Springfield - Our day consisted mostly of visiting my dead relatives. I first took Davis to see his great great grand mother Pauline Miller. Actually he was never able to meet her in person so we did the next best thing…..
We visited her grave. We affectionately called her “nana” and she’s buried with all the other Geiserts in the Mount Zion Cemetery.
Her tomb stone reads Pauline Miller 1998 – 1985.
I know, I know, it’s slightly morbid but we also visited both my grandmother and grandfather too. Albeit at a much schwanker Saint Peter and Paul Cemetery.
A big difference in the two cemeteries or “ lands of the dead" as Davis was calling them is that at
Pauline’s plot (which is awesome, nestled between the only two massive trees in the place) is you can actually plant flowers. Mark and Davis planted a red Geranium at Nana’s. At Florence and Joe’s you are not as invited to over indulge your loved ones. We left cut lilies. It is apparent there is a lot more structure SP&P. Cut flowers only.
The up side to the whole grave site thing is I saw my first Philadelphian honeybee. Sure enough, one of the girls working the clover. Back here there’s tons of clover everywhere. In the yards, parks, cracks in the streets, and cemeteries. Check out the pollen sacks – brownish! This brings up an interesting questions: the issue of which plants supply what forage source? Clover honey is well known yet here is a forager working the flower for pollen too? Curious…….
Perhaps it was the heat of the day but when we returned from the death parade I saw both honeybees and bumblebees working clover and this other purple flower. Awesome to see feral bees foraging in the urban environment of Springfield PA. the neighborhood doesn’t strike me as a place anyone would keep bees but looking at our local Napa contingency who knows?
Here are a few floral images I made from some of the dead fake flowers laying around the cemeteries:
Philadelphian Honeybee. Check out the color of her pollen. The first bee I spotted on this trip was at the Mount Zion Cemetery.
Bees working the foliage around my uncle's place in the suburban area of Philadelphia:
A Bumble Bee
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