping there in the 1890s, however! A mere two years later, a sternwheeler by the name of the S.S. Aberdeen (named for Lord and Lady Aberdeen) began to ply the waters of Okanagan Lake.

With both the railway and water travel now a part of daily life in the Vernon area, it was possible to bring in people, supplies, and animals considerably more quickly (and sometimes, more easily as well).

Also during the bustling 1890s, Vernon was officially incorporated as a city on December 30, 1892. Nine years later the first city hall was formed. It included both a public reading space and a fire hall.

Though it would, in time, be usurped on this front by Kelowna, back in those days, Vernon was the largest municipality in the Okanagan.

It was the first in which a telephone was installed and where a bank was built, amongst other things that Vernon accomplished sooner than any other part of the region.

As one drives into or exists through present-day Vernon from the south end of the city, they are bound to catch sight of a military camp and surrounding training grounds located there (which are often used for Cadet related purposes).

A military presence has been a part of Vernon’s landscape since 1908 when the Okanagan Mounted Rifles military program was established.

Later to be known as the 30^th Regiment BC Horse – or more commonly, the Okanagan Mounted Rifles.

Throughout both World War I and World War II, Vernon’s population expanded further due to the influx of military personnel and their families who settled – be it temporarily or longer-term – in the area as a result of the army training that took place in Vernon.

Traversing the same stretch of highway that runs through the military training area in Vernon, you will quickly catch sight of the Vernon Jubilee Hospital.

It is a large, multistory medical facility that serves not only Vernon itself but also the residents of many other smaller towns and communities (ours included) in the general vicinity.

This hospital was established in the 1900s and remains the only one in Vernon to the present day.

One piece of Vernon’s history that very few people are aware of is that for a time this city was home to what we would today call something along the lines of a mental health treatment centre, but which at the time was known as a mental asylum.

Originally constructed as a jail, the building operated as a mental health facility from c. 1902 – 1912. After which point patients residing there were sent to the Provincial Insane Asylum in New Westminster. In the years to come, this same building was used as an internment site during WW1.

Its use between the end of that war and its demise due to a fire that happened circa the early 1940s is not well documented. Today, the WL Seaton Secondary School stands on a spot that – often unbeknownst to many who spend time there these days – surely saw no shortage of sorrows, suffering, and injustice during the first four decades of the previous century.

Throughout the 1910s and beyond, other elements that often help a community to grow and succeed were also set up. These included such services and amenities as a high school, sports stadium, and a bit further into the 20^th century, an official library, and a modest-sized (to say the least! ) shopping mall called Village Green Centre.

While there is a bustling downtown business core, various plazas, numerous supermarkets and other shopping locations throughout Vernon, Village Green remains the city’s only mall.

(For better or worse, the Okanagan Valley is not rife with shopping malls and most of those that do exist here are scarcely large enough, IMO, to be crowned with that title in the first place.)

As the 20^th century rolled onward and the province of British Columbia as a whole continued to expand both in terms of its population and its transportation routes, Vernon would go to connect with three different provincial highways. These are Highway 97, Highway 97A, and Highway 6, respectively.

Much as with the Okanagan Valley as a whole, Vernon experiences hot, sunshine-filled summers and cold winters that often reside in sub-zero temperatures from mid to late autumn straight onto early spring.

The gorgeous months of warm sunshine have long helped to ensure Vernon was – and still is – a popular tourist destination, attracting many visitors to its arid climate, gorgeous lakes, and a plethora of surrounding mountains (some of which morph into popular ski hills such as Silver Star Mountain come the winter months) each year.

And speaking of the snowy side of the calendar, each winter Vernon comes alive care of the Vernon Winter Carnival, which was officially established in 1961. Though its roots stretch back to February 23, 1893, as that was when the first recorded winter carnival in the area took place. They would occur periodically between then and 1961, from which point onward they have been an annual event.

Today, Vernon’s is the largest winter carnival in Western Canada and the second biggest in all of North America (behind the well-known and much adored Quebec Winter Carnival).

On the flip side of the year, one finds the Vernon Sunshine Festival, an annual event that takes place in the downtown core of the city. This lively occurrence includes artisan booths, food trucks, live music, children’s events, and various other enjoyable happenings.

As with most parts of British Columbia, Vernon’s commercial structures and homes are a mix of old and new (with plenty that currently fall in between the two).

Downtown, on 30th Avenue (which is often considered to be Vernon’s main street), as well as elsewhere in the city centre, one finds an assortment of older buildings that have stood for numerous decades running.

The arts are well fostered and celebrated in Vernon, with, at the time of writing, no less than 27 different murals depicting scenes from the area’s history appearing on the sides of various buildings throughout the downtown core.

In addition, there is an excellent performing arts centre called the Vernon and District Performing Arts Centre, as well as the Powerhouse Theatre which is home to a great community theatre programme.

Located in what is arguably the city’s most beautiful public green space, Polson Park, one also finds the Vernon Community Arts Centre.

And just a few streets over locals and tourists alike can catch a film at the Vernon Towne Cinema, which was built in 1929 – 1930.

Much to the delight of early 20th-century architecture and history buffs, this movie theatre (which served in various other arts and entertainment capacities before becoming a cinema) retains much of its art deco design and charm.

And for those like myself, who swoon up a storm over all things creative and crafty, if you should happen to be in Vernon as spring sits on the cusp of summer, you can visit Chaos Crafts.

This annual event is the largest summertime craft show in Western Canada, attracting vendors and attendees alike from across BC, Alberta, and further afield.

Vernon has witnessed continued population growth for the majority of its lifetime and that has certainly rung true in recent decades.

In 2021, the population of Vernon proper came in at some 44,519 people (who are known as Vernonites). This number swells into the 60,000s, however, when surrounding communities are factored into the equation as well. Together, these areas form what is known as Greater Vernon.

Prior to moving to Armstrong (a town located about twenty minutes north of Vernon) in 2018, I had visited Vernon many times throughout my life (much of which has been spent in the Okanagan).

And once, for an ultra-brief matter of weeks in my teens, I even lived in Vernon.

In the years since we relocated to Armstrong, both Tony and I have gotten to know Vernon considerably better.

It is the nearest city to us (Salmon Arm, located north of our town, is the second closest) and as Armstrong lacks a lot of amenities (or at least any sort of variety of them), we often find ourselves spending time in Vernon – which neither of us mind at all.

Ever since I was a little girl and my family would take summertime road trips to various corners of the Okanagan and Shuswap Valleys, I have felt a connection to Vernon.

From its gorgeous heritage homes such as Campbell House and Mohr House to its equally lovely (unofficial) main street, its lakes (including the stunning Kalamalka Lake located on the southern edge of the city, which was once listed as one of the top ten most beautiful lakes in the world by National Geographic) to its arts and culture scene, Vernon has a good deal to offer both locals and visitors alike.

Kalamalka Lake takes its name from a highly revered First Nations man named Chief Kalamalka, who may have been born around 1800.

An early hotel in Vernon also shared his name and while it has not seen overnight lodgers for quite some time now, part of that building is still going strong. These days it is a popular local sports bar known as The Kal.

Should the occasion to do so arise for us one day, I would likely have no qualms about moving to Vernon. It might not be as big or have quite as much to offer as those larger BC cities that start with the letter V (aka, Vancouver and Victoria), but it is still substantially bigger than itty-bitty Armstrong.

While at the same time, in my personal opinion, it retains more of a cohesive community feel and spirit than that of ever-expanding Kelowna.

This makes all the more sense given that the Greater Kelowna Area more than doubles the population of the Greater Vernon Area.

Like most towns and cities around the world, as Vernon’s population began to grow, it was only natural that a cemetery would be required.

Pleasant Valley Cemetery in Vernon

Just as with the previous two cemeteries that we have spent time exploring so far in this post series, Pleasant Valley is the largest burial site in its respective community.

Fascinatingly, however, Vernon’s first cemetery was not the one we will be wandering through together today.

No, the first cemetery in Vernon, BC, was located in the 3700 block of 35^th Avenue on land donated for this very purpose by none other than Vernon’s first permanent white inhabitant, Luc Girouard.

This community burial ground came into being during the 1880s and had been known by a slew of different names such as “Vernon Cemetery”, “Old Cemetery”, and “Old Vernon Cemetery” before being given, on May 8, 1975, its current title of Pioneer Park Cemetery.

The first body to be buried at the Vernon Cemetery was, heartbreakingly, a one-year-old child named John William Hozier, who was laid to rest there in 1885.

As is apt to happen as communities expand, it did not take very long for Vernon’s relatively small original cemetery to become quite full (as well as, unfortunately, rather unkempt).

One or two years into the start of the 20^th century, in either 1901 or 1902 (I have seen sources that cite both of those years), the City of Vernon opted to purchase land for use as a new cemetery.

The land to do just happened to be located on Pleasant Valley Road, which naturally is where Pleasant Valley Cemetery derives its name from.

However, at the very beginning of its life, this location was known as both the Vernon Cemetery (just like its predecessor) and the Vernon Municipal Cemetery.

Once this new cemetery had been established in Vernon, Pioneer Park Cemetery was closed for burials. In the decades since, all of the burial plots have now been removed (with many being reinterred at Pleasant Valley Cemetery).

And in a lovely nod to the history of that piece of land, some of the grave markers were used to build a memorial wall at the east side of the old cemetery, which is today a small public park called Pioneer Park Cemetery.

Others – much like those laid to rest beneath them – were moved to Pleasant Valley Cemetery. And it is very cemetery that we will now be diving straight into exploring together.

Located at 4311 Pleasant Valley Road, Vernon, British Columbia, Canada, Pleasant Valley Cemetery has been in continuous operation for an impressive 120 – 121 years and counting at this point (that being 2022).

Those wishing to visit this cemetery can do so year-round during the following times:

March 15th – October 15^th: 8 am to dusk

October 16^th – March 14^th: 8 am to 4 pm

One enters Pleasant Valley Road Cemetery through a wide, somewhat low wrought iron gate attached to two stonework columns. Upon doing so, you will instantly be greeted by a serene (drivable) pathway that is heavily flanked on both sides by tall, lushly verdant trees.

From the outset, one might not expect Vernon’s main burial ground to be as large as it is when you simply pass by it on your way to somewhere else.

However, one need only walk a few metres into Pleasant Valley Cemetery to begin to get a sense of the expansiveness of this immensely lovely final resting place of more than 17,000 individuals and counting.

Vernon’s Pleasant Valley Road Cemetery is divided into two sections: Evergreen and Maple, both of which are then broken down further into blocks, rows, and plots in which ones finds a wide array of different marker styles spanning some that were moved there from the original Pioneer Cemetery straight on to burials as recent as the same season you are visiting.

If you plan to walk around the cemetery, I would suggest wearing comfortable shoes in which your feet will not begin to ache quickly as you will be covering a decent amount of ground if you wish to see the whole of Pleasant Valley Cemetery on foot.

Naturally though, if one lives nearby or will be in the vicinity for multiple days, you could opt to explore various parts of the cemetery on different days.

When this cemetery was established at the start of the 20^th century, it initially covered an expanse of seventeen acres. However, it did not actually take very long for that space to be used up.

Therefore, as time went on, more of the adjacent land was purchased over the years to accommodate new burials (today it comes in at about thirty acres of land).

Prior to that point, however, in 1909, Pleasant Valley Cemetery witnessed a truly dark day when a fire at the Okanagan Hotel took the lives of eleven people.

A memorial was erected to honour a man named Archie Hickling, who perished in the blaze while helping to save others. In addition, a stone marker commemorates the victims of that tragic event which rocked the community of Vernon.

While Pleasant Valley Cemetery does not house anyone famous enough to likely be a household name the world over, it is home to a number of notable early residents and/or some of their family members. Amongst them is one of Price Ellison’s daughters.

There are some strikingly beautiful older monuments and headstones (and a few wrought iron plot fences) to be had in Pleasant Valley Cemetery.

A good number of which were the work of skilled Scottish stonecutter William Inkster, who moved to Vernon in 1903 – a mere one year after the (then) new cemetery was opened.

Mr. Inkster (I love that last name, BTW) founded the Vernon Granite and Marble Company, with some of the earliest granite coming from the properties of the Lefroy family and that of Price Ellison, whose daughter was just mentioned.

That granite can still be seen today in the antique headstones that still stand at Pleasant Valley Cemetery, quite a few of which include – as one would expect, especially for the time period – an array of Christian symbols and religious/spiritual inscriptions.

From very early on in its history, this cemetery has included a section that was/is designated for Chinese burials. Most of the markers located there are, naturally, in Mandarin or Cantonese.

While vertical headstones continue to be erected for some of the newer burials at this cemetery, the bulk of the recent cremation burials (as opposed to casket burials) are designated by small horizontal shaped markers that lay close to the ground.

Many peacefully pretty trees (including plenty of pines) coupled with an array of flowering bushes call this cemetery home as well.

Their presence offers an additional element of tranquillity and helps to create an even more beautiful setting for those buried at Pleasant Valley Cemetery and those who visit it alike.

As touched on earlier in this post, one of the standout features of this cemetery is the sweeping and rather majestic view of the city and the mountains on the opposite side of Vernon that can be viewed from some spots throughout the grounds.

I have had the joy of visiting many cemeteries throughout my lifetime and I can confidently say that few had/have views quite as breathtaking as this deeply peaceful one.

In addition to an area being designated early on for the burials of Chinese citizens, separate sections were also portioned out early on for members of civic clubs (including the Oddfellows), as well as for infants.

Following WWI, a spot was set aside to be used specifically for members of the Great War Veterans Association.

Areas were also singled for those who died while in the (devastatingly wrong and unjust) internment camps that were set up in the North Okanagan during both WW1 and WW2.

An October 2019 Vernon Morning Star article states that the first person to be buried in the city’s then newly established cemetery was a woman named Mrs. Ellen Johnson Wilding Weeks.

Originally from Shrewsbury, England, Ellen was born on January 22, 1847. She married a fellow named Thomas Weeks in 1867 and, nearly three decades later, the couple moved to Vernon with their five children.

Rather interestingly, the home that Thomas Weeks built for his family to live in is still standing to this day. It is now known as the Rice House and can be seen on 20^th Street in Vernon.

Sadly, on October 5, 1901, Ellen passed away from tuberculosis (then commonly called “consumption”) at the age of just 54 years old. Three days later she was laid to rest in Pleasant Valley Cemetery.

Less than two year on, her husband Thomas, aged 60, passed away from liver disease and was buried in the plot immediately alongside that of his beloved wife.

And while none of Ellen and Thomas’s children are interred at this cemetery, two of their grandchildren joined them at the family plot later on in the century.

(Note: If indeed that date was Ellen’s correct date of death, then it would imply that the cemetery was opened in 1901, not 1902. Though I am still trying to get some definitive answers there as both years are readily cited in various historical sources and online articles.)

However, due to the fact that some of the grave markers from Vernon’s very first cemetery were moved to Pleasant Valley, Ellen’s date of death is not the earliest to be had at this location.

These belong to some of the members of the Johnson family who passed away on various dates in the two decades preceding the creation of the original Vernon Cemetery.

I am likewise trying to determine if these individuals’ bodies are interred at Pleasant Valley Cemetery or if markers have “just” been placed there in memory of these early Vernon pioneers.

Sadly, the earliest death that appears on these markers is that of James O. Johnson, who was born on August 23, 1861, and who perished the very next day.

In the years to come, three other Johnson family members would also pass away at devastatingly young ages, their names, in turn, appearing on this same stone as well.

Another marker that will tug at the heartstrings of many who come across it is the inscribed memorial stone that was put in place as a memory of those who passed away between 1948 and 1961 in the Vernon-based BC Provincial Home for the Aged.

This marker came to be in recent times thanks to the hard work of two members (Alice Lee and Gilda Koenig) of the Vernon and District Family History Society who raised funds in order to have this stone created and placed at the cemetery.

Of the roughly 500 people who died in that government-run senior citizen’s home, it is believed that about 377 of them are buried at Vernon’s cemetery. However, only seventy or so of those people are laid to rest beneath headstones/markers, with the rest residing in unmarked graves.

