Mount Pleasant Cemetery is a Toronto landscaped cemetery with an arboretum. H.A. Engelhardt’s design followed Loudon’s concept that the atmosphere of a cemetery should be solemn, uplifting and educational. The cemetery opened 4 November 1876.
During the summer of 2015, I studied and photographed the bark on trees of the arboretum (The Beauty of Bark). The size of many of the trees indicated that they were of Engelhardt’s original plantings. I returned in the autumn of 2017 to savor and document the spectacular fall leaf colors (Autumn Splendor). After the first January snowfall of 2020, I experienced the cemetery in an amazing winter landscape (Snows of Yesteryear). The Victorian monuments stood tall. Mount Pleasant Cemetery is a living library.
Late July, 2024, I moved into the Deer Park neighborhood, to the west of Mount Pleasant Cemetery. I now explore the cemetery on my morning runs. Each section has its own unique character with a mixture of Victorian and more recent monuments and their treescapes. From my previous winter photography, I anticipated the snow covered cemetery. Early February, the cemetery was transformed into a winter wonderland. Fresh snow, bare trees, and a clear blue sky produced a quiet, ethereal atmosphere. The sun being lower in the winter sky created long, dramatic shadows. After a heavy snow, time seemed to be wrapped in a white silence.
I listened to the silence and peered deeply into the shadows—I had entered Glenn Gould’s State of Wonder and Serenity at Mount Pleasant Cemetery in February.