Memorial Day

These are pictures from our traditional trip to Green Lawn Cemetery, the first one established in St. Peter when Minnesota was still a territory.












It's a beautiful place, full of old oak trees, columbine, wild strawberries, and dappled sunshine. Unfortunately, today it was also full of gnats. You had to wave your hand in front of your face to keep from swallowing them.










This is the headstone of the Pettijohn family. There are three small children buried here and a young man of 19. In these days, people hoped their children made it through infancy, they didn't expect it. I can't imagine living through the deaths of all those babies. We wondered if the young man died in the Civil War. There are many veterans buried here, some from the Indian Wars in New Ulm and from the Civil War. Someone takes good care of the graves and they all had stars and little flags today.








I was admiring these beautiful columbine flowers and turned a little to the west to see...













this tiny fawn napping in the grass. Regis isn't as close as it appears. He made sure to stay a safe distance and had the camera on zoom. He isn't very old as you can see...he barely came above the grass.












I thought he was soundly sleeping, in fact, we wondered at first if he was alive. In the picture, if you look closely, you can see that his eye is open. His mama was probably in the brush waiting for us to leave.