Not uncommonly, little to no information whatsoever is now known about these individuals, so it is all the more important that their memory not be lost entirely in the mists of time.

As such, in addition to the monument rock, forty-one other rocks have been placed in a row to commemorate this group of people further – many of whom died and were, unfortunately, buried alone (that is to say, without any of their family present).

Today, burials (be they of bodies or cremated remains) continue to take place at Pleasant Valley Cemetery.

However, according to a 2019 article in the Vernon Morning Star newspaper, the city believes – and is making advance plans for the fact that – there is likely only about 25 to 30 years of space left for new burials at this location.

While no new (burial) ground is being broken quite yet, the city – which owns the current cemetery – will strive to get a jump on the day when Pleasant Valley is at max capacity by starting work on a new cemetery at least five to ten years in advance of that estimated point in time.

I have not heard or read, but like to assume that when that day comes, the City of Vernon will continue to maintain Pleasant Valley Cemetery.  

Time shall tell, but I for one will be keeping my fingers and toes tightly crossed when Vernon’s current cemetery reaches its limit and a new one is opened, Pleasant Valley will continue to stand as the beautiful, tranquil, and historically important spot that it is for many more generations to come.

The similarities and differences of cemeteries everywhere

Though this cemetery shares a moniker with scores of others around the world and there are additional common points to be had as well, like most burial grounds, it is not a carbon copy of any other out there.

This North Okanagan burial ground holds elements that help to set it apart and, in the process, endure it all the more to the hearts of many who spend time at Pleasant Valley Cemetery in Vernon, BC.

Ultimately, even when various cemeteries and/or graveyards are rather similar to one another, it is vital to remember that they will forever be differentiated from one another by the fact that different groups of individuals were interred at each one.

Save for those very rare cases where part of a body was laid to rest (or their ashes sprinkled or housed at) at one cemetery and another/the rest at a different one, it is very uncommon for one individual to reside at two different cemeteries.

Vernon is the oldest community in the Okanagan and while its present-day cemetery is not the region’s largest or most senior, having been established roughly 121 years ago and presently clocking in at about thirty acres, it is certainly amongst them.

I feel very fortunate to live in a part of the country that is peppered with fascinating, beautiful, and diverse cemeteries up and down the region and to get the chance to visit some of them periodically.

For, after all, as I began this post by saying, the passing of time will eventually lead us all to our last breath. I have no idea if anyone will remember me after I am gone and my living relatives at the time have also crossed over.

Whether anyone will or not, while I am on this side of the soil, I make it my mission to remember and honour the lives, spirits, hopes, dreams, and accomplishments of all those who rest in eternal slumber at the cemeteries I am able to visit in person.

So long as my health permits, plans are in the works to spend time at some others around our region this year. It is a safe bet to say that future Cemetery Journey posts devoted to those equally poignant places will transpire here in due course as well. (I can hardly wait! )

What is your favourite season in which to spend time at cemeteries/graveyards? What was the last burial ground that you visited for non-funeral-related reasons?

The post Cemetery Journeys: Springtime in Bloom at Pleasant Valley Cemetery in Vernon, BC appeared first on Witchcrafted Life.

He knows not his own strength who hath not met adversity. – William Samuel Johnson

Since launching this quarterly blog post series in 2020, I have often begun my “Magick, Crafty Makes, and Me” entries with a quote pertaining to the forthcoming season.

There is no shortage of excellent quotes to be had about this revitalizing time of the year. However, while we are technically two short days away from the start of springtime, a different season, so to speak, has fallen upon the earth once again: that of profoundly devastating war.

I know and am the first to acknowledge that, heartbreakingly, there have been wars in one part of the world or another pretty much continually since time immemorial. The preceding (and present) years of the 21^st century fully included.

No serious conflict is without suffering, loss, injustice, hardship, sacrifice, and long-lasting devastation. Yet few wars since the final days of WW2 have, mercifully, brought with them the imminent possibility of another large-scale global war.

That is until the world’s biggest country (geographically speaking) decided to wage battle against a peaceful neighbouring nation for absolutely no good – or moreover, even remotely justifiable – reason.

Generally speaking, I go out of my way to avoid the news (especially as an HSP and an empath), knowing that if something is big or important enough, I will surely find out about it one way or another.

However, like a great deal of us, I have been glued to news reports regarding the horrific conflict in Ukraine.

Tears fall from my eyes like shrapnel of the soul. They are shed in unison with the millions that tumble from the exhausted, frightened, and utterly perplexed eyes of countless Ukrainians. To say nothing of the rest of the world, too.

As with most tragedies, there is a powerful sense of the surreal to what is happening in Eastern Europe right now.

Surely, we will all wake up tomorrow or the next day or the day after that and realize that the past three (going on four) weeks have been a hellacious nightmare.

Yet, as is so often the case, the very worst nightmares stem not from our sleeping minds, but from the atrocities that are carried out by certain individuals, groups, or nations when we are acutely awake.

I need only climb a few short branches back in time on my family tree to quickly come face-to-face with ancestors who hailed both from Russia and what is present-day Ukraine + Moldova. Some of whom immigrated to Canada as recently as the 1930s.

I knew and loved a few of these people firsthand before their respective passings during the early years of my childhood.

They were not far-off relations from centuries-long past. They were amongst my grandparents, great-grandparents, and great aunts + uncles. They embraced their new homeland with gusto but never lost sight of the culture, traditions, and memories they had grown up experiencing on the other side of the world.

As is the case for most people, it should go without saying that I am 100% on the side of Ukraine (and that of the Russian citizens who are strongly opposed to this incredibly brutal conflict).

It would be unconscionable in my books not to be.

This is not the first time in their nation’s long and fascinating history that Ukraine has come under siege or been unfathomably brutalized in other ways. For example, (WARNING: the following link includes graphic subject matter and images that may be difficult/disturbing for some viewers – especially younger ones) the Holodomor that occurred under the tyrannical reign of Joseph Stalin.

I have no doubt that many people in Ukraine knew prior to this war’s onset that they were strong, proud, capable individuals.

However, both inside and all the more so outside of the country itself, it is safe to say that few could have imagined just how incredibly strong and resilient 21st-century Ukrainians would prove to be.

The quote that begins this post stems from one of America’s founding fathers, William Samuel Johnson. It is no less true today than it was in the 18^th century. If anything, it may in fact hold even more weight nowadays.

Of course, though this colonial-era quote houses male pronouns, it is safe to say that Ukrainians of all genders are showing amazing fortitude and bravery in the face of their nation literally being razed to the ground.

So long as nuclear and biological weapons are not introduced into the fold, I continue to believe that Ukraine has a very real chance of winning this sham of a war.

Not a sham in the sense of it being make-believe (sadly, nothing could be further from the truth), but rather a sham because of its senseless and unprovoked nature.

As many of us keep a watchful eye on news updates viewed on TV, cell phone, tablet, and computer screens, the ravages of war growing ever more horrendous with each passing minute, it can be hard to shift our focus to lighter matters.

For not the first time in my life, tragedy drives home an intensely strong sense of what, at the end of the day, really matters and what can at times seem rather trivial and/or happy-go-lucky by comparison.

Just as it is doing for countless other souls across the globe right now as well.

We go on though, our hearts heavy with emotions such as grief, anger, and fear. We keep trying to live the lives that we are immeasurably blessed to have to the best of our abilities.

Ukraine is never far from our minds – nor is the looming threat of global war – as we do so. We have been starkly reminded of how, objectively, any of our own countries could theoretically find itself in the same sort of situation.

Thousands of miles away from Eastern Europe, snow still dots the landscape around our corner of British Columbia.

Springtime has phoned and made reservations, but it has not checked into its suite just yet.

It is coming through. The ever-earlier arrival of sunlight each morning, the orchestra of bird songs that have begun to fill the air once again, and the first brave crocuses that proudly stretch their necks above the frozen ground all assure us that spring will be here before we know it.

With just two days to go until the official start of spring in the Western Hemisphere, it is time for a fresh new edition of this reoccurring post series.

As usual, the Winter 2022 Edition of Magick, Crafty Makes, and Me is a link love post featuring online content that caught my eye during the past three months, coupled with a peek into what has been transpiring lately in my own life.

Magick, Witchcraft, Paganism, and Spirituality

–Advice for the Beginner Witch: It is scarcely a secret that witchery has seen a massive rise in popularity both over the past few decades and all the more so in recent years.

Naturally, this has led to the presence of a good deal more newbie witches and/or those who may have flirted with the craft previously, but never dedicated themselves to it and now feel a calling to do just that.

It can be – especially in this day and age of social media – challenging to start out as a new witch. It seems like there is so much to know and do and learn. Getting overwhelming or feeling like you must keep up with the witchy Joneses (many of whom have been practicing for ten, twenty-five, forty – you name it – years at this point) can easily happen.

Go easy on yourself, dear witchling, and find both advice and encouragement from this lovely post that guides new witches through some very useful approaches to beginning your beautiful journey into witchhood.

–Cute Witch Art Projects for Kids: Save for our six-year-old nephew (who lives in Italy), there are currently no young kids in our immediate family. If there were (and they lived nearby), I would love to spend a fun-filled afternoon with them making the simple, budget-friendly witch-related art projects that are featured in this charming post from Moody Moons.  

(Another recent post from Moody Moons that really resonated with me is her terrific tutorial on how to make DIY Green Witch’s Runes with Wood Rounds.)

–50 Signs that You’re an Old Soul: In my experience, many old souls inherently know that they are precisely that. However, sometimes a person may not be aware of their beautifully aged soul or, if they are, they might like to learn more about the subject. Finding, in the process, shared traits and experiences with plenty of their fellow old souls.

If you consider yourself to be one – or know somebody who does – be sure to pop on by Other Worldly Oracle’s excellent look at 50 ways to tell that you are an old soul.

–How to Make a Lovely Herb Drying Rack: Now, granted, this link could have gone in the more generic crafty column above. However, given how many witchy/Pagan folks are deeply interested in herbology, I figured that this link would be at squarely home in this section, too.

While most herbs (especially those grown outdoors) have not rebloomed again yet this year, in due course they will. If you have been itching to find an effective way to dry more of them yourself, this lovely tutorial on how to make a hanging herb drying rack has your back all the way.

–Make a Tiered Herb Planter with Dollar Store Buckets: And carrying on with the herb growing theme – because, if you can’t go all out on gardening-related topics in the spring, when can you? – this fantastic and very wallet-friendly approach to making a tiered herb planter with inexpensive buckets from the dollar store is a great approach for those on a budget or anyone looking to save some green (see what I did there? ) on the herb growing front.

–7 Reasons Why Self-Love is Spiritually Empowering: These days, most of us are familiar with the concepts of self-care and self-love. Ideally, we try our best to successfully make time in our busy lives to focus on these important areas. In doing so, however, have you ever stopped to think about the connections that can (and often do) exist between self-love and your spirituality?

This great post from Reroot Your Life explores that very subject and offers up seven excellent reasons why self-love is spiritually empowering.

–The Ethics of Divining World Events: It is human nature to look for answers, insight and (ideally) comfort when times get not only tough, but downright brutal.

For those who engage in various forms of divination, it can likewise come naturally to us to seek (possible!!!) answers with the cards, runes, or most other methods of divining.

This thought-provoking post from esteemed witchery/Paganism blogger + author John Beckett (I cannot recommend his book The Path of Paganism highly enough) delves into the pros and cons, ethically speaking, of doing just for major world events.

No matter which side of the fence you fall on when it comes to this subject, John’s fairhanded article is well worth reading during these tremendously uncertain times.

Cardmaking, Scrapbooking, Paper Crafting, and Other Crafts

–A Simple Lavender Wreath to Celebrate Spring: While “simple” in terms of the number of products required and ease of creation, rest assured that this elegant spring wreath is a head-turningly beautiful way to add extra seasonal pizzazz to any door (or wall) in your home.

–Cuddly Pompom Easter Bunny Tutorial: If you are in the mood for a melt-your-heart adorable springtime craft that is both easy and fabulously festive (not to mention a great gift idea), allow me to suggest this delightful pompom Easter (or Ostara) Bunny tutorial.

(For more awesome spring, Ostara, and Easter craft ideas, be sure to check out my post 35 Wonderful Ostara Crafts, DIY Projects, and Décor Ideas for The Spring Equinox.)

–DIY Flower Butterfly Wings: In my latest project share post (Delightful Butterfly-Themed Happy Ostara Shaker Card for the Spring Equinox) I discussed how butterflies are a harbinger of spring’s return that I – like many of us – can never get enough of.

If you have ever wanted to make a pair of your very own wearable butterfly wings, this photo-filled DIY project post will guide you through how to do just that.

The inclusion of dried flowers/leaves makes these wings especially enchanting. Not to mention more than lovely enough to proudly display, when not being worn, in your home as the work of magical art that they are.

(I cannot help but think how fantastic this project would also look with jewel-toned fall leaves, should you wish to make different seasonal versions of wearable butterfly wings.)

–DIY Gold Foil Vintage Bee Birthday Cards: Much like butterflies, bees are another winged friend that helps to signal spring’s return and who does so much to help keep nature in bloom year after year.

If you are in the mood to celebrate bees in papercrafting form during the upcoming season (or anytime), this gorgeous gold foil card project from Diana at Dreams Factory is a stunning way to do just that.

(If you do not happen to have the tools, such as a laminator, that she uses here, I suspect a somewhat similar look could be achieved by using a good-sized bee stamp, clear embossing ink, and a rich metallic gold embossing powder such as Princess Gold from Ranger.)

And from the same blog, I adore this post on How to Make DIY Spray Inks in Any Colour.

–Four Ways to Organize Your Sticker Addiction: This post is a few years old, but I just hit upon it this winter and felt that it would be right at home in the next edition of this link love series.

Sticker storage can often be a challenge for those of us who cannot get enough of this charming craft product. Yet finding effective ways to store our beloved stickers is often considerably trickier than amassing them in the first place.

In this post, the author weighs the pros and cons of four different approaches for storing planner-related stickers. However, these same ideas can easily translate into just about any kind of sticker your heart desires.

–Oh Romeo Mini Quilt: As I have mentioned a time or two before, I am not a quilter. However, I adore this awesome fabric craft all the same.

I find there are numerous similarities between quilting and papercrafting and am continually inspired by many different types of quilted projects.

Case in point, this fabulously creative “Oh Romeo Mini Quilt” is an enchanting fabric art ode to one of Shakespeare’s most beloved plays.  

–3-D Paper Eggs: Where would spring be without a bevy of eggs and all manner of craft + décor items depicting them?

Whether you are keen to ditch dyed eggs or would like a fun project to accompany that classic springtime act, this super easy-to-replicate tutorial guides you through how to make three-dimensional paper eggs that can be hung around your home for an extra sweet dose of seasonal cheer.

What’s Shaking in My Life and On My Radar

This winter passed, as they pretty much always do around these parts, in a flurry of snowflakes, bone-chilling temps, parkas, and warm woollen mittens.

Three cold snaps punctuated the already frozen air, though none saw the mercury drop below -30C/-22F.

Believe me when I say that by Canadian standards, that really isn’t too bad.

As I mentioned here a few blog posts ago, my sister contracted Covid this winter. Thankfully, she did not become extremely ill and/or require hospitalization. While she is still in the process of healing and regaining energy, I am grateful beyond measure to report that she is doing a fair bit better these days.

None of our other loved ones came down with Covid this winter (nor did Tony or I), which we are also endlessly thankful about. One can only speculate as to if that same statement can be made in another three months – let alone at the end of the year.

Also a few weeks ago, Tony and I received our booster shots (aka, our third vaccinations) and will continue to be the first in line for any future Covid vaccines that may be offered to the Canadian public.

Even though I personally think it is too soon to do so, earlier this week the BC provincial government rescinded the law mandating that masks be worn in most types of businesses and other enclosed public spaces.

I am starkly aware of the fact that a huge percentage of the population will, if not toss their masks away outright, then at least banish them to the back of the closet.

