Category: landscape

The Sunday porch: Strawberry Hill

Cindy at enclos*ureLeave a comment

My first “Sunday porch,” from August 2013. . .
Vintage Photo of Strawberry Hill, Forkland vic., Greene County, Alabama, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Strawberry Hill plantation, Greene County, Alabama, in 1939, by Frances Benjamin Johnston, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

The front porch is often a box seat for the theater of the garden or the street.  This one seems to have half drawn its curtains against the buzzing, chirping action of the cottage garden below.

Strawberry Hill, 1936, HABS, Library of Congress
Strawberry Hill, November 1936, by Alex Bush, for HABS, via Library of Congress.

The mid-19th century house still exists, although without the vines and flowers.  Its surrounding land is now a cattle ranch.

Life in gardens: tree swing

Cindy at enclos*ureLeave a comment

Blue Gums, Sydney, Powerhouse Museum“Blue gums,” probably in the Riverina area of New South Wales, Australia, ca. 1900, by Charles Kerry & Co., via Tyrrell Photographic Collection, Powerhouse Museum Commons on flickr.

Despite the original label, the large trees are “probably river red gums (Eucalyptus camaldulensis),” according to a note about the photo by the Museum.

Click on the photo for a larger view.

Vintage landscape: oh, that old thing. . .

Cindy at enclos*ureLeave a comment

clothes line and ancient standing stone in Sweden, 1949, Swedish Natl Heritage BoardBackyard prehistoric standing stone supporting a section of clothesline, Borgholm, Sweden, July 1949, by Mårten Sjöbeck, via Swedish National Heritage Board Commons on flickr.

There appears to be another stone in the neighbor’s yard, on the right side of the photo.

Life in gardens: summer class

Cindy at enclos*ure2 Comments

Life class, Bain News Service, Library of Congress“Life class, summer school, National Academy of Design,” probably New York City area, ca. 1910 to ca. 1915, by Bain News Service, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division on flickr.

The students are drawing or painting a boy left of center in the photo.

The Sunday porch: Austin, Texas

Cindy at enclos*ureLeave a comment

A repeat porch from June 2014. . .
Austin dogtrot, 1935, via Texas State Archives“Remains of log dogtrot house near Webberville Road. . . Austin Texas,” 1935, probably by Fannie Ratchford, via Texas State Archives.

Unfortunately, it’s a little out of focus, but still beautiful.

. . .  I woo the wind
That still delays his coming. Why so slow,
Gentle and voluble spirit of the air?
Oh, come and breathe upon the fainting earth
Coolness and life!

— William Cullen Bryant, from “Summer Wind“