Memorials

[Broch]

Am I a bad person?

I went for a walk today to a local waterfall - cold but beautiful scenery of the hills, scrubland and woodland, riverside and, of course, the waterfall itself. Along the way there were a number of memorial plaques on planted trees. I have noticed more and more of these over the last few years, on trees and benches, at isolated spots, viewpoints, and paths.

I understand why people want to put them there. I understand their feelings and intentions, and I have sympathy for them. But they take something away from the place for me. They make it less 'individual', less remote, less enjoyable.

Am I alone in this? Am I a bad person?

 

[Machiavelli]

I find anything like this annoying. I always feel likes it’s an attempt to stamp ourselves on the world, trying to keep some kind of legacy alive.

I’m planning to be put in a mushroom suit and chucked in a hole in the ground. I’ll let the fungi be my place marker.

 

[Nice65]

No, I totally agree with you, it’s selfish on behalf of the families, much as they have my condolences.

I get especially annoyed at people using screws, pins, or nails to attach them, and the lack of thought regarding leaving artificial flowers or planting something totally out of place in the natural surroundings. At the top of the South Downs is a memorial where someone has planted a variagated Pittosporum amongst the Dogwood, Spindle, and natural Juniper bushes. I’ve been tempted to get rid of it many times.

 

[Kadushu]

I have no strong feelings about this. It's just a matter of taste or one human opinion vs another. If it's actually harming nature then that's a diffferent matter.

 

[punkrockcaveman]

I think some memorials have a place. There's a memorial placed on the cliff edge at filet Brigg, of a fisherman who lost his life sadly whilst fishing there- a very good safety reminder if you ask me.

There is a local spot that is perhaps 2 acres in size filled with planted trees that are dedicated to a person lost. I find it dead spooky in there especially after dark, which is annoying as it's a through route to some of my favourite local haunts.

 

[Laurentius]

I was introduced to the Woodland trust by someone who planted trees in memory of my mum. I don't think they put up a plaque, you just get a certificate. I don't mind the idea if it is a memorial to someone who planted the trees, but a plaque on a bench is more appropriate than a plaque on a tree. Also here in Coventry we have the War Memorial Park, where each tree is dedicated to one of the fallen with a plaque beneath it, not on it.

 

[saxonaxe]

It may sound contradictory but I think it's possible to leave a personal memorial, not one for public viewing, without marring an area. A tree of similar species, wild flowers common to the area, even a piece of local stone/rock can mark a place without what I think is the strange need to advertise it to everybody else.

Nearly 20 years ago I was walking West to East on the South Downs Way in Sussex, an almost annual trek for me at that time. Somewhere in West Sussex I camped for the night after a fairly long day, it was October and apart from a few dog walkers close to a Downland car park I had seen nobody for some time.

As the daylight faded I looked out of my tent and was surprised to see two Roe Deer standing by a Blackthorn Tree not far from my tent.
Roe Deer are not uncommon in some areas of the Downs, but their appearance just there, I thought was strange. Unfortunately my movement to get my camera spooked them and they simply moved away.
I just felt at the time, why did they appear there? Not being able to crash out for the night without investigating I took a photograph of the tree from my tent, and then went with my torch to the Thorn Tree where the Deer had been standing.


I didn't photograph what I saw there in the fading light but went back to my tent puzzled but not disturbed, and slept well feeling that I had witnessed something to which there was probably no simple explanation.
The next morning I took these photographs.




I know what she is, a Garden Ornament, but she was heavy, too heavy to be carried a couple of miles from the nearest car park just to be discarded and she had been there for some considerable time because she was well covered by grass. It's possible the Deer treated her as a Salt Lick as some animals will lick concrete/Cement for the natural salt content, but she showed no signs of wear and until I moved the long grass to take the photograph she well well hidden.

A burial place for a beloved Dog perhaps, memorial to a lost Child? I'm sure she was not meant for public viewing. People who follow the Pagan Way will know the Thorn Tree is sacred, perhaps that is why the site was chosen to leave a memorial.
Whatever the reason for her presence I left later that morning leaving the Downland Fairy undisturbed sleeping under the Thorn Tree.

 

[JonathanD]

I’m not keen on people leaving memorials everywhere.