It is very easy to understand why and just as I have maintained since the get-go with the pandemic, to each their own when it comes to navigating the challenging waters of the Coronavirus.

Personally, however, as someone who is immune-compromised, I will continue to sport a mask to all the same types of places I have been doing so for the past couple of years. Far better to be safe than sorry.

With so much uncertainty in the world right now – and with the pandemic still going strong – we have not made much in the way of plans yet for the coming spring and summer months.

And after the especially brutal wildfire season that ravaged BC last year (it stands as one of the all-time worst on record here), we are already feeling a bit of trepidation regarding what the coming sizzling hot months may hold in store for our province this year.

Much as I wish with all my might that I could state the polar opposite, I do not have any positive updates regarding the serious and incredibly perplexing “new” medical issues that I have been battling since 2020.

Diagnoses are still proving wildly elusive, as is anything even approaching the degree of health care that I should be receiving to help get to the bottom of what on earth is impacting me.

I am no stranger (far from it!) to fighting tirelessly for diagnoses and the overall state of my health. I have been doing that for twenty, going on twenty-one years straight now.

Not, however, let me clarify, for most of these latest health issues themselves, but rather for just about all of my other chronic illnesses that preceded them.

Ever since these new medical challenges entered my life, at the start of each new season I find myself looking towards the end of it, hoping beyond measure that there will be some form of positive health-related changes by then. Some desperately needed help. Some sign that instead of continuing to worsen, things are stabilizing – or perhaps even showing a flicker of improvement.

And though my body and overall state of health continue to deteriorate and weaken further with each passing week, I am resolute in my hope and in my unceasing drive to get the medical answers, help, and treatment(s) that I NEED no matter how long I must battle for each one of those vital things.

On a far more upbeat note, the Spring Equinox is just two days away!

That day is when I will personally be observing the heart of the Ostara season. And while (as is often the case) I will do so in the company of lingering wintertime snow and ice, I am wonderfully excited to celebrate the newness, positivity, rebirth, and fresh possibilities that spring houses.

Then, come the first week of April, we will celebrate my mother’s birthday. I am hopeful that – after two years of not being able to safely do so – we can spend in person with her (just as we were able to do for my own b-day last summer).

I have said it before, but I will happily say it again: my mom’s birthday is akin to a second start of spring for me and always heralds the return of bloom, baby chick, and rainbow season all the more.

And speaking of my birthday, it is now less than four months away. A fact which I can scarcely believe!

First, though, we get to experience the beauty and wonder of spring, as the natural world breaks free of its lengthy wintertime hibernation and brightens our days both literally and figuratively in many enjoyable ways.

I have a lot of ideas for fun, informative, and inspiring blog posts here in the coming months – including, all things willing, a brand-new edition of the Cemetery Journeys post series that I launched here last year.

A number of you have emailed to ask me when that would be happening, so I am striving as hard as I can to get the next exciting journey up this spring.

And now, sweet dears, on with a smattering of assorted links that leapt out at me over the course of these past three snow-covered months.

–Emily Brontes’ Lost Second Novel: It is safe to say that Wuthering Heights stands as one of the best known and most beloved novels ever published.

Tragically, its author died young at the age of just thirty years old. Leaving, at the time, an unpublished second manuscript that we know with a good degree of certainty existed at one point, but which has sadly been long lost to the hands of time (or perhaps, as some strongly suspect destroyed by one of her sisters).

This engaging article takes a gander at Emily’s iconic inaugural novel, while also digging into the mystery surrounding what her second book may have been about as well as what fate might have befallen that now (presumably) long-lost second manuscript.

–11 Ways to Wear a Bat Bow: Whether you would only rock a bat bow in October or could easily – and gleefully – do so the whole year round, this charming post suggests eleven fun ways to inject some sartorial bat-themed goodness into your attire as often as your heart desires.  

–Goth Fast Fashion and Why It Isn’t Always a Good Thing: Regardless of your preferred personal style(s), this post – from Gothic Charm School author Jillian Venters – poses some insightful and important points that apply to a sizable percentage of clothing consumers in many parts of the world.

Fast fashion may be de rigueur in the sphere of 21st-century attire, but as Jillian wisely argues, it is often far from the choice we should be making – at least on a regular basis.

–Lost Women of Science Podcast: This recently launched podcast series (from New York Times reporter Katie Hafner) is on a mission to shine the very well-deserved spotlight on female scientists whose work, and in many cases, names, are little known despite the important contributions they made not only to the field, but to life on earth, point-blank.

The first scientist to be featured is Dorothy Andersen, a physician and pathologist who forever changed the lives of many people around the world when, in 1938, she discovered and defined cystic fibrosis.

As a passionate lover of science (and staunch advocate for women in STEM), I eagerly looking forward to seeing what other women will be featured in future editions of this much-needed podcast.  

–Metal Pens Pre-17^th Century: Much like the link pertaining to sticker organization shared above, this post has a few years under its belt.

It remains a gem all the same and, being a lifelong writer myself, I could not help but share it here – especially since the concept of metal pens is not something many of us associate with times preceding the Victorian era (let alone prior to the 1600s!).

As this article clearly demonstrates, however, they are invention that stretches centuries back in time prior to that point and which have been evolving for hundreds of years now.

–The Top Ten Strangest Snakes in The World: If you happen to have ophidiophobia, please be advised that chances are this link is not for you.

If, on the other hand, you are not afraid of snakes and would like to learn more about some of the most unique and (often) rarest of our slithering reptile friends, read on a very cool selection of ten unforgettable types of serpents.

–Metal Pens Pre-17^th Century: Much like the link pertaining to sticker organization shared above, this post has a few years under its belt.

It remains a gem all the same, and as a writer myself, I could not help but share it here – especially since the concept of metal pens is not something many of us associate with times preceding the Victorian era (let alone prior to the 1600s!).

As this article clearly demonstrates, however, they are an invention that stretches centuries back in time prior to that point and which has been evolving for hundreds of years now.

–Toronto Based Startup is Combatting Deforestation with Tree Planting Drones: There is no denying the profound importance of reforestation in the battle against the ever more alarming climate crisis that our planet is besieged with these days.

While there are various ways to plant and grow new trees, few are as innovative or original as that from Canadian Flash Forest, which is using drones to plant new trees.

How many trees, you may ask? At the time this article was written last year, no less than 300,000 seed pods had been dropped across specific parts of Canada.

One can only wonder how high that total will continue to climb – and hope, all the while, that this clever technique rapidly catches on around the globe.

Bonus link: Last October I shared a post here called 13 Awesome Cemetery Focused Blogs Every Taphophile Should Be Following.

In that post, one of the blogs that I featured was of renowned author Loren Rhodes, whose work spans both the fiction and nonfiction spheres.

Those who enjoy books pertaining to taphophilia-related topics may be familiar with Rhodes’ work, including her wonderful books 199 Cemeteries to See Before Your Die and This Morbid Life: Essays.

Thanks to that post, Loren and I connected for the first time ever and have remained in touch since (which is the coolest thing in – pun fully intended – my books, as I have been a big fan of her work for quite some time now).

Loren emailed me a few days ago to share that she would be launching a Kickstarter campaign (which is now live) to help back her newest release: Death’s Garden Revisited: Relationships with Cemeteries.

The title brings together personal reflections from numerous people around the world who have strong connections (for a myriad of different reasons) to cemeteries.

As a passionate taphophile who finds few experiences in life more enjoyable, spiritually fulfilling, and inspiring than visiting cemeteries, you can imagine how delighted I was to learn about Loren’s latest writing project.

Whether you enjoy genealogy, history, the art and design of cemeteries, or just about anything else pertaining to burial grounds, this book is apt to be right up your alley.

If you would like to help bring Death’s Garden Revisited to the point of publication, I encourage you to please consider donating to Loren’s Kickstarter campaign.

Hold Fast to Dreams

Though it has only been three short months since the Autumn 2021 edition of this post series appeared, for reasons both global and personal, it feels more like two years have elapsed between now and when we said farewell to fall.

Exceedingly few amongst us could have predicted when this winter began that less than a single season later, the world would be rocked once again by an unthinkable tragedy of epic proportion.

That is what has happened though and as with everything that leaves a stamp in indelible ink upon human history, we as a species will be forever impacted by the war in Ukraine.

Assuming, that is, that our species is able to keep going beyond the current generation.

I am nothing if not an optimist, but I am also the poster child for realists everywhere.

Since my early youth, I have studied the first two world wars to a degree that I cannot even begin to measure.

My eyes have taken in hundreds, if not thousands, of books and hours of programming alike pertaining to these world-altering conflicts – especially WW2 and the holocaust.

Beyond those two massive conflicts, I have been drawn to studying and trying to make sense of war, famine, genocide and other forms of the worst possible things human beings can do to one another for as far back as I can recall.

Everything that I have learned, viewed through lenses both philosophical and pragmatic, and laid awake at night thinking about, currently braces me for even more brutal days ahead.

Just like the citizens of Ukraine and countless others around the globe, I hold tight to the belief that the guns will be silenced, the bombs returned to their hiding places, and that the carnage and devastation will end before we as a collective whole do things from which there is no coming back.

As a young girl, one of the first pieces of poetry that I remember learning by heart in school was Dreams by the wonderful American poet, Langston Hughes. It goes as follows:

Hold fast to dreams 
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.

Some thirty years on from when I committed those poignant and powerful lines to memory, they remain with me verbatim.

As I lay my head down to sleep each night and again when that ever-brighter dawn wrestles me from slumber, I find Hughes’s words echoing through my thoughts.

They live in my heart and will remain there for as long as it continues to beat.

The dream, in this instance, is one of unwavering hope for an end to the war in Ukraine, the suffering on both sides, and the ability for the survivors to be able to one day piece their shattered lives back together again.

Their futures will not be the same ones that lay before them a few agonizingly short weeks ago, but there is still hope and the prospect of some sort of stability again.

We, as a planet, did in 1918 and again in 1945. Now, before WW3 truly does erupt, let’s stop this madness and do it again in the spring of 2022.

The very fate of the world may be riding on it.

As we look towards the coming season – be it spring on this side of the equator of my beloved autumn for those south of it – there are not words enough to convey how much I hope that you are able to have a safe season wherever you call home.

My deepest wishes for wellness, happiness, and peace to each of you, cherished friends – and to everyone who calls this remarkable planet of ours home.

The post Winter 2022 Edition of Magick, Crafty Makes, and Me appeared first on Witchcrafted Life.

The inaugural post took an in-depth look at Kelowna Memorial Park Cemetery. It also delved the history of Kelowna itself, as well as that of cemeteries as a whole in Western Canada.

If you are unfamiliar with the history of non-First Nations burial grounds in this part of the world, I highly encourage you check out that post. The information it contains is applicable to many different cemeteries from around these Canadian parts and will continue to apply to most (if not all of) the various entries that this post series will house.

Despite the various challenges both of the ongoing pandemic and those that have been present in my own life throughout 2021, I am delighted to say that I’ve had a chance to visit a few different cemeteries this year (some, even, for the very first time ).

The respite, happiness, serenity, spiritual connections, education, and enjoyment alike that each visit brings my taphophilia adoring soul knows no bounds.

As Tony – bless his caring heart knows – there are few more effective ways to bolster my mood and help set my world right again (or at least temporarily suspend some of my worries and stresses) than time spent at a burial ground.

Knowing this, when I’m really struggling, worried, fighting extra hard on the physical or mental health front, or otherwise in need of a pick-me-up, he often drives me to various cemeteries throughout our region. The time that I spend at them never fails to help ground me and lift my spirits (pun mildly intended, sentiment no less sincere).

Naturally, I often visit cemeteries when things are not as rough as well. The same benefits still come my way in spades and are no less appreciated whether I’m on cloud nine, hovering above rock bottom, or anywhere in between.

It means the world to me that Tony understands how much visiting cemeteries means to me and the powerfully helpful impact that doing so can have on my health, well-being, and spirituality alike.

Awesomely, he also really enjoys spending time at and photographing burial grounds. Thus, our visits to such locations are frequently ones we savour side-by-side. Making the experience all the more enjoyable and memorable for both of us.

Our springtime jaunt to Kelowna took us an hour south of our wee town of Armstrong. In the second of our cemetery journeys, we’ll be heading about half an hour north to explore the serenely beautiful Mt. Ida Cemetery in Salmon Arm, British Columbia.

But first, let’s get to know this sun-kissed, Shuswap Lake-filled corner of BC – which has been a tourist hotspot for many decades now – a bit better.

A very brief history of Salmon Arm, British Columbia

To those unfamiliar with Salmon Arm, its name may, understandably, raise an eyebrow or two.

After all, salmon, like fish in general, do not have arms.

Lest you think that some sort of Blinky-worthy salmon plies the waters of this province, let me assure you that the name Salmon Arm has nothing to do with appendages on fish.

Instead, it pertains to the fact that the large body of water called Shuswap Lake that Salmon Arm is located alongside has four “arms” (they are Shuswap Arm, Seymour Arm, Anstey Arm, and Salmon Arm, respectively). Each of which, historically, experienced large runs of salmon that used to fill the creeks that empty into Shuswap Lake.

This lake – one of the loveliest and most visited in the province – drains, via Little Shuswap River, into a smaller body of water called Little Shuswap Lake.

Fascinatingly, Little Shuswap Lake is the source of the South Thompson River, which is a branch of the Thompson River – itself a tributary of that lengthy, serpentine body of water that flows throughout a long swath of British Columbia, the majestic Fraser River.

The word “Shuswap” stems from the Shuswap or Secwepemc First Nations People, who are the most northerly of the Interior Salish Peoples. In their own language, the Shuswap call themselves ʃǝxwépmǝx.

Salmon Arm is located in the Shuswap Regional District of the Southern Interior region of British Columbia. Though established as a town more than a century prior, it was not until 2005 that Salmon Arm officially became a city.

Do keep in mind, my dear readers, that the term “city” is used somewhat generously here throughout Canada. With a 2016 population of just over 17,700 inhabitants, Salmon Arm won’t exactly be vying on the population front with places such as Tokyo, New York, San Paulo, Cairo, or Moscow anytime soon.

Nevertheless, a city Salmon Arm is all the same and its modest population size only helps to add to the small-town charm of this gorgeous location.

In the 19^th and early 20^th centuries, British Columbia was awash with metal rushes, particularly those pertaining to silver and gold.

The importance of these events, the throngs of prospectors and other people they brought to British Columbia, and the towns that they helped to establish all contributed greatly to the present-day population and layout alike of this province.

In the mid-1860s, the Big Bend Gold Rush along the hefty Columbia River saw an influx of prospectors traversing the interior of BC, some of whom journeyed through the Shuswap region.

The general area was noted by famed explorer David Thompson a few decades prior however, when in 1815 he recorded a lake called “Shuswap” in his travel writings.

The first non-indegious peoples exploration started in earnest throughout the area in the mid-19^th century.

In 1880s, the Canadian Pacific Railway surveyed this corner of the province. In due course, track was laid and gradually settlement sprung up in the area throughout that decade and ever onward.

As one might imagine, the first corners of the Shuswap region that were settled housed the greatest potential as agricultural centres, as well as being both accessible and logical as routes in and out of the community.

The District Municipality of Salmon Arm was officially incorporated in 1905 and though it would, for a time during the mid-20^th century be classified as a village again, it did not take long for the municipality status to return in 1970.

Throughout the first years of the 20^th century, Salmon Arm established a well-deserved reputation as being an excellent producer of various types of fruit – particularly apples, pears, and plums.

This orchard industry helped the budding community to grow all the more and, in the process, made it a hub of both the immediate area and of this general region of the province as a whole.

No single individual or group was solely responsible for the creation and expansion of Salmon Arm and its smaller surrounding communities (such as Westwold, Coldstream, and Enderby).

Naturally, as with most communities, various early settlers left important marks on the area and some of their names are still familiar to many locals and those with an interest in BC’s history to this day.

Amongst this group of pioneers, settlers, prospectors, entrepreneurs and others one finds individuals such as overlander Alexander Leslie Fortune.

Mr. Fortune pre-empted some land that now sits slightly south of the present-day community of Enderby – which, at the time, was called Fortune’s Landing after Alexander himself.

