Labor Day in Baltimore

On Labor Day, my friend Joel and I headed off to Baltimore to spend just a few hours exploring. We started first with a favorite, the abandoned clothing factory. We had come close to not being able to go in because I had bottled out of climbing a 15ft gate with spikes on the top. It had felt a little wobbly at the top with few footholds so I ashamedly clambered back down, hanging my head, despite Joel's reassurances that I wasn't a wuss. Imagine my delight and relief when we found another entrance which involved no more than bending down!

 

  

  

This place was supposed to be sold off and emptied but as we got on the main floor, little had changed from the time I was here before except some of the coats were thrown about. We spent a quick hour or so capturing images of rusty machines, coats and buttons bathed in dim lighting and coated with plaster dust before we hurtled off to grab a quick lunch and on to the next location.                                                         

 The next stop was Green Mount Cemetery which since being established in 1869 has over 65000 graves. There are many beautiful works of art and famous people interred here, including John Wilkes Booth. Green Mount was one of the first 'rural' cemeteries in the U.S.

 

 

The photo above is my favorite sculpure so far in the cemetery, Riggs Monument by Hans Schuler.

 

This headstone intrigued me, and I stood pondering for a few moments trying to fathom it out. I finally figured out that the answer might be on the other side.

It was. But I have no idea what the orange was about.

After only seeing about a quarter of the cemetery, we left heading to our last location which we had spotted on the way up.We were only able to be out for a few hours total, and not wanted to miss a thing, we sped back the way we'd come.

The bonus location was the American Visionary Art Museum. We had driven by in the morning and been amazed by the building and me particularly by a glass tree outside.

 

The building was completely covered by a glass and mirror mosaic and an old school bus had also been decorated in the same manner. With the bright sunshine, the place just glittered and glinted, it was wonderful. Since I'm attracted to anything shiny, I was in my element but felt that I wouldn't be able to do the place justice with my camera.

The bus was covered in little plastic animals as well as the glass pieces. Even the wheel walls were not spared, nothing was left uncovered.

I would love this big shiny egg on my patio! My favorite piece, though, was the glass tree. 

 

This would look beautiful in a snow scene and sounded better than any wind chimes with its gentle tinkling. I'm thinking I'm going to have to make a smaller one of these as a Christmas decoration.

With our memory cards loaded, we headed for home and it was wonderful to spend the last few hours of the holiday relaxing with a glass of red wine, listening to the rain that had finally caught us up, pelt against my lounge windows.