landscape – Page 71

Vintage landscape: the lagoon

July 25, 2015July 25, 2015 Cindy at enclos*ureLeave a comment

The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in July 1942. Two raised corridors crossed it and connected Department of War buildings. Photo by Marjory Collins, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

Above, small boys were swimming in the pool. Collins called it a “lagoon” in her original photo caption — an allusion to Washington, D.C.’s tropical summer weather.

Along the sides of the water, under the trees, government workers were eating lunch on the grass.

These men took advantage of the additional shade cast by the structures.

“Temporary” buildings for various military branches were constructed along the north side of the pool in 1918. The offices on the south side — and the corridors — were added during World War II.

The walkways were removed in 1947. The last of the buildings came down in 1970.

Life in gardens: July 1942

July 24, 2015April 11, 2016 Cindy at enclos*ure4 Comments

A hot Sunday in Washington, D.C., before air-conditioning.

All three photos of Ellipse Park by Marjory Collins, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

The mean daytime temperature that month was 86° — the high was 98°; the low was 78°. The daily high for humidity ranged from 76% to 100%.

In the dog days of summer . . .

The wind lifts up my life
And sets it some distance from where it was.

— Meena Alexander, from “Dog Days of Summer“

Streifzug 4: more blumen

July 21, 2015February 1, 2017 Cindy at enclos*ureLeave a comment

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Yesterday: a Blumen selbt schneiden or ‘cut your own flowers’ field, with an honor-system money box.

There were lots of calendulas and cornflowers, but only a few red poppies left in the Sommerblumen mischung or summer mix row. In the next couple of weeks, we’ll have gladiolus and dahlias.

The Sunday porch: Sagamore Hill

July 12, 2015July 12, 2015 Cindy at enclos*ure2 Comments

The porch of President Theodore Roosevelt’s country home, Sagamore Hill, ca. 1905, photographer unknown, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division (both photos here).

The rug was a mountain lion.

Roosevelt purchased the land in Oyster Bay, New York, in the early 1880s and began planning the Queen Anne house with his first wife, Alice. But she died in 1884, and it was second wife Edith who moved into the newly completed home two years later.

Sagamore Hill was their family’s primary residence, except from 1901 to 1909, when it was known as the “Summer White House.”

Theodore died there in 1919, as did Edith in 1948. The family continued to own it until the 1950s, when it was passed to the Theodore Roosevelt Association and later to the National Park Service.

The house reopens to the public today, after being closed for three and a half years for renovation.