Prior to coming west, Fortune married a woman named Bathia Ross and the two remained wed during the twelve – yes, you read that right, twelve – long years that he was out west and she was back east in Lancaster, Ontario.

Once reunited in person, the two lived in the North Okanagan-Shuswap area for decades, where they were well known for their kindness, hospitality, generosity, and civic-mindedness.

Their important contributions to the development of this part of the province and their surname alike continue to reverberate through various corners of the region, including in the name of Fortune Creek, which runs between Enderby and Armstrong.

In 1885, during the construction of the local railway (which was completed the following year), a brewery and gambling house called Dutch Charlie’s opened its doors. That same year, the first house in Salmon Arm was built by a German settler on what is today Beatty Street.

Dutch Charlie’s would be a relatively short-lived operation, however, with provincial police shutting it down in 1890 after an unsolved murder occurred on the premise.

In 1907, the first local newspaper – The Salmon Arm Observer – went into production. It remains in operation, including in digital form, to this day.

The Shuswap District (aka, Shuswap Region) sits immediately atop the Okanagan Region and to the East of the Thompson-Nicola District (in which one finds the city of Kamloops, which, with a population just shy of 100,000 inhabitants, is the province’s 12^th largest municipality).

Much as with Okanagan Lake to the south, Shuswap Lake experienced a good deal of travel via boat, with the S.S. Marten (a Hudson’s Bay Company-operated steamer) being the first commercial boat to set sail on the sparkling waters of this lake.

This occurred back in 1866 and while Shuswap Lake have not been used as a primary means of transportation or commerce in the area for a number of decades now, it is still enjoyed by many pleasure crafters, swimmers, kayakers, paddleboarders, and others every year.

Salmon Arm has experienced continued population and industry expansion for many years now. As the largest community in the Shuswap region (and one that is situated on the majestic 89 kilometre/55 mile long Shuswap Lake), it is no surprise that tourists and those looking to relocate to the area flock to this picturesque corner of BC.

These days, Salmon Arm’s economy is guided by numerous sources, including tourism, lumber (sawmills have operated in the area since the late Victorian era), dairy farming, orchards, and manufacturing.

Visitors and residents alike enjoy the beaches, walking paths, and other amenities offered by Shuswap Lake, as well as the city’s museums (including the wonderful RJ Haney Heritage Park & Museum, which I’ve shared photos of over the years on my Instagram account), art gallery, local theatre group, assortment of both chain and independently operated shops, and the stunning outdoor scenery that surrounds and fills the town.

Salmon Arm is flanked by numerous lofty hills and mountains, and it is from one of the latter that the city’s primary burial ground, Mt. Ida Cemetery, takes its name.

Mt. Ida Cemetery in Salmon Arm

British Columbia’s cemeteries might not be the oldest in the world, but they must surely be amongst the most picturesque and peaceful.

A good many were built in areas that remain rich with breathtaking natural scenery to this day. Abundant trees, small hills, wildflowers and other natural charms often share space with gravestones whose dates span a century or more at this point.

This is precisely the case when it comes to Salmon Arm’s oldest and largest burial ground: Mt. Ida Cemetery.

This idyllically pretty Shuswap District cemetery is located at 2290 Foothill Road SW, Salmon Arm, British Columbia.

It is open between 7 am and 8 pm daily, year-round.

Mt. Ida, the actual mountain, is believed to have been named in the 1870s (possibly by a Mr. J. Richardson) after Mount Ida on the island of Crete.

It should be noted that Mt. Ida in Salmon Arm, BC, is not related to the identically named Mt. Ida that is located in Kakwa Provincial Park, BC. The latter of which, at an impressive 3,192 metres tall and boasting a classic pyramidal shape, more than earns its nickname as the Matterhorn of the North.

In addition, it is important to remember that Mt. Ida is the name that the mountain in the Shuswap was given by white settlers. In the language of the local First Nations Peoples, this hill is known as Kela7scen, and it is considered a sacred site to indigenous communities of this area.

As a population began to be established in Salmon Arm and its smaller satellite communities, a cemetery naturally became a needed element of the township.

Once a suitable location was determined on the (then) outskirts of town, Mt. Ida Cemetery was opened and saw its first burial in 1894.

Two years after passing away from tuberculous at the age of just 26, Mr. Charles McGuire was reinterred at the Mt. Ida Cemetery. He was the son of Sarah Agnes and Alexander McGuire, two of the area’s earliest non-First Nations inhabitants.

After its closure as a public house, it was Charles McGuire who helped to turn Dutch Charlie’s into a locl trading post, all the while working to secure the burgeoning community’s mail contract.

The family’s name lives on in the area to this day via McGuire Lake and the adjacent McGuire Lake Park in Salmon Arm.

At the time of its opening, Mt. Ida Cemetery was a modest one acre of land that had been purchased by the local Methodist community with the (presumed) aim of it being a Methodist focused burial ground.

The Salmon Arm Reporter tells us that in 1909, ownership of Mt. Ida Cemetery was transferred to the municipality of Salmon Arm, under whose care it has remained ever since.  

As one might expect, a fair number of the area’s first settlers and some of their descents have been laid to rest in Mt. Ida Cemetery over the years.

The earliest sections of the cemetery are now more than 125 years old and numerous headstones exist there which date from the 1890s, 1900s, 1910s, and 1920s. With continued burials from that point onward to the present day occuring throughout the grounds of this cemetery.

While the whole of Mt. Ida Cemetery is now considerably larger than its single acre beginnings, it is not so huge or challenging to traverse that one cannot explore the whole of it in a single outing – time, weather, and other circumstances permitting, of course.

The Old Section of the cemetery, as the original section is known by locals, includes a captivating array of grave markers and headstones.

These include such styles as tabletop markers, tablet stones, set-ins, ledgers, obelisks, urns, open books, lambs and doves (typically used for those who passed away at a very young age), and numerous sizes and types of crosses, including Celtic crosses.

This portion of Mt. Ida Cemetery is located on a tranquil grass knoll that basks in the refreshing shade and beauty of numerous maple trees, all of which reside at the foothills, so to speak, of Mt. Ida itself.

In addition to those of Northern and Central European ancestry, amongst Mt. Ida’s earliest residents, one finds members of the Chinese Canadian community as well. Later interments include those from many different parts of the world and numerous grave markers appear in languages other than English.

Mt. Ida Cemetery is maintained by the city of Salmon Arm and like many Canadian burial grounds, includes a section specifically for members of the Canadian Armed Forces.

In addition, a touchingly lovely memorial cairn has been placed to the right of this section of the cemetery with small plaques bearing the names of fifty local veterans.

According to the Findagrave.com entry from Mt. Ida Cemetery, as of the time this post is being written (in November 2021), there are approximately 5,302 memorials on the premise. A space that sprawls across about 110 acres, only nine of which have been deemed suitable for internment usage.

Annually, about 75 to 80 new individuals are being housed at Mt. Ida Cemetery.

In addition to in-ground burials, the city of Salmon Arm recently put installed a new 24-unit columbarium for cremation internments.

Interestingly, as Mt. Ida Cemetery is now nearing the maximum number of burials that are permitted in the suitable ground that is available, the city has obtained a new piece of land and is developing the Shuswap Memorial Cemetery on it.

This newly constructed 25-acre cemetery is located at the southeast end of Salmon Arm at 2700 20th Avenue SE. It provides grave plots, scattering gardens, family vessels, and columbariums.

A peaceful early autumn visit to Mt. Ida Cemetery

In the first days of this fall, Tony and I decided to take a late afternoon drive up to Salmon Arm.

More than a year had passed since we had last stopped in to visit Mt. Ida Cemetery while in Salmon Arm and the start of what is both of our favourite season seemed like an ideal time to do so again.

While I have photographed parts of Mt. Ida Cemetery on previous visits, I’ve not yet shared many (if any) of those images publicly (though hope to do so as time goes on).

All of the images of Mt. Ida Cemetery housed in this blog post were taken by me with my iPhone in September 2021.

The day we were there was chillier than one might expect for the very start of autumn and rain had fallen prior to our arrival at the cemetery.

A few brief spits tumbled down while we were there, too, but not enough to send us fleeing for the car.

The sky overhead summersaulted between hues and intensity of light. One moment it was a mix of dusty periwinkle and aged sand, the next glisteningly blue, and the next still as grey as the antique headstones that dot the property itself.

All around us, the many trees, shrubs, and other greenery of Mt. Ida Cemetery were embracing the current season and glowing resplendently in their early fall colours.

Much of the earth and bark mulch at Mt. Ida has a warm, naturally reddish-brown colour to it which was brought to the fore all the more by the damp conditions and accompanying fall foliage.

I will happily visit a cemetery at any point in the year, but especially welcome the opportunity to do so during the autumn months.

Not only does the local landscape stand to be awe-inspiringly gorgeous, but the powerful connection between the departed and the weeks that span the Pagan sabbats of Mabon and Samhain provide an even greater spiritual connection, as the veil thins to its most gossamer point in the year.

On this visit, knowing that I would be blogging about the history of Mt. Ida Cemetery, I was keen to cover as much ground there as I realistically could before the day’s light gave up the ghost.

While, interestingly, I did not spy Charles McGuire’s headstone (I will be keeping an eye out for it on future visits), I did have the pleasure of documenting many other early grave markers belonging to some of the area’s first settlers.

When visiting a cemetery, my interest and focus generally lies with pre-circa 1960s inhabitents. However, I make a point of exploring as much of a given burial ground as I possibly can. And, in the process, reflecting on and paying my respects to both the more recently departed and those who have been laid to rest for a good many years now.

If you are planning a visit to Mt. Ida Cemetery in Salmon Arm, BC, and wish to explore it thoroughly, I would suggest allotting anywhere from 2 to 4+ hours to do so.

Having been there before, I had a lay of the land already (including knowing where the Old Section is located) and that helped to save time.

There are no washrooms on premise (objectively, few cemeteries I have ever been to included public washrooms), however, there are a small number of benches around the property if you wish or need to stop and get off your feet for a while.

The terraian is a mix of unpaved and paved paths, as well as ample grass and bare soil covered ground.

If you visit from about May to mid-September (or later still if it is an especially warm autumn), please note that the mosquitoes on the property can be brutally thick.

A previous summertime visit saw me inundated by more mosquitoes than at almost any other time and place in my entire life.

All that to say, if you pop by Mt. Ida during the warmer months, use bug spray and wear clothing that covers as much of your body as possible.

Much to our delight and relief, nary a single mosquito was spotted while we were there at the start of this autumn.

As well, once the snowy season returns it becomes trickier to traverse the whole of the cemetery on foot unless one is sporting suitable wintertime footwear, such as snow boots or even snowshoes.

However, that said, the paved and unpaved pathways (some of which cars are permitted to drive on) should be a bit easier to tackle even in the snow.

Given its relatively close proximity to our house, the fairly large number of interments, and the rich history that this burial ground contains, it is safe to say that will continue to visit Mt. Ida Cemetery from time to time.

Especially during the fall months, when this historic Shuswap District cemetery presents a celebration of both departed human lives and the last days of the year’s mesmerizing foliage.

Have you ever visited Salmon Arm’s Mt. Ida Cemetery? Which of the grave markers featured in this post sparked your interest the most?

Explore additional burial grounds that have been visited in the Cemetery Journeys post series:

–Kelowna Memorial Park Cemetery, Kelowna, British Columbia

The post Cemetery Journeys: Enjoying Early Autumn at Mt. Ida Cemetery in Salmon Arm, BC appeared first on Witchcrafted Life.

Halloween and Samhain are mere days away – a point that makes this autumn adoring witch immeasurably happy.

As a season that is inherently connected to themes of harvesting, change, endings, and death, it is no surprise that autumn – and in particular, October – is inextricably linked with cemeteries and graveyards.

Plenty of these are rendered in decoration form during the spooky season and they can be a wonderfully hair-raising thrill to experience.

However, the real deal was the original deal, so to speak, and it is this type of burial ground that we’ll be focusing on in today’s post.

Whether you are a fellow taphophile (if this term is new to you, be sure to check out my in-depth post, What Is Taphophilia? Exploring the Fascinating Subject of Grave Hunting) or simply someone who enjoys visiting cemeteries and graveyards, these hallowed spots are a nearly universal element of the human experience and one that provides no shortage of interest and inspiration to many.

So much so, in fact, that numerous folks over the years have opted to create whole websites and blogs devoted to subjects such as cemeteries, graveyards, headstones, funerals, burials (including the green burials), and death positivity.  

Enmeshed as we currently are in the heart of All Hallows’ season, with that most liminal of days (Samhain/Halloween) rounding the bend again, I thought now would be an excellent time to share a selection of cemetery focused blogs with you.

These sites are chocked full of lovely photographs, fascinating history, passionate writing, and ample inspiration for taphophiles, history buffs, genealogists, and many others who enjoy visiting and/or learning about cemeteries and the souls who were laid to rest there.

It is my pleasure to bring you a list of 13 awesome cemetery focused blogs that every taphophile should be following.

As quite possibly the least pushy person or bossy person ever, please note that I use the word “should” very lightly here. Consider it a suggestion to do so if these kinds of blogs appeal to you, not an order by any means.

13 wonderful cemetery blogs for taphophiles and graveyard fans everywhere

Adventures in Cemetery Hopping

Founded at the start of 2013 by Traci Rylands, Adventures in Cemetery Hopping houses a large number of posts devoted to – as you likely guessed from its name – cemeteries.

Traci’s photo-rich posts feature an array of different US cemeteries, often with a focus on one or more particular grave(s) at a specific burial ground (including, in some instances, those of celebrities).

If you’re an armchair cemetery traveller, settle in, clear your schedule for a few hours, and get lost in the informative and highly engaging burial grounds Traci treats her readers to every month.

A Grave Announcement

The introductory slogan of A Grave Announcement is “Unearthing the Lives of the Dead”. Much to the delight of cemetery and history enthusiasts everywhere, this blog lives up to that tagline in spades.

It is a deeply engaging site that takes an in-depth, well-researched look at the lives of various deceased individuals and the final resting places they now call home.

Billion Graves

The blog Billion Graves (which is the companion blog to the well-known and very popular website, BillionGrave.com) not only discusses burial grounds, but also takes a look at other areas pertaining to death, mourning, internment, and genealogy.

From Victorian Mourning Clothes (another favourite subject of mine) to Native American Burial Rites, this website does an excellent and respectful job of detailing the past and present history of death, mourning, and remembrance.

Canadian Cemetery History (blog)

As you will have no doubt deduced from the name of this blog, Canadian Cemetery History is a site devoted to documenting the history of various Canadian burial grounds (with an emphasis on those in Ontario).

As a born and raised Canadian who just happens to be a passionate taphophile, it’s safe to say that it was love at first sight for me when I hit upon this blog.

One need not be a fellow canuck to enjoy Canadian Cemetery History, however. Its content is thoroughly interesting, richly informative, and accompanied by no shortage of photos from each cemetery featured. If the subject of burial grounds in general interests you, this blog is apt to be right up your alley.

Cemetery Club

On the Cemetery Club’s about page, blog author Sheldon K. Goodman states that “Burial Grounds are like libraries – admittedly, libraries of the dead”. I adore – and very much agree with – this insightful comparison and feel it does a terrific job of capturing the spirit and care that goes into each insightful British history and photo-filled entry housed on Cemetry Club.

Cemetery Photography by Chantal Larochelle

You know that feeling when you hit upon a blog and instantly feel like, if you had the pleasure of meeting them, you’d likely be fast friends with the soul behind that site? In my case, I got that sense the moment I discovered the site Cemetery Photography by Chantal Larochelle.

A fellow Canadian with a keen interest in photographing cemeteries (something I adore doing as well, as you may have spotted both here and on my Instagram), Chantal skillfully captures the soulful beauty of cemeteries and the headstones they house.

Her lovely images are accompanied by blog posts that span a wide array of not only cemetery locations, but also topics pertaining to various death and burial ground-related matters (for example, cemetery etiquette).

