I’m sorry that there was no Sunday porch yesterday; we were out touring Stuttgart with visitors.
In the early evening, we walked through the nearby small city of Esslingen am Neckar, and I spotted this sweet doorway arrangement with espaliered ivy.
Streifzug means ‘foray,’ ‘ brief survey,’ or ‘ramble.’
My favorite flower display in Paris last week was at the entrance to the Cour Carrée of the Louvre, near the Pont des Arts.
But I’m a pushover for massed dahlias — these were yellow, white, orange, and dark red, mixed with some burgundy amaranth and caster bean plants in the back.
Unfortunately, a tall iron fence blocked them off from close inspection.
I didn’t have a zoom lens, so I did the best I could to get some useable photos by pushing the camera through the bars and holding it out.
The space is named “Garden of the Princess” for Mariana Victoria of Spain. The three-year-old Infante was brought to live in the Louvre in 1721 when she was engaged to the preteen King Louis XV.
Although she was deemed the “sweetest and prettiest little thing,” four years later, Louis broke off the match in order to marry an older Polish princess.
Mariana was sent back to Spain and later married King Joseph I of Portugal.
Enclosed porch, location unknown, ca. 1900 – ca. 1920s, by Bain News Service, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
Nice. . . chintz, wicker, books, and potted geraniums — and I love that swing. There are striped awnings outside over the windows.
. . . You’re bunkered in your
Aerie, I’m perched in mine. . .
We’re content, but fall short of the Divine.
Still, it’s embarrassing, this happiness—
Who’s satisfied simply with what’s good for us
When has the ordinary ever been news?— Rita Dove, from “Cozy Apologia“
“Man and woman eating at table on front porch of row house,” Washington, D.C., 1924, by National Photo Company, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
I’m sure that this photo was taken to illustrate an advertisement for the maker of that tub of cottage cheese on the table. (I can’t make out the name of the dairy company.)
You can click on the picture to enlarge it — then you can see that the couple are drinking their milk from wine glasses.
The location could have been in any one of several northwest D.C. neighborhoods — so popular in the city was the Wardman-style of rowhouse by the 1920s.
ADDENDUM: I found another photo of the same couple, here, having a picnic lunch in Rock Creek Park — again with plenty of cottage cheese.
“India House. A yard filled with diversions, ca. 1880s,” Nantucket, Massachusetts, via Nantucket Historical Association Commons on flickr.
You can click on either photo to enlarge it. I particularly like the striped skirts on the two older girls.
enclos*ure 