One common place for people to leave things like this, is in and around the Major Oak in Sherwood. I spend a lot of time there, and late at night when everyone is too scared to venture into Sherwood apart from witches (who play the most amazing calming music), I like to check the Major out. The offerings are usually quite biodegradable and beautiful. On one occasion I was checking out the colony of red backs that live inside the tree, and looked up to see a small plastic Tesco bag wedged in the ceiling of rotten wood above me. I was annoyed by this so risked life and limb climbing up the inside avoiding the deadly spiders to get it. When I did I found this…

[edit] I’ll have to finish this some other time. For some reason the site isn’t showing any icons (just small white squares) so I can’t upload pictures. Using iPad. And it’s the same on my phone and Poppy’s iPad too.

 

[Nice65]

It may sound contradictory but I think it's possible to leave a personal memorial, not one for public viewing, without marring an area. A tree of similar species, wild flowers common to the area, even a piece of local stone/rock can mark a place without what I think is the strange need to advertise it to everybody else.

Nearly 20 years ago I was walking West to East on the South Downs Way in Sussex, an almost annual trek for me at that time. Somewhere in West Sussex I camped for the night after a fairly long day, it was October and apart from a few dog walkers close to a Downland car park I had seen nobody for some time.

As the daylight faded I looked out of my tent and was surprised to see two Roe Deer standing by a Blackthorn Tree not far from my tent.
Roe Deer are not uncommon in some areas of the Downs, but their appearance just there, I thought was strange. Unfortunately my movement to get my camera spooked them and they simply moved away.
I just felt at the time, why did they appear there? Not being able to crash out for the night without investigating I took a photograph of the tree from my tent, and then went with my torch to the Thorn Tree where the Deer had been standing.


I didn't photograph what I saw there in the fading light but went back to my tent puzzled but not disturbed, and slept well feeling that I had witnessed something to which there was probably no simple explanation.
The next morning I took these photographs.




I know what she is, a Garden Ornament, but she was heavy, too heavy to be carried a couple of miles from the nearest car park just to be discarded and she had been there for some considerable time because she was well covered by grass. It's possible the Deer treated her as a Salt Lick as some animals will lick concrete/Cement for the natural salt content, but she showed no signs of wear and until I moved the long grass to take the photograph she well well hidden.

A burial place for a beloved Dog perhaps, memorial to a lost Child? I'm sure she was not meant for public viewing. People who follow the Pagan Way will know the Thorn Tree is sacred, perhaps that is why the site was chosen to leave a memorial.
Whatever the reason for her presence I left later that morning leaving the Downland Fairy undisturbed sleeping under the Thorn Tree.

Nice that. With some thought involved.

Increasingly I find it’s little copses that remain after the planners and builders have left the required chunks of green space that are the favourite spots for these memorials, or people forced out of town parks and recreational areas because the land has been built on. Just why I have to walk past a piece of ribbon attached by a drawing pin to a tree I have no idea. If you’re going to do it, carve a piece of stone or wood and set it into the environment like for the fisherman mentioned above, or the sheepdog that sat by his dead owner for days up in the Dales or somewhere.

 

[Nice65]

I’m not keen on people leaving memorials everywhere.

One common place for people to leave things like this, is in and around the Major Oak in Sherwood. I spend a lot of time there, and late at night when everyone is too scared to venture into Sherwood apart from witches (who play the most amazing calming music), I like to check the Major out. The offerings are usually quite biodegradable and beautiful. On one occasion I was checking out the colony of red backs that live inside the tree, and looked up to see a small plastic Tesco bag wedged in the ceiling of rotten wood above me. I was annoyed by this so risked life and limb climbing up the inside avoiding the deadly spiders to get it. When I did I found this…

[edit] I’ll have to finish this some other time. For some reason the site isn’t showing any icons (just small white squares) so I can’t upload pictures. Using iPad. And it’s the same on my phone and Poppy’s iPad too.

The white squares have been here all day, no pics or anything for me either, though the Attach Files buttons opens my photo library.

 

[TeeDee]

I’m not keen on people leaving memorials everywhere.

One common place for people to leave things like this, is in and around the Major Oak in Sherwood. I spend a lot of time there, and late at night when everyone is too scared to venture into Sherwood apart from witches (who play the most amazing calming music), I like to check the Major out. The offerings are usually quite biodegradable and beautiful. On one occasion I was checking out the colony of red backs that live inside the tree, and looked up to see a small plastic Tesco bag wedged in the ceiling of rotten wood above me. I was annoyed by this so risked life and limb climbing up the inside avoiding the deadly spiders to get it. When I did I found this…

[edit] I’ll have to finish this some other time. For some reason the site isn’t showing any icons (just small white squares) so I can’t upload pictures. Using iPad. And it’s the same on my phone and Poppy’s iPad too.

My £10 is on it being a Geo-Cache.

