Neon’s A Doll A Migraine-less Day, More Or Less - 2019 edition!

[neon_jellyfish]

Oh, what a lovely picturesque cemetery!  It's sad when graves are forgotten or abandoned, or have the stones tipped over, but so nice that people actually make a traditional event out of going and looking after them.  There's such a contrast between the 3rd and 4th photos here; it looks like this is some other ancient world, and then >boom< skyscrapers in the background.  I especially like the 3rd (that one is really magazine-worthy) and 8th ones, and what a marvellous collection of lights in the last one.
I enjoyed the little tour of your surroundings.  What a great spot for photos.

Thank you!

This cemetery is quite old, so there are a lot of graves of families that died out and there's no one left to take care of them, and after a while, no one even knows who rests in them. After some time (I can't tell you exactly how long, but it takes years), these old graves are emptied and re-assigned to new owners. As for the photobombing skyscrapers, the cemetery used to be on the outskirts of Prague, but the city got bigger and completely surrounded the cemetery with mostly ugly modern buildings. It's a shame, but it can't be helped.

What a lovely tradition, and great photos!

Oh wow, this is all so wonderful.

Thank you both!

What beautiful photos, and the cultural history about the grave candles is fascinating!

If I recall accurately, you wanted to take some photos like this last year, but there were too many people in the cemetery and you could not get the shots you wanted. It looks like you had the place to yourself today, at least for a little while; just you, your dollies, and the no-doubt amused spirits.

Thank you!

Yes, I wanted to do this last year, but it didn't work out. Last year, the All Souls' Day fell on friday, and that always means more people, because a lot of people in Prague have relatives in other places, so they tend their Prague graves on friday and then leave for weekend and visit all the other graves (some people jokingly call it Grave Tour). This year's Dušičky fell on saturday, so most people were already away and I had more peace for playing with my doll in the cemetery. Sadly, it also meant less candles, because these burn for 8-10 hours, so most graves were already dark, as they were decorated yesterday. Another thing that helped was that we went there shortly before closing time, so most people already left. Still, there were dozens of people, but mostly in other, less abandoned parts of the cemetery.

Honestly, I still feel weird about doing dolly photoshoot on graves, but since I'm now a 'grave keeper', I thought it might be OK. My great-grandmother and my great-great-grandmother and great-great-grandfather didn't object when I asked for their permission  


Day 307

I wanted to do the thing I wanted to do on Halloween (see that sentence? I'm Shakespeare reincarnate), but my migraine had other plans. Cold weather came unusually early this fall, so most of my mom's balcony garden froze to death, but a few plant heroes survived.



Filter!

[dargosmydaddy]

So pretty!

[davidd]

Fabulous match between the colors in the figure and the foliage!

Shakespeare reincarnate; that would ex˚plain your superlative command of language and your infinite wit.

Our autumnal weather has also been running more than 20˚F/12˚C below average for this time year.

[werepuppy]

Oh,so pretty

[Elfy]

Despite your cold snap, this one has a real spring vibe to it.

[neon_jellyfish]

Many thanks, everyone!


Day 308

Another tired shelfie.



This is unfiltered original.




And I tweaked curves on this one.

[davidd]

Oooooohhhh!!!!!!

What an out of this world Novi Stars pic!

[werepuppy]

Oh, there's such a sci-fi vibe here! Like the kind of horror movie style one where you don't know what the alien is going to do...

[dargosmydaddy]

So cool!

[Alliecat]

Fun sci-fi-looking shot.
It's sad to see all the flowers dying and freezing But you did get a pretty warm-looking shot here.

[Lejays17]

What a lovely tradition, and it’s a beautiful graveyard/cemetery. The candles really set the atmosphere as a bit spooky but serene at the same time.

Even losing the light, they are still beautiful shots. Your cemetary looks a lot different to ours.
(I’ve visited a lot of small village/town cemeteries here on holidays - they are almost always dry & dusty and uncared for.)

[neon_jellyfish]

Oooooohhhh!!!!!!

What an out of this world Novi Stars pic!

Hehe, thank you! I thought you'd like it. I have to take more pics of my Novis, they're so cute.

Oh, there's such a sci-fi vibe here! Like the kind of horror movie style one where you don't know what the alien is going to do...

Oh, don't worry, this is a good alien who came to save silly Earthlings from the evil alien whose ship they looted because they thought it was abandoned but ooops, it wasn't. The evil alien melts because it can't handle Gail Lexi's cuteness.

So cool!

Thank you!

Fun sci-fi-looking shot.  
It's sad to see all the flowers dying and freezing  But you did get a pretty warm-looking shot here.

