A day (or week) late and a daffodil (or a hillside) short
Terribly disappointed to see mostly dead flowers this year.
One of the yearly acts of nature we try to catch is the annual blooming of Daffodil Hill at Lakeview Cemetery in Cleveland. We took some beautiful pictures among the yellow-filled hillside a couple years ago. (see below)
However, timing has never been a particular strong point of ours. Due to it being difficult to time the arrival of these short-bloomed annuals amid our other activities and Karen’s weekend work schedule, we arrived to a hill full of dead flowers this year.
Yes, we were disappointed, but we had other plans for the cemetery on what turned out to be a cold April afternoon in northeast Ohio.
Not only is Lakeview cemetery the final resting place for a US president, James Garfield from just down the street in Mentor, it holds the remains of a national, former local, radio hero and a long-time local hero who also held down a radio shift for many years; Alan Freed and Michael Stanley Gee respectively. Of course Stanley was the front man for the ultra popular Northcoast rock group the Michael Stanley Band, and co-host of a popular daily local TV show, PM Magazine.
We were also there to see two other graves. One was of Ray Chapman who was the only major league ball player to be killed when hit with a pitch in 1920 while playing for the Cleveland Indians.
Last, but most familiar, on our list was that of my great Aunt Audrey and Uncle William Vaccariello. William was my grandfather’s youngest brother and died in 2012 at 96 years old. My Aunt Audrey had passed in 1990. It was the first time I had visited their gravesite.
What I DIDN’T know was next to my aunt and uncle’s headstone I would see two other names I recognized. Those of my great grandfather and grandmother who were both born in Italy in 1881. Somewhere in all the family conversations I guessed I missed the fact they were buried there.
Since it was too early to eat at the restaurant recommended to us at the corner of Mayfield and Euclid, just down the street from the cemetery, we decided to head over to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Something we do on a whim whenever we head out to the Botanical Garden. We never got to that museum as we decided to use our Holden Arboretum membership to get a parking discount at the garden to walk around Wade Oval. But we didn’t get to that right away because we walked around the outside to areas of the garden property we didn’t even know existed, even though we’ve been inside that place many times.
What Daffodil Hill looked like on our visit in 2021.
Check out the photos below of both inside and outside the Botanical Garden.
There were plenty of colorful tulips and just a few daffodils still in bloom.
We also checked out the main lobby for the Natural History Museum. We are looking forward to the large expansion project they have scheduled to unveil in November.
Somewhere among all this, we found Thing.
We killed enough time to try out a Lebanese place called Sittoo. Their food was delicious!
At least that place didn’t disappoint us like the daffodils did.
See all of the photos from the afternoon below:
