Secrets in a country churchyard

Hello all, and greetings to you on All Hallows' Eve.  There's a dark tale for you here today despite the surface beauty of the tags.  This post will probably still be up on All Saints' Day, but I'm fine with that because the story does takes place in a graveyard, so for those visiting on Sunday just don't look too closely and you can simply enjoy an unsuspecting sun-dappled walk in the country churchyard.

However, if you are paying attention, you'll see that the ivy hasn't quite covered up the evidence of something rather unpleasant going on, and definitely better fitted to All Souls' than All Saints'.

These tags are all about the layers... layers of ink and stamping and ephemera and die-cuts, of course, but also layers of time and evidence and hidden secrets under cover of the creeping ivy tendrils.

There's the sun-dappled greenery of a country churchyard on a sunny autumn day in the backgrounds of Distress Ink and Oxide smooshing.

There are the stony arches of the small country church (the test cut from the die packaging, smooshed in some Pumice Stone). There are ancient clerical texts and filigree wrought iron gates hovering in the layers.

But dig a little further down and you find the bony remnants of certain parishioners, buried in the undergrowth.

How many of them?  It's hard to tell, they're mostly parts and pieces, not in proper graves.

And what are these labels hiding under the ivy leaves?  Could they be evidence of foul play?

How exactly did those parishioners meet their respective ends?  We need a Miss Marple in the village to find the clues and uncover these dastardly crimes.

But these voices calling from the grave can't make themselves heard above the tolling of the church bells.

If only someone would take heed and dig in the cemetery, they might find some of these objects and start putting two and two together.

But no, the breeze whispers through the leaves of the ivy and carries the voices of the dead away on the wind.  Spooked yet?  I hope so... that is rather the point.    

As with the Fungi Poisoners, it's my favourite kind of eeriness - something which looks fine at first glance, and in fact even rather lovely, but then you look more closely and the cracks start to appear revealing something dark and horrible at the heart of things.

I wish you a good Samhain, and I hope the darker months whose arrival it heralds don't prove to be too dark.  Thanks so much for stopping by and have a great weekend all.

Believe nothing you hear, and only one half that you see.
Edgar Allan Poe

Villainy wears many masks, none so dangerous as the mask of virtue.
From Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving

So it's one final entry for the Country View Challenges October theme, Halloween - Make a Scene

And for All Hallows' Eve at Tag Tuesday

And my bony skeletons are Embossed so I'd love to share these at Try It On Tuesday where that's their theme this fortnight

#newbloggersucks

It's been a busy Halloween week here, which is unusual, so if you missed anything do check them out...

Fungi Poisoners

More Skull Distraction

Distracted by Skulls

or get your spook on with some Rusty Tin by Candlelight

Happy Halloween everyone!