Afternoon walk at Spring Grove

Saturday
It was a sunny but cool afternoon as we went walking round Spring Grove Cemetery and Arboretum. There’s always plenty of scope for photography at Spring Grove, between the beautiful statuary, elaborate mausoleums such as the one shown in my thumbnail picture. the magnificent trees and shrubs, a number of lakes, bird life, and occasionally other wildlife, such as deer. The mausoleum shown in my thumbnail is that of John Robinson, who founded the country’s first traveling circus in 1824 when he took three wagons, five horses, and a tent across the Allegheny mountains. He eventually sold shares to the Ringling Brothers. He was the son of a Scottish soldier who fought in the American Revolution and he ran away to join a circus when he was young, becoming a bareback rider. His circus was very popular in the South, but his wagons, cages and costumes were all made in Cincinnati. Some of the circus members are buried in this mausoleum, however the family also bought another lot in the cemetery for other circus members. His mausoleum (1874) is a mixture of Gothic and Classical elements including statuary of both Classical and traditionally religious nature. The allegorical figures are Faith, Hope, and Charity, including on top the Angel of Resurrection. The Purple Beautyberry in the lower centre made a beautiful sight just outside the visitor centre, and the Cypress “knees” ( centre right) always make a fascinating sight.
I got the last of the Christmas wreaths up at our front windows this afternoon - it’s taken a while as I was cleaning the windows first, which hadn’t been done in quite a while. Then this evening we enjoyed another streamed Cincinnati Orchestra concert, followed by the usual question and answer session, with the conductor Louis Langrais, the solo pianist, and two members of the orchestra, which is always very interesting.