Thanks! Yeah, it was a very unpleasant surprise, but there are a few plants that survived, and some that will probably come back to life in spring, so it's not as bad as it could be. It does look warm, doesn't it? It was cold, but sunny. And Briar makes every picture look warm.

What a lovely tradition, and it’s a beautiful graveyard/cemetery.  The candles really set the atmosphere as a bit spooky but serene at the same time.

Even losing the light, they are still beautiful shots.  Your cemetary looks a lot different to ours.
(I’ve visited a lot of small village/town cemeteries here on holidays - they are almost always dry & dusty and uncared for.)

Thank you! All Souls' Day is one of reasons I love autumn so much! I loved going to cemeteries even before we were put in charge of family grave. That specific cemetery is quite special, but we have several beautiful ones around here. Only the modern ones aren't so pretty, they lack atmosphere.


Day 309 - Finally Halloween

So I finally got to do the thing I wanted to do on Halloween. Remei is going to show you a ghost of a cemetery. Ghosts in a cemetery are quite a common thing, but this one is a ghost of a cemetery, lingering in its place a century after the cemetery itself met its demise.



Hello! Isn't it great that my first and my second proper photoshoot both took place in a cemetery? I think it's awesome!

This cemetery was founded in 1842, and closed in 1902, due to lack of space and health concerns. I didn't find what health concerns exactly, but I'm guessing contamination of groundwater, because the cemetery wasn't just closed, all the graves were relocated to another cemetery. Most of them were moved in 1902-1903, then, after a long pause (during which the cemetery became a bona fide jungle), the last remains were exhumed and buried elsewhere in 1942-1943 (years ending with 'two' seem to be a theme with this place). The cemetery was then forgotten for decades, but two years ago, it was renovated, it received the status of cultural monument of Czech Republic and is now protected by law. Which is great, my Owner was afraid the plot would be sold and something awful would be built there, so we're glad that didn't happen.



See? Empty. There are a lot of abandoned graveyards in Prague, and a lot of those completely buried under new buildings, but this grave-less one is unique.



Oh, and the thing I'm sitting on isn't a grave, it's a pedestal that used to support a cast-iron cross. A lot of Czech cemeteries have their center marked by a cross. We'll get to the fate of the cross later. Right behind me is a tiny morgue.



It was about to collapse, so it's a good thing they fixed it, but to be perfectly honest, it looked better with the old crumbling plasterwork (I've seen some pictures).



At least they kept the original shape of the windows.



Now it stores a few old gravestones. Please ignore the cup under my hand, someone put a candle in there, probably on All Souls' Day, and for some reason, they used plastic cup, and surprise surprise, it melted. I tried to remove it, but it's basically soldered to the floor. Now, back to the cross!



It's right there, see? I guess you don't...



There it is. You have to force your way through a coniferous jungle, but it's worth it. It was still on its pedestal in 1943, but then they decided to move it too, someone took it down, leant it against this tree, and then they forgot about it and never moved it to its new place. It remained here, no gale or blizzard was strong enough to knock it over, and the tree just kept growing around it, slowly taking it in. I wonder how many years it will take for it to sink into the tree trunk completely...



And that's it! I hope you liked this little tour around a place that both does and doesn't exist!

---

Neon here. I wanted these photos to look ghostly, so I'm using filtered ones. Here are two unfiltered samples:





And a bonus photo from 1943, with last remaining graves and the cross in its original place (the photo was taken from the morgue).

[davidd]

SO MUCH STUFF TO ÜBER-SQUEE ABOUT in this post!!!!

Remei has clothes, for one thing! Adorable clothes. Wait... more all-caps required: ADORABLE CLOTHES!!!! Purple dress and stripey socks!!!

(Okay, yeah, I should have commented on Remei's outfit in the first cemetery post, but I guess I got distracted by the candles. Fire-obsessed Triv was nattering in my ear the entire time about the candles.)

And a ghost cemetery! Ghost of a cemetery (as you say), not in a cemetery!

What a fascinating history! I'm surprised that despite all the political upheavals that have affected the area over the decades, they were organized and dedicated... dead-icated... enough to relocate the graves. Although, granted, it took them forty years to finish.

The iron cross growing in to the tree is one of the most spooky cool amazing things I have ever seen! That is incredible!

This was truly a fascinating and fun Smart Doll Adventure!

And I'm so happy to see your beautiful Felicity/Remei in action! She's a real cutie! Gotta love that little smile!

[werepuppy]

Oh wow, it's amazing to see Remei - she looks so cute!

Also a ghost of a cemetry! Omg! That's amazing!

[dargosmydaddy]

Wow, what is awesome photo story... Remei makes a lovely tour guide (and her outfit suits her wonderfully), and the pictures are just perfection. The one n front of the window is my favorite.