 

[Tengu]

An awkward angle so I could get a closeup.

about a hands span across?

In a corner of a field...literally.

 

[JonathanD]

Take 2..

I’m not keen on people leaving memorials everywhere.

One common place for people to leave things like this, is in and around the Major Oak in Sherwood. I spend a lot of time there, and late at night when everyone is too scared to venture into Sherwood apart from witches (who play the most amazing calming music), I like to check the Major out.


The offerings are usually quite biodegradable and beautiful. On one occasion I was checking out the colony of red backs that live inside the tree, and looked up to see a small plastic Tesco bag wedged in the ceiling of rotten wood above me. I was annoyed by this so risked life and limb climbing up the inside avoiding the deadly spiders to get it. When I did I found this…



So it turns out the little girls ashes had been scattered in and around the tree. Really sad. So I took the bag home and replaced the note a little higher in a more well hidden spot.

 

[JonathanD]

My £10 is on it being a Geo-Cache.

Splendid. £10 up and it’s not even midday.

 

[oldtimer]

One of my colleagues died in harness. As a memorial, a group of us paid for trees to be planted in part of the wood we used for outdoor education. It now appears on Ordnance Survey maps as "June's Copse". Thus it is a lasting memorial for those of us who knew her and the copse, and its name, hopefully will remain long after any plaque or headstone would have decayed.

Tomorrow, I will be part of a work party in the Millenium Wood in our village. The wood was planted after contributions from villagers and some trees have small plaques showing the names of villagers to whom they are living memorials. The trees will outlast the plaques and the rest of us but will remain for future villagers and wildlife to enjoy.

I have no problem with this sort of memorial.

 

[JonathanD]

Here’s more stuff I’ve found in and around there.

 

[Wander]

Must say I don't have too many problems with memorials to loved ones.
In fact, there's a bit of me that kind of likes it - shows how much the landscape means to people and how they connect with it.
It doesn't matter if it's in a way we approve or not, in fact, why should it? It's their landscape as much as ours and since time immemorial people have left trinkets for people they've lost.
So, no, I'm not too fussed by it.
Ideally, of course, I'd rather they left something sympathetic to the environment, but that feels obnoxious and arrogant of me. It's their space as much as mine and that could be a spot that meant the world to them where they shared many walks, many views, many missed times.
Tell you what is steadily getting on my wits - those faery doors being left in tree roots.

 

[Toddy]

When I was very little, and was playing with white pebbles, my Granny told me to scatter them apart when I was done. Left in a pile, in one place, was a marker that, "someone was there"; leave them in peace.
In a land with all the history that Britain has, oft times a burial was not a public thing, sometimes it just hurt too much, or someone died remote.
I still can't leave a pile of white pebbles I've gathered unscattered.

I know folks who break up and scatter cairns that litter our mountain tops, I know that in some of the sites the bone ash from cremations enriches soil so much that it changes what is pristine alpine conditions and threatens the plants that have evolved to live in such. I think to scatter ash without appropriate forethought isn't really kind.

On the whole so long as the memorials are biodegradable, not obtrusive, they're just someone's grief and memories given a substance and a place for a while. Give it a quiet acknowledgement and leave it in peace.

Our island used to be tree covered. I think planting them in memory is a lovely idea
Plant something right, something that belongs, something that will grow and enrich the world.

M

 

[Hammock_man]

I know that in some of the sites the bone ash from cremations enriches soil so much that it changes what is pristine alpine conditions

I understand the idea that a given spot meant so much to someone they would want this but then if everyone does this, it is a bad thing.
I have often wondered on the idea that "this spot is so beautiful I like to visit it, but why are all these folk here spoiling it". It is ok for me to come here again and again but so wrong for other folk to crowd me out. The Idea that now 10,000 people have walked the Peninne way, they had to put flag stones down in places to protect it. I truly don't know if this was a bad thing or sometime to rejoice about. One of the reasons the steps in such and such hill have been around for 2000 years is for 1990 years no one really gave a damm. In the next 12 months ( since been mentioned in the newspapers) they will be stepped on by more folk in a day then they used to get decade. If we are to have a "National Park", why can the nation not visit it; they paid for it.
A camp site I use will permit NO foraging at all. Part of me really does think it is so you have to buy their logs but at the same time I can see woodland devoid of all deadwood in a matter of months.

In short then, its ok if I do it but bad if I and others do it ; If I don't like it then no one should do it. Kind of think you can't win!

 

[Tengu]

We have so many LDP here these days, but they are seldom used except the most famous.