Cemetery Travel

One of the best-known and longest-standing blogs in the wee world that is the burial ground blogosphere, Cemetery Travel is a taphophile’s dream site.

The creation of author Loren Rhoads (whose excellent books Wish You Were Here: Adventures in Cemetery Travel and 199 Cemeteries to See Before You Die are must-reads for grave hunters and history buffs everywhere), this splendid site showcases and discusses dozens of different cemeteries around the world, each accompanied by photos and enjoyable insights on these locations.

Loren’s posts – just like her books – are engaging, informative, and always a great read.

Goth Gardening

For several years now, I have had the pleasure of engaging online via our respective blogs (starting my now long retired vintage fashion blog) with the sweet soul behind Goth Gardening. Her blog, while not exclusively related to cemetery topics, covers this subject extensively and she is a passionate fellow taphophile all the way!

I adore the thought and research that the Goth Gardener pours into her entries, just as I do the emphasis she places on highlighting the lives and ensuing deaths of females across the ages.

Presently, she is penning a book related to that important topic, which is provisionally titled Women Writers Buried in Virginia Cemeteries. I’m sure it will be a fantastic and highly informative read, just as her blog posts themselves are.

Graveyards of Scotland

To date, I have not had the pleasure of setting foot on Scottish soil. This country has, however, captured my heart and imagination for as far back and I can recall. Visiting its ancient soil is a travel dream I dearly hope can come to fruition one day.

In the meantime, I am clocking many an armchair traveller frequent flyer mile via the fantastic blog, Graveyards of Scotland.

On this engaging site, one is treated to a treasure trove of beautiful photographs detailing various parts of Scotland (many a gravesite included) and accompanying posts that are every bit as lovely. If you have even so much as a faint interest in Scotland, I cannot recommend this blog highly enough.

The Cemetery Traveller

Passion and research go hand-in-hand on The Cemetery Traveler blog, which is choc-a-block with posts devoted to various American cemeteries.

Run by Ed Synder, this site has been bringing the web and world at large high-quality cemetery content (some of which Ed has compiled in a self-published book, The Cemetery Traveler) for more than a decade now and is sure to appeal to taphophiles and history fans both inside and out of the States.

The Graveyard Detective

Another long-time leading light in the world of cemetery blogs, The Graveyard Detective honours the departed with compassionate explorations into the lives and final resting places of those interred at various British cemeteries. Readers with an interest in war history will appreciate the attention paid to victims of 20th-century battles, such as WWI.

The Jolly Taphophile

Being such a young province in terms of non-First Nations inhabitants, a fair number of British Columbia’s burial grounds are pioneer cemeteries, housing the remains of some of the province’s 19th and early 20th century residents.

As a result of having lived in BC for much of my life, I have a soft spot for pioneer cemeteries and adore the fact that Sharon, the Canadian blogger (and fellow death positive taphophile) behind The Jolly Taphophile, shares this interest.

Her site, which has been going strong since 2010, teems with visits to various older cemeteries and explorations into their history. Many of these entries star a video from her enjoyable YouTube channel, Amongst the Headstones.

The London Dead

In a city with some of the world’s most beautiful, historically rich, and well-known burial grounds, it’s no surprise that a fellow cemetery fan decided to start a blog devoted to London’s cemeteries. That is precisely what Mr. David Bingham has done with The London Dead.

This site explores the fascinating history of London’s cemeteries, crypts, and churchyards (with travel posts to additional destinations). If your heart beats extra fast for ornate, elegant yesteryear European cemeteries, this is the blog for you!

(Please, do note that some of the posts on The London Dead are NSFW and definitely not for young eyes either due to the adult content they contain.)

_{(The images above all hail from, and are the respective property of, the blogs that they are linked back to.)}

Additional blogs and websites about cemeteries

Honourable mention, as it is not strictly a cemetery blog, goes to The Irish Aesthete.

This instantly captivating blog shines the spotlight on the history of Ireland in an articulate, accessible manner that will have you reading for hours.

Amongst the content shared, you’ll find a slew of wonderful posts pertaining to graveyards and cemeteries around Ireland (which, as someone who lived in the Emerland Isle during my very early 20s, I can attest are, unto themselves, well worth booking a flight to Ireland to see in person).

Likewise, you may adore the sites Grave Photography (which was last updated in 2016) and Taphophile Tragics (last updated in 2012), both of which were/are cemetery-focused blogs.

The fact that neither has been updated in a few years excluded them from the list above, which focuses on active blogs. However, as their content is the bee’s knees, I definitely wanted to mention them here all the same.

As well, on top of the sites listed above, various cemeteries – for example, the Lauren Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia and Forest Lawn Cemetery in New York state, respectively – maintain fascinating and informative blogs of their own.

You may want to look up cemeteries in your area, those you visit while travelling, or which you otherwise have a keen interest in to see if they currently have a blog you could follow.

In addition, as you might imagine, there are various blogs and websites that pertain to other and/or additional elements of taphophilia. For example, areas such as the funeral industry (e.g., Funeral One), exploring historical churches (e.g., My Church Adventures), death positivity (e.g., The Order of the Good Death), and the experience of death/grieving (e.g., The Amateur’s Guide to Death and Dying).

Such websites could easily make for a blog post all their own, so if that is something you are interested in seeing here, please do not hesitate to let me know in the comments below.

Passion with multiple purposes

For many who deeply appreciate cemeteries and other taphophilia-related topics, documenting and discussing burial grounds goes far beyond elements such as the beautiful aesthetics of burial grounds.

Each of us has a unique and highly personal relationship with the subject and complexities of death.

Birth and death are set in stone for every last one of us who has ever lived. Some people are completely at ease discussing, thinking about, and focusing on topics pertaining to dying and death, others are less comfortable (understandably) with these subjects. In turn, they may not be big fans of visiting cemeteries unless required to do so for funerals or to visit deceased loved ones.

There is no right or wrong way to have a relationship with death. It is, after all, the greatest unknown.

We have theories, scientific viewpoints, religious and spiritual interpretations, and ideas of what may lay on the other side of the veil. Ultimately though (no matter how sure you may be about your beliefs, experiences, and convictions), until we breathe our last, none of us can say with absolute certainty what lies beyond.

Graveyards and cemeteries invite us to explore the subject of our mortality, as well as that of those who have gone before us.

Burial grounds remind us of both the fragility and strength of life, of the cyclical nature of existence (as we are all, to paraphrase Carl Sagan, the stuff of stardust), of loss and grief, and of celebrating the miracle of life while we’re still fortunate to be here.

Most people with a deeply seated interest in subjects pertaining to cemeteries and death have a great reverence for the departed and the sacred spaces we as a species have chosen to place many of deceased in.

Cemetery-focused blogs (as well as social media accounts on the subject) provide insight, inspiration, and information alike to those who are drawn to the subject of death for whatever reason.

I respect each of the bloggers above and really appreciate the time, effort, and passion that they pour into their captivating websites.

Much as with visiting a physical cemetery itself, these blogs are able to evoke a multitude of thoughts and feelings in their viewers, document history in the process, and remind us in a supportive way that one day we too pass on into the great beyond.

Hopefully, of course, that won’t be happening anytime soon for most of us! And while we’re still getting our mortal groove on, we can appreciate, learn from, and be inspired by cemeteries and numerous wonderful blogs devoted to burial grounds around the world.

Do you follow cemetery related blogs? What was the last cemetery or graveyard that you visited in person?

The post 13 Awesome Cemetery Focused Blogs Every Taphophile Should Be Following appeared first on Witchcrafted Life.

Cemeteries and graveyards in some parts of the world have been closed to the general public during these highly challenging times, but many have remained open – frequently with Covid safety measures in place.

As a passionate taphophile, I have been visiting cemeteries since my youth. These sacred spots of eternal slumber are amongst the most serene, comforting, enjoyable, inspiring, and beautiful I have ever known.

Another irony is that cemeteries often make me feel more alive. They conjure all manner of thoughts and emotions pertaining to death, as well as to the gift of life.

Cemeteries are not amusement parks, and while there is no shame at all in feeling happy or content at a cemetery, it is important to always remember the somberness and loss they signify for many on this side of the veil who have endured the passing of a loved one.

When I spend time at a cemetery, I make a point to reflect not only on the lives of those interred there, but also on the impact their passing may have had on those who knew and cared about them.

Not everyone who dies is buried or interred in a cemetery or graveyard. Yet, no matter our final resting place, we are all connected from the very first human to the last who will ever exist by the unifying certainty that is death.

Visiting cemeteries outside of reasons such as funerals, genealogical or historical research is not everyone’s cup of tea.

I acknowledge and respect this fact. We are each different, each called to by various places and passions throughout our life.

Whether you define yourself as a taphophile or not, if you have even an inkling of an interest in graveyards, cemeteries, and the like, I hope will enjoy a new periodically occurring post series here in which I take you along with me as I explore (and sometimes reexplore) cemeteries that I have visited in person.

I am dubbing this post series “Cemetery Journeys”.

This name is both literal in the sense of that it will document trips/journeys to various cemeteries around Canada (and who knows, perhaps further afield, too ), as well as being a respectful homage to the fact that, ultimately, we are all on a journey to the grave.

Launching a series like this is something I have been keen to do since Witchcrafted Life began last year.

Now (with the first harvest sabbat of Lammas under our belts and the exciting journey towards fall, Mabon, and Samhain upon us) seemed like the ideal time to do so. And what better cemetery to begin with than one from our very own region of British Columbia: the Kelowna Memorial Park Cemetery.

But first…

An extremely brief history of Kelowna, British Columbia

As the largest city in this province outside of the Lower Mainland area of British Columbia, it is only natural that Kelowna serves as a hub for the valley – called the Okanagan Valley – in which it resides. Doing so, quite conveniently, in the center of this region.

Many thousands of years before the earliest Europeans set foot on the arid soil of the sun-drenched Okanagan Valley, the area was inhabited by the Sylix/Okanagan People.

This part of BC was not entirely unknown to Europeans – chiefly those involved with the fur trade in Western Canada –  in the 18^th and early 19^th centuries. However, it was not until 1859 that the first non-First Nations settlement was established in Kelowna.

This effort was led by a man whose name is now embedded in the area and who is still spoken of affectionately to this day by generations who never got the chance to met him: Father Pandosy.

Two other Oblate missionaries, Father Richard and Brother Surel, respectively, also had key roles in establishing a mission in what would one day become the city of Kelowna.

The formation of this mission helped to entice settlers from elsewhere in the province, country, and further afield to the budding community. Following that, it wasn’t too long before Kelowna’s roots as a city were firmly planted.

As the century began to tapper, Kelowna got a further boon when in 1893 the Governor-General of Canada, Lord Aberdeen, purchased a substantial amount of land in the area. Much of this land would be used for orchards, which did a great deal to bolster the area’s economy (the Okanagan Valley in general is one of North America’s largest fruit and viticulture growing centers).

As the 20^th century emerged, Kelowna’s population continued to be on the smaller side of things, sitting at about 600 inhabitants. However, that was still enough to land Kelowna status as a city in 1905.

The name Kelowna derives from an Okanagan First Nation word for grizzly bear. A majestic creature that feels like an especially fitting animal to associate with a city nestled in the heart of a wild, desert-like landscape that is famed for its breathtaking nature beauty.In the days before roads, highways, and even railways, snaked their way to the Okanagan, much of the traffic to and from Kelowna was carried out via sternwheeler boats that plied the abundant waters of Okanagan Lake.

With mining thriving in various parts of Central and Northern BC during the early 20^th century, it wasn’t long before the Canadian Pacific Railway came calling.

A touch east of Kelowna, track was laid across a beautiful chasm called Myra Canyon. From the years spanning 1916 to 1972, CPR trains traversed Myra Canyon and in doing so, helped to open up the area, bolster its economy, and put Kelowna on the map all the more.

These days, Kelowna has a population of just over 132,000 people.

Compared to many cities around the world, that might seem fairly small. However, for a province that only been inhabited by European (and other international) settlers for about two centuries now, Kelowna is quite a decent size.

Indeed, many corners of BC were not established (as the towns and cities that they are now) until the late 1800s or early 1900s.

As such, the fact that Kelowna got its start in the mid-Victorian era helps to make it one of the oldest continually settled corners of the province – especially north of the Fraser Valley/Lower Mainland area of the province. (The first white settlement in British Columbia was established in the 1790s at Fort St. John in northeastern BC.)

Naturally, as with most communities, it did not take too long for Kelowna to require, and in turn construct, a cemetery of its own.

Kelowna has had, and continues to have, various cemeteries throughout its lifetime. In this post, we are going to explore the largest of them, the Kelowna Memorial Park Cemetery.

Kelowna Memorial Park Cemetery

Located at 1991 Bernard Avenue in Kelowna, British Columbia, the Kelowna Memorial Park Cemetary spans a rolling, beautiful 50-acre space at the foot of Dilworth Mountain. It is immediately adjacent to the Kelowna Golf & Country Club, and the relative serenity of both make them well-suited neighbours.  

For those wishing to visit, the Kelowna Memorial Park Cemetery is open 365 days a year from 7 am – 8 pm between March 16^th and October 31^st, and from 7 am to 5 pm from November 1^st to March 15^th.

At various points in the year, Kelowna Museums offers reasonably priced guided tours that focus on a particular aspect of the cemetery’s, and by extension Kelowna as a whole’s, history.

This summer’s tour is “Kelowna’s Forgotten Chinatown”, led by local historian Bob Hayes.

Kelowna Memorial Park Cemetery got its start as an Anglican Church burial ground at the turn of the last century, blossoming in the ensuing decades into a sprawling multi-cultural, historically rich cemetery with, at present, more than 25,000 memorials.

A cursory glance of the grounds that comprise the Kelowna Memorial Park Cemetery can be a touch deceiving. At first sight, the cemetery may not seem as large as one might expect for a city the size of Kelowna.

However, it takes but a few minutes (especially if they’re spent on foot) to quickly realize that this is anything but a small cemetery.

Fifry acres is nothing to sneeze at and while it is certainly possible for one to traverse the whole of Kelowna Memorial Park Cemetery in a single (good-sized) visit, you may wish to split seeing the entire cemetery across multiple days.

That has been my approach. Done both because of the size of this burial ground and because I truly like to take my time and connect with each cemetery, and its inhabitants, that I have the joy of visiting.

Cemeteries in British Columbia, Canada

As it is safe to say that most of the cemeteries that I highlight here in this engaging new blog post series are apt to be ones located in British Columbia (where I live), we should touch on some points about cemeteries in BC in general before proceeding further.

As a collective whole, Canada is, from a non-First Nations Peoples standpoint, a very young country.

We officially became a nation in 1867, though our non-indigenous history stretches back a few hundred years earlier. Nevertheless, we’re a relative newcomer on the world stage compared to many other countries and this fact is reflected in Canada’s cemeteries.

Extremely few Canadian cemeteries proceed the mid-1700s and many are far newer still, having been established in the 19^th or 20^th centuries. (An unmarked burial site in the Maritime province of Nova Scotia is believed to house European settler graves that may date back to around the 1680s.)

Prior to the mid-nineteenth century, the vast majority of Canada’s European population was located on the Eastern side of the country – which still houses the largest portion of this nation’s inhabitants.

Gradually, western expansion and exploration unfolded. From the long treks of a small number of intrepid adventurers, hearty explorers, and fortune seekers alike, followed waves of more what might be termed more generalized migration to British Columbia.

With a shoreline nestled against the mighty Pacific Ocean, British Columbia is Canada’s most westerly province.

Before the days of planes, trains, and automobiles, it could only be reached by water travel or a lengthy overland journey which often encompassed crossing the formidable Rocky Mountains.

As a land of diverse climates, ample opportunities, and staggering natural beauty, once the western expansion ball got rolling, it didn’t take too long for BC to flourish.

New communities, towns, and cities alike sprang up rapidly through various parts of the province during the 19^th and early 20^th centuries.

Some – particularly when mining was involved – were relatively short-lived. Plenty though were able to not only survive, but thrive, and now account for why BC is Canada’s third most populous province.

