Weeping Willow

Oak Grove Cemetery
Delaware, Ohio

These very old stones, from the 1700s/early 1800s, with the folk art and the weeping willows (I really like this highly stylized one), always put me in mind of Halloween. It's a link to the old graves of the colonial era (and the following early years of the country), the time period of Washington Irving and his fictional Ichabod Crane.

Speaking of very old stories and legends, there's the story of Marie Laveau, a Voodoo queen of old New Orleans, which at the very least, makes for interesting reading.

And interesting listening: here, Dr. John sings about her.

As long as we're on the subject, here's one I really like - Redbone's Witch Queen of New Orleans. One of the things I like about it is that you just don't hear the word gris-gris often enough, let alone in Top 40 songs.