A glorious afternoon for graves.

Ernest B[urrow] BAIRD

Passed away 30th June 1933

Aged 54 years

"To memory ever dear"

One of the disappearing graves

And so it was and so we did....

Hillsborough cemetery [Auckland] isn't far from where we live and so, because time was limited today but such a lovely day to get out for a couple of hours, we trotted off down there.

It had been a while since we had sprayed ['30 Seconds'] the grave of 'our' policeman Adam Begg so this was first on our list. After that, we wandered around looking for military headstones. It is a cemetery rife with Lichen so we were armed with a largish container of the famed 'spray and walk awayyyyy' for a few headstones.

Hillsborough was one of the first I visited when I relocated to Auckland and I wasn't concentrating too much on the military ones at the time, so it was nice to give a touch of love to someone long forgotten. I will contact the authorities to get some work done on the military headstones especially the ones that have come apart from their graves.

Also today, I photographed many of the ones that will soon not be around. Deteriorated and falling apart. They may just be ordinary people but at least their grave will be documented :-) I'll hunt around on the net and try and get small biographies on them if i can, so keep watching my flickr pages!

Mike multi-tasking: on the phone and scrubbing :-)

Headstone of Rifleman Thomas Joseph COOK 22782 NZ E[xpeditionary] F[orces], WW1

died 23 March 1930 aged 43

Using a soft bristle brush to get the Lichen that has grown in the engraving grooves

Rifleman Thomas COOK's headstone [fallen off grave and placed beside it]

It is better than it was but the '30 seconds' will continue working. We will return in a few weeks and respray.

Moving to another WW1 soldier:

Corporal William Henry ASTON 24/37 2nd Battalion Rifle Brigade

A Canterbury soldier :-) a wee way from home - I can relate!

Corporal ASTON's grave - you couldn't even see the cross before Mike started