While no shortage of fortunes were made (and plenty lost) in BC’s early days, by and large, the population that settled here was comprised of hardworking everyday folks eking out a living, building families and community ties, and helping to turn this province into the wonderful place that it is today.

What, you may be asking, does this have to do with the Kelowna Memorial Park Cemetery and BC’s cemeteries in general?

The answer lies in the relative humbleness and understated designs of the grave markers and other memorial elements that comprise most cemeteries in British Columbia (and to a degree, throughout much of Canada in general) – as well as the size of the cemeteries themselves.

Are there exceptions to that statement? Absolutely! One need only look, for example, to Mountain View Cemetery in Vancouver or Ross Bay Cemetery in Victoria to see expansive cemeteries that include an array of more ornate memorials. Many of which date to the Victorian and Edwardian eras.

However, as a whole, BC’s cemeteries are humble affairs. Few teem with the iconic colonial-era headstones of some of the graveyards in the Eastern United States or the jaw-dropping artistry and grandeur of cemeteries such as Kensal Green and Highgate in London, England.

Yet, even so, it is safe to say that each of British Columbia’s cemeteries has a heartwarmingly enduring beauty all its own.

They, like most cemeteries and graveyards the world over, also rarely lack for history – whether that past can quickly be learned about in books, museums, and online or if much of it has now been enveloped by the murky ethers of time.

A springtime visit to Kelowna Memorial Cemetery

On one of those mid-spring days when the weather has more sides to it than an octagon, my husband, Tony, and I decided to spend an enjoyable afternoon visiting the Kelowna Memorial Cemetery.

Covid rules were (and still are at the time of writing) in place and we made sure to respect them fully.

Despite the relatively mild weather that was flip-flopping from overcast to briefly sunny and back again, we saw almost no other visitors to the grounds the whole time we were there.

That isn’t to say that there weren’t potentially some there. Simply that the vastness of the 50 acres of this cemetery easily allowed us to walk for hours without encountering another living soul on that particular day.

Our visit was a general one. We didn’t come with any specific goal or research purpose in mind.

This outing was about shaking off some of the cabin fever of winter, spending time getting to know the Kelowna Memorial Park Cemetery (which is located just over an hour’s drive south of our small town) better, and taking photos of some of the graves and other structures on the premise.

Many a headstone and grave marker calls the Kelowna Memorial Cemetery home. In addition, cremations are housed in cremation niches, crypts, and columbaries, particularly in a part of the cemetery called the Legacy Gardens.  

Like a lot of taphophiles and graveyard adventurers (though not all, of course), I find myself – a lifelong lover and student of history – drawn to older graves.

Thankfully, Kelowna Memorial Park Cemetery is happy to oblige those with a passion for the past. Various portions of the cemetery are divided into lettered sections, with the first, Section A (also known as the Pioneer Section), being dedicated to some of the oldest inhabitants.

Amongst which various founders of Kelowna are laid to rest, including a chap named Bernard Lequime who, in the 1890s, laid out the original townsite of Kelowna, and Arthur Booth Knox, after whom Kelowna’s gorgeous and highly visited Knox Mountain is named.

The Kelowna Memorial Park Cemetery also houses areas specifically dedicated to both early Chinese and Japanese citizens as well.

In 2014 a granite monument was erected in the Pioneer Section on behalf of the BC Legislative Assembly to acknowledge the wrongdoings done against many early Chinese Canadians by past provincial governments.

Many more recent graves also call this cemetery home, as do an abundance of tranquilly lovely trees and many gorgeous, well-manicured flowerbeds.

As with plenty of cemeteries (of all sizes), the grave markers at the Kelowna Memorial Park Cemetery are in varying conditions. Quite a few are presently holding up well for their age, whereas others have succumbed to the ravages of time, moss, and weather conditions.

In general, though, I find a good percentage of the older tombstones to still be fairly legible. Some are nearly as crisp as the day they were first etched, others are clearly showing their age, but (again) remain readable.

On this visit, we did not see the whole of the cemetery – nor did we make a point to inspect every single grave in each area that we did spend time in.

Both Tony (a fellow taphophile) and I love to have more to explore and acquaint ourselves with further on future visits.

No post pertaining to the Kelowna Memorial Park Cemetery worth its salt would be complete without mentioning some of this burial ground’s best-known inhabitants: various members of the Bennett family, including the famously outspoken former BC Premier W.A.C Bennett and his wife, May.

Both are interred at this cemetery and in addition, the Bennett Memorial Columbaria provides above-ground monuments for the placement of private cremation remains (totalling 576 cremation niches, each of which is able to house two urns).

There is much more to see and explore at the Kelowna Memorial Park Cemetery beyond what appears in this post.

I hope to photograph and share additional parts of it with you in future editions of this series (as well as on my Instagram account, where I’ve been posting photos from various cemeteries for a number of years now).

This cemetery is a beautiful, well-maintained, peaceful, inspiring, and enjoyable one. I feel at ease there and love that it, like most of the cemeteries that I have the honour of visiting, resonates deeply with my spirituality as a Pagan witch.

If you should have the opportunity to visit the Kelowna Memorial Cemetery, I highly recommend doing so.

At 50 acres and more than 25,000 final resting places (be they graves, urns, scattered ashes, or memorials without actual remains), this historically rich corner of Kelowna is one that is sure to appeal to taphophiles, history buffs, genealogists, and many a goth soul alike.

Not to mention those who find solace and comfort in cemeteries.

I fall into every one of those camps myself and am excited to hopefully share many more cemeteries journeys around BC (and hopefully elsewhere as well) that I have the pleasure of undertaking. (Pun intended, sentiment no less sincere.)

Have you ever been to the Kelowna Memorial Park Cemetery? What was the last cemetery or graveyard you visited?

The post Cemetery Journeys: A Visit to Kelowna Memorial Park Cemetery appeared first on Witchcrafted Life.

Or at least it is for me.

And yet…

The card featured in this post might just be my favourite I’ve ever made.

Not just this year, not just in the past few years, but during the whole of my time as a paper crafter.

Definitely in the top five for sure and, again, very possibly my absolute favourite to date.

I had a vision of how I wanted this card to look in my mind’s eye and the end result exceeded my hopes and expectations. The whole project flowed beautifully and I am pleased as punch with how it turned out.

I have dubbed this gothic-inspired card “Summertime Sunrise Over the Cemetery”, as that is the scene it depicts. (Though a similar sight could be observed in the spring or very early fall around these Western Canadian parts as well.)

Passionate taphophile that I am, I’ve spent many an early morning (and late night and afternoon… basically all hours of the day ) witnessing breathtaking sunrises break in the heavens above various cemeteries and graveyards.

It was to these meaningful memories that I turned when creating this sunrise, weeping willow, and headstone filled greeting.

A card that just happens to suit Summerween to a tee. (And which I’m sharing here as my #MakeHalloween365 project share entry for July.)

That’s right, my dear friends, it’s time to delve into another fabulous Halloween-inspired take on a holiday or season. So grab an ice-cold drink (may I suggest black lemonade) and come along as we explore the ins and outs of Summerween.

What is Summerween?

If you’ve seen my Valoween or Springoween blog posts, you may be familiar with the fact that I’m wild about embracing each and every October 31^st inspired holiday and season possible.

You might also have deduced by now (based on its name) as to what Summerween entails.

In short, Summerween approaches summer and looks for ways to inject as much of the spooky spirit of Halloween as possible into the hottest chapter of the year (on this side of the equator).

Perhaps, however, of all the annual events and seasons that can “Halloweenifed”, so to speak, Summerween often remains the most lighthearted.

Summerween is the beach goth of the seasons.

It is a fun-loving way of merging the sizzling hot days of summer with the eerie, iconic, and wonderfully enjoyable elements of Halloween that many of us hold dear.

As with Valoween and Springoween, I did not invent #Summerween myself.

Much like those two spooky happenings, from what I can find, Summerween seems to have largely come about organically from multiple sources, fuelled greatly by those of us who proudly belong to the #EverdayisHalloween crowd.

Interestingly, the concept of Summerween being a specific holiday instead of a season-long theme got a helping hand from the animated cartoon series Gravity Falls.

In episode 12 of season 1, we see the townsfolk preparing for, and then celebrating, Summerween on June 22^nd.

Why are they doing so? Because, like many of us, the good people of Gravity Falls adore Halloween so much they feel the need to celebrate it twice each year.  

Hugely relatable, let me tell you!

In the real world, some people may prefer to celebrate Summerween as a single day (or weekend), whereas others are all about pumpkins, bats, and ghosts the whole season long. Rest assured that either, or anything in between, is A-okay.

Halloween-inspired takes on existing events and seasons do not come with any hard and fast rules, and can be embraced however one desires. Indeed, that’s part of their charm and fun!

How to get a Summerween aesthetic

A fa-boo-lous place to get inspiration and ideas when it comes to Summerween is the blog Spooky Little Halloween, where the author, Miranda, has shared numerous Summerween related posts over the years.

(I especially adore her Summerween recipe posts, including those for 11 Halloween S’mores Perfect for the Campfire and Easy 4 Layer Halloween Ice Scream Cake.)

Be sure to also check out Miranda’s social media accounts as she shares plenty of terrific Summerween inspiration there as well.

I love to do the same myself too and have a Pinterest board dedicated solely to Summerween, which you’ll want to visit for lots more hauntingly enjoyable sunny season inspiration and ideas.

Summerween is a delightful way to marry summer with notes of spookiness. You can, for example, pick a general theme such as a haunted road trip, a dreamy tropical beach, a hair-raising summer camping trip, or a gorgeous sunny weather garden and “Halloweenify” to your heart’s content.

Some of the ways that you can achieve a Summerween aesthetic for your home, a party, or most any other reason include the following:

-Carving various summertime fruits and vegetables into jack-o-lanterns. As demonstrated in these two posts, watermelons and pineapples lend themselves especially well to getting the jack-o-lantern treatment.

And speaking of pumpkins, why not decorate with a palette of summertime coloured options.

You could utilize vibrant, even neon, shades; take things in a soothing and relaxing direction with whites, light greys, mint green, and soft pink, or look to the seas and go with a nautical colour scheme of reds, whites, blues, and sandy beiges.

-Draw (or cut out and adhere) a jack-o-lantern face on a beachball or volleyball for a smile-inducing summertime take on fall pumpkins.

-Include summertime flowers amongst your more traditional fall décor. Why not use a plastic (or real) pumpkin as a vase for some of your favourite summertime blooms?

Or you could create a centrepiece of flowers and pumpkins, partner the season’s first sunflowers with pumpkins or other Halloween elements, or design a wreath that included summer blooms and iconic fall pieces (such as skeletons, witch’s brooms, ghost figures, headstones, bats, spiders, owls, or skulls).

-Decorate a Halloween witch’s hat with summer blooms and use it as a centrepiece or décor item elsewhere in your house.

-Serve summertime drinks in Halloween cups and mugs (or vice versa). Add cute paper umbrellas, swizzle sticks, and tropical fruits to each glass for a fabulous summer meets October vibe.

-Purchase or make some delightful Summerween themed art. Summerween is catching on, especially with diehard Halloween lovers and as a result more and more fantastic Summerween themed art (as well as other products, including enamel pins, clothing, and beach towels) is hitting the market.

Some Etsy artists who are currently selling art prints that either specifically focused on Summerween or which work splendidly for a Halloween take on summer include:

–Carrie Anne Hudson Art (who also sells Summerween perfect enamel pins, such as this awesome tropical drink cauldron pin.)

–Fred Lanthier

–Ghost Girl Greetings

–Mythical Studios

–Spooky Ghost Shop

–The Littlest Spook Shop

As well, Spooky Yeti Studio has adorable summer ghost postage stamp shaped stickers and Hannah of Fall Trades offers cute and cheerful Summerween bookmarks (which would be perfect for your favourite beach reads!).

Summerween décor can be just about anything you can dream up. The key is to inject a sense of October 31^st into the sun-kissed months in whatever way(s) you wish.

Let your imagination take flight and have a blast celebrating the awesomeness of All Hallows’ Eve all summer long.

Now, let’s take a gander look at how you too can make your own summer sunrise over the cemetery card like the one featured in this post.

Products used to make this Distress Oxide Ink blended sunrise over the cemetery card

-Black cardstock

-Four different shades of light to dark grey cardstock

-White cardstock (for the card base – or use a premade 5×7 inch white card base instead)

-Thicker white cardstock (that takes well to ink blending) – Ultra White Smooth Premium (100lb) Cardstock from Spectrum Noir

-Silver metallic cardstock

-Weeping willow tree frame die

-Tree lined hill die (or, alternatively, you could achieve a similar look by applying different shades of grey ink through a tree covered hill design stencil)

-Headstone lined hill die

-Headstone die

-Victorian frame inspired embossing folder – 3D E3D – 017 Oval Accent Embossing Folder from Spellbinders

-Various shades of Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Ink, as follows:

For the yellow sun: Wild Honey, Mustard Seed, Fossilized Amber, and Antique Linen

For the sunrise: Black Soot, Chipped Sapphire, Hickory Smoke, Weathered Wood, Milled Lavender, Tattered Rose, Pumice Stone, and Victorian Violet

-Dimensional foam, pop dots, or similar to elevate some of your layers

-Adhesive, such as a tape runner, of your choice (I often use my Scotch Tape Glider)

Note: To create a mask for the sun portion of the ink blended sky, punch or die cut two small nested circles from cardstock or paper. I used the Spellbinders Nestabilities Standard Large Circle Dies set to die cut the two circles I needed for this project.

How to make a gothic summertime graveyard card

Begin by making a 5×7 inch card base from white cardstock (or use a premade card blank/base of the same dimensions).

You can then make the other elements of this card in whatever order you prefer.

I created my Distress Oxide Ink blended sky – with a masked and then inked glowing sun – before proceeding on to the die cuts (including one weeping willow frame made from silver metallic cardstock and another from very light grey cardstock) and the embossed frame.

For the ink blended sky, aim to have a halo of lighter coloured ink around the sun, so as to heighten the realism of a sunrise filled sky.

Next, arrange and adhere the layers of hill die cut shapes starting from lightest to dark, as this mirrors how objects in the foreground and background, respectively, often appear – especially in low light settings such as the early morning sunrise depicted on this card.

Arrange the weeping willow frames so that their branches overlap and create a lovely arch of foliage. To do this, you will flip the light grey cardstock die cut weeping willow frame over and use the backside to create a mirror image with the same piece cut from silver metallic cardstock.

Once you’re happy with the placement of the weeping willow frames, adhere them in place and proceed to arrange and adhere the headstone die cut between the trucks of the two weeping willow trees.

Using black cardstock, emboss a Victorian inspired frame piece and attach it to the cardstock. I opted to distress my black frame in various spots to give it even more of an aged, gothic look. You can leave your pristine, if you prefer. Either way will look fantastic!

Adhere the frame to the cardstock and top it with the ink blended + die cut covered panel.

If you wish, you can die cut a third weeping willow frame and use it to adorn the interior of your card (as shown above).

And there you have it, with a bit of ink blending, die cutting, and embossing, you have one serene, spooky, and splendidly Summerween appropriate card ready to go.

Send it out now, or, if you prefer, wait to give this sunrise at the cemetery card to a fellow Halloween loving soul (or taphophile) come October.

Birthday celebrations, now with even more Summerween!

Tomorrow just happens to be my birthday (I’ll be 37, for those inquiring minds out there ).

Ever since I was a little girl, I have wanted to have a Halloween-themed b-day. Now, thanks in no small part to the advent of Summerween doing so is now all the more possible.

With the pandemic still going strong and the fact that not everyone in our circle (myself included) has received their second Covid vaccine yet, my b-day this year is going to be another very lowkey one without a big party or public gathering.

However, together Tony, my mom and I will happily make the best of it and are going all-in on the Summerween side of things.

Or should I say, the Birthdayween side of things!

After all, there are only 113 days separating July 10^th and October 31^st.

What Halloween lover amongst us wouldn’t want to have an All Hallows’ Eve related celebration little more than 3.5 months before the big day itself returns?

