Cemeteries seem to be at their most spiritual in falling snow. Here we see the iconic Camperdown Elm Tree in the Brooklin Cemetery last week seemingly extending her muscular arms to protect her assigned plots.
The Brooklin Cemetery has a number of specimen trees and plants that may have been put there under the influence of the American Garden Cemetery Movement, which reportedly started in New England. The first garden cemetery was opened in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1831; the second in Bangor, Maine, in 1834, according to histories of the Movement.
The main idea of the Movement was to make visits to the graves of loved ones visually pleasurable with the addition of ornamental trees, bushes, and other plants, and even waterways. Prior to the 1830s, town cemeteries often were just weedy fields of overcrowded grave markers. (Image taken in Brooklin, Maine, on December 10, 2021.)