The Lair of the Emerald Serpent

The Izzie escape from house elf slavery is drawing to an end. Back at work on Monday morning. It's been a very busy two weeks with lots of gorgeous weather and gardens and graveyards
Part of the reason for taking time off at the end of May is to be able to go to the annual Fremantle Heritage Festival. It's a feast of museums, books, talks, walks and all sorts of culture vulture things. That was until this year. Picked up a program the Monday before last and was rather disappointed at the lack of events. Had gotten rather fond of the annual visit to the book binders at Biblio Folio. It was not on at all this year. But the graveyard walks still were.
It just so happened that the graveyard was about a 30 minute walk from the farmers' market where the Izzie had been slinking since 11am that morning
It's on every Sunday from 7.30am but Izzie very rarely ever goes due to the usual afternoon shift at work.
By 11am just about everything is already gone but the Izzie likes going anyway. There's always something at the stall with herbs and seedlings for growing rather than gobbling and anyway the place has got a very pretty permaculture garden which is lovely to lurk in and drool over.

The graveyard tour itself was from 2-3pm. There was around 20 people in the group including rather more little beasties than one would expect. They were probably there to see the Bon Scott grave which is the most visited grave site in the Wild West of Oz.
Izzie found the paupers grave sites of two mass murderers rather more interesting as well as the countless obelisks, urns, angels and all those creepy totally over the top memorial stones
The tour guide then brought us to the more modern parts of the cemetery with the mausoleums and the very large Italian sections with some seriously kitschy piles of marble before finishing at the AC/DC shrine. She seemed ever so amused how this critter who used to be a source of embarrassment and annoyance for the Cemetery heritage people ( due in no small part to the fans trampling the grounds and leaving offerings of cigarettes and alcoholic beverages to their idol) has now become respectable and finally got himself listed in the Notable Graves book.
Must definitely come back for a proper peek at those. But Izzie had other plans for that particular day which included finding a nice sunny little bench under a gum tree and reading the last few chapters of the fifth Potter book. A most appropriate place indeed.
But there was one thing in this graveyard which was an absolute affront to this serpent's sensibilities. One thing that the Izzie found seriously upsetting and it was absolutely inescapable. Even the normally stylish and sensible Italians had succumbed to the evil awfulness. More than half the graves and plaques were adorned with pathetic plastic flowers. Some had faded and others were all bright and cheerful in their garish glory. They were simply hideous. Izzie swears that if anyone ever should put such a thing on this serpent's grave, we will personally resurrect from the dead and strangle the critter. A real prickly cranky cactus is infinitely prettier than a plastic rose.

Had visited the oldest graveyard in the city the previous day. Was hoping to go to the 5pm Saturday church service. Normally unable to go due to it usually being an Izzie work day. Turned up just after 4pm hoping for an hour or so of mooching in the grounds but the gates were locked and there was no sign of life at all. Waited outside but no one ever did turn up to unlock the gates. Been more than a year since last visiting there so it's possible they no longer do the services due to lack of attendance or the church folks having other commitments
Did peek at the website and it says that services still are on the 1st, 3rd and 5th Saturdays of the month. It's possible the page hasn't been updated for ages. Well - will take a chance again next Saturday. After all, any other thing planned for that day can be done any old time but getting the serpent's snout inside those sacred grounds is a very rare treat indeed

Petunia thinks that Izzie is totally twisted for this ghoulish interest. But we got company. The Izzie sister is also a bit of a graveyard groupie
But this addiction to the ancient, spooky and derelict was confirmed beyond all possible doubt last Tuesday when watching a program about Detroit after the demise of General Motors. Had already decided that Flint, Michigan was on the 'must visit' list after seeing Michael Moore's movie "Roger and me" But Detroit looks even more derelict. It was sort of like Chernobyl with people
Even as a little flobberworm, was always intrigued by ghost towns, old abandoned buildings and warehouses and rusty old machinery.

Well, it's time for the evening fix of Late Night Live doom and gloom so better leave the goblins and gardens for another day.