We’ll be doing a Halloween jigsaw puzzle (I’m an avid puzzler), playing Halloween themed board games (including the Disney Hocus Pocus boardgame, which my very thoughtful mama gifted me with last fall), watching some of our fave Halloween shows and movies, and eating delicious Halloween related foods.

Basically, my dream way to celebrate my birthday.

I’d love to share in the festivities with more of my friends and relatives, but the three of us (plus, our darling dog, Annie, of course) will have a blast all the same.

And with a bit of luck, hopefully, come this time next year, a larger group of our loved ones will be able to get together for birthdays, holidays, and everyday hangouts alike again.

As I blow out the candles on my GF pumpkin spice cake tomorrow, you can bet that a swift end to the pandemic will be one of the things I wish for most of all.

And, on a less somber note, an early autumn that lingers late into the year will be another.

No matter if that comes to pass or not, thanks to Summerween we can celebrate Halloween all sunny season long. An act that helps to ramp up one’s excitement for the actual return of October 31sts all the more, especially as summer is the last season before fall’s arrival.

Thus, Summerween becomes an extra fun and festive way to countdown to Halloween and is perfect for those amongst us who love to get our All Hallows’ Eve on year-round.

Have you heard of Summerween before? What are some of your favourite ways to inject spookiness into the summer months?

PS: Fun – and rather cool – fact, this year my birthday coincides with July’s new moon.

I am using this point to focus many of my current magickal workings on new starts, banishing, healing, serenity, and renewal – and invite you to do the same as well, if so desired.

The post Spooky Summertime Sunrise Over the Cemetery Card (Plus, What is Summerween?) appeared first on Witchcrafted Life.

These serene and sacred final resting places of the dearly departed are interwoven with the rich cultural tapestry that is October 31^st – be it in the form of Halloween, Samhain, or events such as Día de Muertos that transpire at the beginning of November.

Connections between the end of the harvest season and death are inextricably linked. The kinship these two share stretches back countless thousands of years.

There is something wholly natural in the thinking and belief that the visual death of the landscape and end of many readily available food sources gathered or grown from the land and the realm of human death would go hand-in-hand.

Not every culture around the world links the end of October with death, but a good many have certainly long associated autumn with concepts of dying, death, and the afterlife.

Often, even when solemn, these events were seen as times of merriment, mirth, feasting, presenting offerings, and communing with those on the other side of the veil.

In the 21^st century, the connection between the season of Halloween and the realm of the dead, especially as it exists in the earthy plots of land we call cemeteries and graveyards, has become primarily symbolic for a lot of folks.

For others, however, a continuation of the connections that generations before us held fast to is still going strong in our lives and spiritual practices.

The subject of death and graveyards is not relegated to October though, of course. Yet the natural connection between the two makes the early days of fall and the coming autumnal months ahead an especially well-suited time to delve into a topic that is near and dear to my heart: taphophilia.

What is taphophilia?

An English term born of two ancient Greek words, “taphos”, which applies to matters such as funerals, wakes, tombs, burials, and graves, plus “philia”, which means love/fondness, taphophilia quite literally means a love of graveyards, death and related subject matter.

Before we proceed even a single line further, it should be stated for the record, that the hobby/passion of taphophilia does not in any way mean the same thing as necrophilia.

The latter meaning that a person has an extreme/pathological fascination or obsession with dead bodies, which may or may not elevate to the level of engaging in sexual acts with corpses.

While it is certainly possible that someone could be both a taphophile and a necrophile, one does not imply the other in any way. In fact, I would argue that the crossover between the two groups is bound to be very small.

A taphophile is someone who has an interest in things such as funerals, cemeteries, gravestones, and the general subject of memento mori (as well as the funerary and remembrance items associated with such), and taphophilia is not something negative or perverse.

Taphophiles may enjoy such activities as visiting graveyards and cemeteries, photographing such locations, reading epitaphs, taking grave rubbings, thinking about/discussing subjects of death and the lives of those who have passed on, and studying the history of graveyards and/or famous deaths.

As well as researching subjects such as art, burial rites and customs, photography (including post mortem photography), poetry, music and other creative mediums in which death has been featured in varying capacities.

Anyone, of any age, can be a taphophile. I myself have been a proud (funeral) card-carrying member of team taphophilia since childhood.

Likewise, taphophiles can be of any nationality, spirituality or religion, profession, or gender.

If you have a strong interest in topics pertaining to graveyards, funerals, and/or death, you may be a taphophile already!

For some, a fascination or connection with these topics starts very early in life. For others, it may develop in their teens or their adult years. Indeed, a person can find themselves bitten by the proverbial taphophilia bug at any stage in their life.

It is not uncommon for taphophilia to emerge organically from other areas of interest such as genealogy or archelogy in which a person may routinely find themselves studying graveyards, gravestone symbolism, death records, funerary customs and/or art, or other related topics.

Likewise, someone who may start out with a focus on taphophilia might find that their interest in subjects like history or genealogy have been ignited or kindled all the more and so begin to weave these passions together.

Many, though certainly not all, taphophiles enjoy documenting/recording their trips to graveyards, often sharing some of what they’ve seen and discovered publicly.

Searches on social media – Instagram very much included – for hashtags such as #taphophila #taphophile #gravehunter #graveexplorer #cemetarywandering #cemetaryphotography #cemetarylove and many other related terms quickly reveals that no shortage of people have an interest in the history and exploration of graveyards and associated topics.

The reasons why some folks are, or become, taphophiles varies immensely. I cannot help but think that the unique, highly personal reason(s) why we’re drawn to subjects pertaining to death, funerals and graveyards is one of the most beautiful and endearing aspects of being a taphophile.

Other names for taphophiles

Various other names have been used over the years to describe those with a penchant for subjects pertaining directly to cemeteries, graves, and the general subject of death.

Some of the most common are cemetery enthusiasts, cemetery devotee, cemetery tourists, tomb tourists, tombstone tourists, gravers, and grave hunters.

Naturally, as with most things in life, one does not need to identify with any particular term or label unless they wish to do so.

Long before the contemporary term taphophile came into being, many folks throughout time have had a strong interest in the subjects that taphophilia covers. To this day, some people simply choose to say that they like/love graveyards and leave it at that.

Of course, if you’re especially keen on graveyards and associated subjects, it can be handy to know that multiple terms exist, should you wish to refer to yourself and this interest by them.

They are also handy ways to search for information on subjects pertaining to taphophilia, connect with fellow taphophiles/grave hunters, and share the graveyard wandering photos you may capture along the way.

Is taphophilia morbid?

Well, that depends on a few things – including who you ask and how you define the word “morbid”.

First and foremost, there is nothing inherently negative (and certainly nothing “evil”) about taphophilia. Far from it!

Some taphophiles have done, and continue to do, much to help preserve graveyards, crypts, and funerary related history. Others may simply have a passionate interest in these subjects.

Death as a topic does have a certain inherent element of the morbid to it, that much is true, but the degree to which one perceives taphophilia as a “morbid interest” may lie largely with a person’s own current relationship to, and thoughts, on death.

For those who are, or who have grown to become, greatly at home with subjects of death, funerals and graveyards, taphophilia may hold little in their eyes that is overtly morbid, eerie, or frightening.

As someone who is extremely comfortable with virtually all aspects of death, dying, graveyards, and concepts pertaining to the afterlife, I find great beauty and interest in matters pertaining to taphophilia.

At the same time, however, I readily acknowledge and respect that not everyone gets giddy at the thought of visiting a graveyard or talking about death.

If this area is not your wheelhouse, that is 100% okay.

As with so much in life, we each have certain interests and passions, areas that we’re more comfortable with and those that feel off-putting, frightening, or otherwise unpleasant to us. Or, by the same token simply hold little to no interest for us.

Why are taphophiles interested in graveyards?

This is not an easy question to answer, as the reason(s) why each person with an interest in funerals, graveyards, and related death applicable topics varies widely.

For some, it may be primarily spiritually or culturally lead. Others may be avid history or celebrity buffs and so studying and/or spending time in cemeteries may be a natural extension of that interest.

Early childhood exposure to graveyards, standout experiences with funerals or graveyards at any point in one’s life, or a general connection to the subject of death itself are other possible reasons why someone may find themselves drawn to taphophilia.

Some people, myself included, find graveyards can be places of deep personal introspection, serenity, comfort, and/or inspiration.

We visit and study them with great reverence and compassion, both for the departed and for the loved ones that the dead have left behind on this side of the veil.

Graveyards and similar settings – especially those with at least a few decades of existence under their belts – can be extraordinarily beautiful, fascinating and meaningful locations.

No shortage of taphophiles are drawn to cemeteries because of the breathtaking artistry and humble human history alike that they house.

There are, of course, many academic and culturally rooted reasons, as well, why someone may be drawn to visiting, studying or otherwise focusing on topics pertaining to funerals, graveyards, headstones and the like.

Gravestones and grave markers are highly important and meaningful, both to the families of those whose relatives have been laid to rest, as well as for society at large.

The volume of both art and history housed in graveyards the world over is immeasurable. It behooves and benefits us all to try, whenever possible, to preserve gravestones, cemeteries, and other burial grounds and the rich history that they house.

To this end, various excellent organizations, such as the Association for Gravestone Studies have formed over the years and the importance of the work these bodies do is deeply important and thoroughly commendable.

How to be a taphophile

The ways to be a taphophile/grave hunter are legion!

Arguably, an interest in graveyards, funerals, death, and/or the history of such is a primary component to being a taphophile.

Beyond that, one can opt to be as engaged, hands-on, and documentarian as you wish.

You can read every grave hunting-related blog under the sun, subscribe to YouTube channels and podcasts on the subject, and lap up every book you can get your hands on pertaining to graveyards, but doing so is not a prerequisite or requirement to being, or calling yourself, a taphophile.

While some taphophiles are drawn to particular graveyards, such as those where famous figures are buried or where their own relatives were laid to rest, many (if not most) of us break for just about any graveyard.

Plenty, (again) myself included, will actively seek them out, both close to home and when we travel.

So long as one is always respectful and lawful, there is almost no “wrong” way to visit a cemetery.

Just make sure you do so during official hours of operation, abide by any posted rules in a given cemetery, are respectful of other visitors (who may be there in a state of mourning), and do not take any manmade “souvenirs” home with you (items such as leaves, small amounts of graveyard dirt from inconspicuous areas, and similar organic materials are sometimes okay to take).

While visiting a graveyard, you may wish to capture photos or videos. This is generally permitted unless signage indicates otherwise.

Likewise, some people enjoy making gravestone rubbing. In recent years, there has been some debate surrounding this practice for various reasons. A key one of which is the fact that rubbings can potentially cause damage to older and/or delicate headstones.

Traditionally, paper (or thin fabric) and carbon pencil, charcoal, or another dark drawing medium have often been used to create gravestone rubbings. Rubbing wax, as detailed in this post on How to Make a Gravestone Rubbing, is another method that some people employ.

A fairly modern approach is to utilize shaving cream (which, as discussed in this PDF article on The Use of Shaving Cream on Headstones, can also be used to help clean graves off). Though, there too, mixed views on the subject abound.

It could be debated that creating headstone rubbings made more sense prior to the advent of digital photography and camera phones.

However, even a printed photo is not quite as tangible as an actual headstone rubbing that you created yourself, and it is easy to see why this popular form of graveyard recording is still in fairly wide use.

Personally, I prefer to stick with photographs of graveyards and headstones. Rest assured though, that I can easily see the appeal of gravestone rubbings and appreciate the important value they hold both to taphophiles and historians/genealogists alike.

Many ways abound to be a taphophile/grave hunter or simply have a passion for the subjects covered in this post.

You can research the graves of relatives, famous folks or total strangers alike, both online (websites such as findagrave.com can be a big help there) and off; collect funeral memorabilia (sometimes called funeralia/funerallia) including memento mori items, read up on the topics pertaining to funerals, graves, and death; join organizations dedicated to preserving graveyards and headstones, engage online with others who share this interest, make visiting graves a part of your spiritual practice (for example, those of a witchy/Pagan persuasion may wish to Use Graveyard Snow in Your Magickal Workings), study and/or create art pertaining to graveyards/death, and much, much more!

Some taphophiles are particularly drawn to certain elements of graveyards. For example, the epitaphs on headstones, graves that are older than a certain date, the stunning artistry that has often gone into headstones, grave markers, mausoleums, graveyard statues (be they angel statues or otherwise), or the wrought iron work found in some graveyards; or the grounds of a graveyard themselves, including trees and gardens.

Others have broader interests and enjoy graveyards as a whole, perhaps favouring certain styles of gravestones or types of cemeteries.

Some people find immense inspiration in graveyards and may visit them as a place in which to write or create art (or to gather the inspiration to create at a later point in time).

Graveyard photography has long been popular and is a fantastic way to document your graveyard visits. This act is flourishing more than ever thanks to digital photography and the awesome cameras that many modern cell phones now house.

It should be noted that, while certainly not necessary or even expected (per se), some people – irrespective of their spiritual beliefs – like to leave offerings or tokens of appreciation at the graveyards they visit.

A wide range of items can be utilized in this capacity, including fresh flowers, leaves, acorns, coins, small metal charms or trinkets, notes written on paper, and even bottles of alcohol.

Generally speaking, if leaving an offering/token of thanks, you want it to be something tasteful and which does not stand to damage the grave or the ground (and associated wildlife) around it.

Most graveyards are open to the general public and the majority are free (or by donation) to visit. If you feel the siren’s call to spend time at a graveyard, I highly encourage you to do so.

Generally peaking, graveyards are relatively safe, private, beautiful spots that may surprise you with their diversity and captivatingly soulfulness.

Being a taphophile is a wonderful and rewarding thing. It can be something you engage with occasionally, a main focal point of your life (and/or career in some instances) or anything in between.

If you opt to let others know about this interest, you may even find fellow taphophiles in your existing social circle or make new friends via channels such as social media or local historical preservation societies, where others who share this passion are able to connect.

As well, some cemeteries and graveyards have public (or, conversely, privately arranged) tours that you can take part in.

If you enjoy getting your taphophile groove on in the company of others who are apt to appreciate a good graveyard as well, such tours – which are often guided – can be a stellar way to learn more about a particular location and some of its interred residents.

Graveyards and cemeteries (the latter of which, it should be noted, tends to refer to a burial ground that is not attached or adjacent to a church or other place of religious significance, though the two terms are used fairly interchanging in everyday parlance) are immensely diverse places.

Some are massive, sprawling across multiple acres or city blocks, others are scarcely larger than a small backyard. Some are hundreds of years old, and plenty are far new. Each is an outdoor museum and history lesson in one.

Much like snowflakes and fingerprints, no two cemeteries are exactly alike.

Some may be more interesting or breathtaking than others, but each has a great deal to show and teach us. Even those that we have never been to before, tend to have a sense of the familiar and the unknown alike to them.

Graveyards are sacred, liminal spaces. They ask for respect, and ideally preservation, but demand little and offer up so much in return.

Intersecting interests

Taphophilia can be a standalone hobby or passion unto itself, and for plenty of taphophiles, it is just that.

However, a good many of us may have overlapping or related interests. Scores of other hobbies, passions and pastimes can dovetail or otherwise go hand-in-hand with taphophilia.

Some of the more common include studying/appreciating/collecting mourning jewelry and/or other forms of funeral and death related memorabilia and art; ghost hunting or other forms of paranormal investigation, abandoned building exploration, urbex (urban exploration), dark tourism, genealogy, history, poetry, writing, art, photography, bird watching, natural walking, and travel.

As well, it should be noted that many taphophiles are death positive – whether they are aware of this concept or not.

The term death positivity was coined by funeral industry professional, author, YouTuber, and all-around seriously awesome person, Caitlin Doughty to convey the concept that it is not only okay, but welcome and incredibly important, for people to speak openly and honestly about topics pertaining to death, dying, funerals, burial arts, corpses, and their own end-of-life plans.

If you wish to learn more about death positivity, I highly encourage you to read this excellent page on the Death Positive Moment.

