Strolling through the past

Joel had vacation the other day and asked me if I wanted to take a road trip with him to a few antique stores.  Well, I sure did!   We went to a HUGE antique mall and spent over three hours going through most of the inventory.  At least I think it was most of the inventory, after awhile you get kind of dizzy from looking at so much... er....stuff!

  We are always on the lookout for anything to do with stained glass, especially vintage lamp bases, and also for furniture.   Though we saw all sorts of things, neither of us found anything we wanted to buy, which was rather amazing.  We tend to divide and conquer in these stores; luckily we have our cellphones so we can locate each other, sort of like a modern day 'trail of breadcrumbs in the forest' idea. 

Cruising antique stores is one passion, the other is photographing statuary and stained glass mausoleum windows in graveyards.  (I know, it may sound like an odd past-time, but there is so much beauty to be found in many of them, from the elaborate stonework to the statuary carvings and stained glass.)  We stopped at several cemeteries on our way home and Joel took some pictures near sunset. 

Chapel on cemetery grounds.

You'll have to bear in mind, these pictures are taken through the glass doors of a mausoleum so the quality isn't 100%, but the setting sun helped to illuminate many of them very well.

Me, peeking through the door

Unfortunately, many memorial windows have fallen victim to vandals.

Lovely gate and stonework

But even having gates or bronze bars doesn't stop vandals----many mausoleums have their windows and doors barred up or closed up with plywood or cement. I'm sure there was a window installed here years ago.

This dog statue was next to the family plot; he must have been a much-loved family pet.

Beautiful carving

From inside...

to outside

What many of them look like from the outside

From inside

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The marble frame has fallen down, but at least the window is intact.

Some windows have been replaced.

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My thanks to Joel for taking his 'antique' maternal unit out for the day, another lovely memory to cherish.

Love,

Mom