design – Page 65 – enclos*ure

Vintage landscape: the stage

July 22, 2016February 1, 2017 Cindy at enclos*ureLeave a comment

The outdoor theater of the Piranhurst estate of Henry Ernest and Ellen Chabot Bothin, Montecito, California, 1917, hand-colored glass lantern slides by Frances Benjamin Johnston, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

The Bothin’s fortune was made in coffee and spices (San Francisco), real estate, and water. Their estate became famous in the 1920s for the parties and performances held in its 350-acre “Tea Gardens” — which included the clipped cypress theater shown here.

3 Piranhurst, California, 1917, F.B. Johnston, Library of Congress — Looking from the stage to the box seats.

Today, the site is in ruins and is part of the Mar Y Cel open space preserve. There are histories of the property here and here.

1 Piranhurst, California, 1917, F.B. Johnston, Library of Congress — The backstage wings, a photo by F. B. Johnston, 1917, also via Library of Congress.

Vintage landscape: the glads

July 20, 2016August 20, 2017 Cindy at enclos*ureLeave a comment

“Flower bed (blomsterrabatt) with gladiolus at Trädgårdsföreningen, The Garden Society of Gothenburg, founded in 1842,” Göteborg (Gothenburg), Sweden, 1944, a color slide by Fredrik Bruno, via Swedish National Heritage Board Commons on flickr.

The glads offer no solution:
being—falling—
you mustn’t count the days—
fulfillment
livid, tattered, or beautiful.

— Gottfried Benn, from “Gladioli“

Life in gardens: after lunch

July 19, 2016August 20, 2017 Cindy at enclos*ureLeave a comment

“Three women, Lysekil, Sweden,” 1880s, a cyanotype by Carl Curman, via Swedish National Heritage Board Commons on flickr.

The woman at the top of the picture is Calla Curman, wife of the photographer.

For more images like this one, check out one of my favorite blogs, It’s About Time, which is currently posting a series, “Summer Women” — beautiful mostly 19th century paintings of women and children in the garden.

In a vase on Monday: roses

July 18, 2016August 20, 2017 Cindy at enclos*ure11 Comments

These white, yellow, and pink roses came from bushes that were in our garden when we moved into the house, and last summer they looked a bit sad and didn’t produce many flowers. But I mulched them well with fallen leaves in autumn and continuously fed them my used coffee grounds over the winter. Then, we had a lot of rain this spring and June, and, finally, some sun and warmth in July, so when we got back from France on Friday each bush had several open blooms.

The arrangement’s color combination, however, while cheerful in the living room, wasn’t very pretty in my pictures, so I switched to black and white.

To see what other garden bloggers have put in vases today, please visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden.

And if you voz to see my roziz
As is a boon to all men’s noziz —
You’d fall upon your back and scream —
“O Lawk — O crikey! It’s a dream!”

— Edward Lear

The Sunday porch: curls

July 17, 2016July 7, 2016 Cindy at enclos*ure2 Comments

A repeat porch from October 2013. . .
Nicholas County, Kentucky, November 1940, by John Vachon, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.