Online resources for taphophiles

The number one resource for taphophiles must surely be graveyards and cemeteries themselves. In the 21^st century, this is followed closely by the internet and the ever-larger volume of information pertaining to topics and locations that are of interest to those with a penchant for visiting cemeteries.

The following is an alphabetically arranged list of some of the taphophile, graveyard, and funerary history-related websites that I’ve personally found to be helpful over the years.

This is not, by any means, an exhaustive list of online resources for taphophiles. Instead, it is a great jumping-off point or way to further your existing taphophilia resource sphere.

Note: Some of these websites have not been updated in recent years. The information they house is still useful though to many who are interested in graveyards and cemeteries, so I’ve opted to include some “retired” pages here.

–100 Best Examples of Epitaphs

–A Grave Interest

–A Timeline for Taphophiles

–Art of Mourning

–Beneath Thy Feet

–Billion Graves

–Canadian Cemetery History

–Cemetery Club

–Cemetery Conservators for United Standards

–Cemetery Travel

–Find A Grave

–Grave Explorations (YouTube channel)

–Grave Mappers

–Headstone Meanings & Symbols

–Headstone Symbolism

–Historic Oakland Foundation

–In Loving Memory

–Introduction to Churchyard and Cemetery Monuments

–Spade & The Grave

–Stoneletters

–The Art of Dying: Memento Mori Through The Ages

–The Cemetery Club

–The Graveyard Rabbit

–The Jolly Taphophile (and their corresponding YouTube channel, Graveyard Junkie)

–The Order of The Good Death

–The Secret Life of Death podcast

–The Sepulcher

–Tombstone Symbols and Their Meanings

–Travels of a Hobgoblin Taphophile

And here is a handful of great YouTube videos that those with an interest in graveyards, tombstone symbolism and related topics are apt to enjoy.

–Bizarre Graves and the Stories Behind Them

–Cemetery Symbols

–Epitaphs & Grave Quotes From History

–Funny and Creative Tombstones That Actually Exist

–Headstone Designs, Symbols, Cherubs, and Iconography Found in Cemeteries

–Skulls, Willows, Cherubs & Other Gravestone Emojis

–Tombstone Symbolism

–The Fascinating History of Cemeteries

In addition to the online taphophilia resources listed above, a fab way to get the ball rolling when it comes to graveyard exploration and research is to simply Google keyword phrases such as “cemetery in [name of location]” and take things from there.

While not every cemetery has a website or Facebook page, in my experience, many of them – especially those that are actively maintained at present – are at least listed on Google Maps.

As well, plenty of city council, local tourism, and historical society websites will make mention of graveyards, cemeteries, and memorial parks in their vicinity. Each of these resources can potentially be useful for those wishing to explore burial grounds either close to home or further afield.

And lastly, there are quite a number of books – both in and out of print – pertaining to graveyards, funeral customs and rites, and similar topics.

I’m thinking that this an area that deserves a blog post unto itself, so will start compiling just such a list to hopefully share here with all you in the future.

What being a taphophile means to me personally

As you may have deduced, my passion and the reverence I hold for cemeteries, funerals, and the vast subject of death is tremendous.

If you follow me on social media, particularly Instagram and Pinterest (in particular, check out these boards on my account: Death Becomes Us All, In Loving Memory, and Remembered in Art), you may already be aware that this is a subject that is very near and dear to my heart.

I collect antique and vintage funeral related items, read extensively on death-related subjects, follow oodles of others who share this passion, am incredibly death positive, and visit cemeteries on a regular basis.

Graveyards soothe me. They are serenity and comfort, inspiration, spiritual hubs, and places of extraordinary beauty.

I feel at home in cemeteries. Their headstones and markers, angels and crypts ask no questions, yet they spark many queries and remind me both of the brevity and extraordinary gift of life.

It’s safe to say that I am a proud taphophile and wouldn’t want it any other way.

My sweet husband, bless him, has long learned that a trip to a cemetery is a surefire way to lift my spirits, help calm my nerves if needed, and bring me happiness in the process.

We currently live within walking distance of our small town’s cemetery, which was founded in the 1910s. As I do not drive, the fact that – in the non-snowy months at least – I can reach this sacred spot on foot is all the more meaningful to me.

I visit often. The lanky evergreens that pepper and surround this quiet, humble small-town cemetery stand watch over those who slumber in the manicured ground below. The energy of the place is cathartic, pure, honest, sweet and wonderful.

With each trip, I become more familiar with those who reside in this graveyard, yet every visit introduces me to something new as well.

And when we travel or simply visit nearby towns, cities, and tiny unincorporated communities alike, I seek of cemeteries. Even before we’ve met, they feel like old friends.

Familiar, timeless, and earnest, graveyards beckon to me and I gladly heed their call. Each one teaching me, guiding me, and helping me to celebrate both sides of the veil in equal measure.

Are you a fellow graveyard lover as well?

The post What is Taphophilia? Exploring the Fascinating Subject of Grave Hunting appeared first on Witchcrafted Life.

Famous the world over for its snow, Canada certainly lives up to that reputation in most parts of the country – our wee woodland corner of British Columbia included.

As I pen these words, more than three feet of accumulated flakes are calling our backyard home and there are banks around the neighbourhood that come up to the second-floor windows on some houses.

Yes, it’s winter proper still around these parts and that got me thinking about one of my favourite magickal ingredients to gather when we’re squarely in the season of the Oak King and summer’s radiance seems lightyears away: graveyard snow.

What is graveyard snow?

As its name implies, graveyard snow – or cemetery snow – is snow that has been collected from a burial ground.

In order to do so, you will need to have access to a public graveyard or cemetery, gloves or mittens to keep your hands safe and warm, a waterproof and leakproof receptacle to carry your snow home in (unless you plan to work with it in situ), and possibly a small shovel, spade or other type of scoop to gather the snow with.

If you’re only collecting a small amount of snow or your gloves are waterproof, you may be able to easily put the snow into your bucket, container, etc with your hands.

Depending on the layout of the cemetery you’re visiting, you may be able to gather snow from the ground, the tops of headstones and other types of grave markers, low hanging tree branches, shrubs, statues or monuments, and gates or fences surrounding the cemetery itself.

When is the best time to collect graveyard snow?

This is largely a personal choice and there is no objectively “best” time to collect graveyard snow.

You may wish to do so on a day whose correspondences tie into those of your magickal workings. On a sabbat (such as Yule or Imbolc – or even, depending on when snow starts falling in your area, on Samhain), a particular stage in the moon’s cycle (I’m especially fond of working with cemeteries and materials collected from them during the full and dark moons), or at a time of the day that is conducive to the spell or ritual that you’ll be using the snow for.

When taking anything from nature, be it graveyard snow or otherwise, it is always a lovely and appreciated gesture and sign of respect to leave a small offering. This can be anything from a stone to springs of herbs, leaves you’ve gathered to fresh or naturally dried, preservative-free fruit.

How does graveyard snow differ from graveyard dirt?

Graveyard dirt, a much beloved and fairly commonly used material in the workings of many witches, hoodoo workers, and various other magickal folks is dirt from the ground of a graveyard.

It is employed in myriad types of working, including witches balls and bottles, protection, guarding, strength, luck, prosperity, finality, cursing, and death related spells and rituals, as well as times in the year when the veil is at its thinnest (such as Samhain and Beltane).

Graveyard dirt is believed to be imparted with many important qualities, energies and essences, including those from the departed who were laid to rest in that cemetery.

It is a sacred material and one that should always be gathered with the utmost reverence, respect, and consideration both for those laid to rest in the cemetery and for the natural environment/ecosystem of the cemetery itself.

Graveyard dirt is a fascinating topic unto itself and one I’m that sure I will cover here on Witchcrafed Life in greater depth in the future.

Aside from the rather obvious point that one is snow and one is dirt, graveyard snow differs from graveyard dirt because it is typically charged more with the magickal properties of snow firstly and a fainter – one might say “echo-like” quality of the general surrounding where it fell secondly.

As well, generally speaking, graveyard snow is easier to take without fear of having someone say something unwanted to you while you’re in the process of gathering it up. (Though that possibility is there anytime you’re removing anything from a cemetery.)

Magickal properties of snow

Snow is a wonderfully magickal natural material and one that, in a lot of cases, you may have access to for multiple months in a row if you live in an area that gets quite cold.

A literal form of the Element of Water, snow is ideally suited to workings pertaining to that element and to the elemental beings associated with water called undines.

It is also great for cleansing, purifying, consecrating, freezing or halting (something unwanted or unneeded), rejuvenating, preservation, and banishing work, to name but a few excellent used for it.

Snow itself is already charged to a degree by the fact that it sits outside under the sun and moonlight. You can charge it further, either in its solid or liquid (melted) form by imbuing snow with your intentions and intentionally placing it in the path of the sun or moonlight.

Specifically, you may wish to charge it under a new, full, or dark moon – such as those that occur either on or closest to a sabbat. I adore gathering and charging snow during the Yule and Imbolc seasons, respectively.

If you’ve gathered snow (and/or ice or icicles) that fell during a snowstorm or blizzard, keep in mind that the snow will be charged with the energy, intensity, and strength of storms and storm clouds.

You can keep snow that you’ve gathered in suitable containers (such as glass jars with lids) for quite some time. It can also be frozen in a freezer-safe container for later use throughout the year. I adore using snow gathered at Yule in some of my Litha workings.

Bringing the extreme of one season into that of another in a magickal context is a powerful and meaningful way to honour both, remind ourselves that the Wheel of the Year is ever turning, and to unite the energies of two sabbats that are on opposite ends of the calendar from each other.

The magick of snow is a wonderous thing! Snow helps to create light in the dark heart of winter. It is strong and powerful, yet ethereal and temporary at the same time (save for in extremely cold climate such as at poles and atop certain lofty mountains).

How to use graveyard snow in your magickal workings

You can utilize graveyard snow in most instances of snow magick, but given the energy of where it was collected from and the connection to the other side that anything from a graveyard stands to have, you may wish to use graveyard snow for darker, heavier, or more serious spells, rituals, cleansings, and other purposes.

The following are some ways of using graveyard snow in your magickal workings.

(Note that the snow is generally melted before being used.)

–Anoint yourself with melted snow. Ensure that the snow is clean and free of debris (run into through a coffee filter, cheesecloth, or linen napkin first if needed). Apply it to areas of your body that need rejuvenating, help with healing (do not apply snow to any type of injury or wound that would be harmed by cold or water), cleansing, unblocking, freezing of negative habits (for example, to your fingers if you wanted to “freeze” nail biting in its tracks), or as a general energy field pick-me-up during the sluggish days of winter.

-Apply melted snow as a protective barrier around your doors and windows. Lightly spray or dab melted snow to these areas, asking for protection and safety for your home itself and all who reside within. Ask that anything or anyone who may wish you or your home harm be frozen in their tracks before they reach your threshold.

–Bless your sacred space with melted snow. If you can do so while further snow is falling outside at the same time, this helps to bless both the inside and outside of your sacred space with the strength, energy, protection, and timeless beauty of snow and winter (or summer, if you live south of the equator).

-Build a snowman or other snow figure (for example, that of an animal you connect with on a spiritual level) as a protector of your property. Draw symbols, sigils, or words (or tuck pieces of paper or bark with such things on them) into your figure. Ask that it, and the strength of winter’s fortifying chill, help to guard your home and keep it clear of unwanted visitors or troubles all season long.

-Cleanse your crystals with (clean) melted snow. Those that you associate with darker workings, death, rebirth, protection, winter, Yule, Imbolc, and even snow itself (for example, snowflake obsidian) are all crystals that can benefit in particular from a lovely snow cleansing.  

-Cleanse yourself during a snowfall at a graveyard. If you’re able to visit a cemetery while it’s snowing, consider utilizing that opportunity to allow the snow to cleanse your spirit, bless you with the clarity and strength of winter, and energize your magickal mojo this winter. (Naturally, be safe and always wear weather appropriate clothing when you’re out in the snow).

-Create a snow altar. If you’ve gathered enough snow or are using a mix of graveyard snow and snow on your own property, you can create an outdoor altar. This altar will be temporary and anything placed on it that you wish to preserve needs to be water-safe or waterproof.

-Create a focus charged cleansing spray with snow as the primary component. Add other ingredients that work for your needs, such as herbs, essential oils, salt, mini pinecones or pine needles (for additional winter energy and the magickal properties that these natural materials house), or water-safe crystals or stones.

Use the spray to cleanse your home, the inside of your vehicle, your (water-safe) magickal tools, your candles, stone or crystal runes, or your clothing (again, ensuring it will not be damaged by water).

I like to cleanse my winter boots, coats, scarves and gloves with protection focused melted snow cleansing water to help keep me safe, warm, and guarded against the more dangerous elements of wintertime during the icy cold months.

–Draw sigils in the snow. The choice of sigil(s) is up to you and will relate to your workings, needs, and the fact that most things drawn in (or made out of) snow have an inherently temporary nature to them.

–Include snow in a ritual cleansing, banishing, releasing, or purification bath. While it would take a great deal of melted (and warmed!) snow to fill a bathtub, you can easily add a cup of snow to your bathwater. You may wish to charge and/or bless the snow first, though this is a personal choice.

–Let snow help to melt your troubles away. Gather some snow and focus the intent of something you’d like to clear your mind or life of into the snow. In a calm setting, light some candles and/or incense and concentrate on the bowl of snow, channeling what you’re looking to rid yourself into the snow as it melts. Once the snow has melted, dispose of it outdoors away from your property, if possible.

–Melt snow and use it in a spell jar, bottle or vile. Combine it with other ingredients that are relevant to your magickal needs. For extra charm and beauty, biodegradable glitter, if it is suitable to your spell or other type of working, can be a really lovely addition to these kinds of jars.

–Provide an offering of snow on your altar (indoors or outdoors) or other sacred space that you use for your magickal workings. If you work with deity and are in need of assistance, guidance, strength or support this winter, consider researching gods and goddesses associated with snow and inviting one or more of them to assist you, leaving a snow offering for them in the process.

As the snow was collected from a cemetery, it can make for an especially apropos and respectful offering to place on an ancestor altar or to otherwise offer to your ancestors and/or any other entities, spirits or beings from the other side that you presently work with.

–Save some snow to use when you plant your spring garden. If you’re a gardener or otherwise grow fresh herbs, flowers, tomatoes, etc, consider storing some melted snow to use as a blessing and strengthening helper of winter on its successor season, spring, when you plant the seeds of your garden for this year.

-Water scry with melted snow. Scrying in its multitude forms is one of my personal favourite forms of divination. Water scrying, especially when it applies to studying and discerning meaning in the ripples and movement of water is technically called hydromancy.

It is a wonderfully accessible form of divination that only needs a suitable bowl or chalice, water (melted snow in this case), and the focused thought and attention of the person doing the scrying.

Use melted snow to scry during the winter months, particularly during the sabbats, esbats, and anytime you feel a sense of clarity is strongly needed in your life. Consider making note (such as in your magickal journal or Book of Shadows) of what presents or reveals itself to use during your scrying season.

Important note: while none of the magickal uses for snow listed above involve ingesting snow, if you opt to eat or drink snow, ensure that you gather pristinely clean snow and that, for safety sake, you boil it first.

If, even after boiling and cooling, the snow tastes off, chemically, or otherwise strange in any way, immediately stop consuming it. Your health and safety must always come first when working magick.

The versatility of graveyard snow

Much like snow in general, graveyard snow is a multi-purpose, wonderful magickal ingredient. If you have access to both snow and graveyard, it is well worth seeking out and utilizing.

You might even want to gather some from atop graves themselves and other portions of snow from different parts of the graveyard, separating the two and using the former in workings that pertain more to death, banishing, protection, spirit work, psychic abilities, hedge riding, astral projection, dreams, and ancestor work.

Whereas burial in a graveyard is generally quite long-lasting for most bodies, snow is a temporary visitor in our lives each year. The potent combination of these two factors and the energy that each brings to the table makes graveyard snow a stellar choice for witches and magickal workers of all sorts who are fortunate to have access to it.

The post How to Use Graveyard Snow in your Magickal Workings appeared first on Witchcrafted Life.