Category: life in gardens

Vintage landscape: marriage counseling

Cindy at enclos*ure4 Comments

Photographer Frances Benjamin Johnston used slides of various prints and illustrations in her popular Garden and House lectures  — which she gave from 1915 to 1930.

She took the ones below from the February 1875 issue of Fruit Recorder and Cottage Gardener.  They are now part of the Frances Benjamin Johnston Collection at the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

wife 1The successful lady gardener dresses in modest clothes with sensible hat and apron and stays home to care for her flowers.

wife 2While the unsuccessful one dresses in low-cut bodice and frilly hat, threatens her flowers and chickens with an umbrella, and then goes out on the town.

husband 1A good husband carries and then holds the pots — he’s a keeper.

husband 2 Oh, dump him.

A Sunday in the streets of Brussels

Cindy at enclos*ure2 Comments

On the first day of our recent travels, we were lucky enough to arrive in Brussels on its annual “Car Free Sunday.” The streets of the city were closed to “all traffic with an engine”* from 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.

The streets were full of happy bikers, skaters, skateboarders, and walkers — in about that order. In addition, stands devoted to regional food and drink, organic farming, and ecology were set up from the Grand’Place to the Royal Palace and Brussels Park.

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I like this garden (above slides) at the Mont des Arts. Like so many outdoor spaces in Brussels, its design successfully encompasses many centuries.

Under the rows of pleached trees, there were booths selling food and wine from France, so, bien sur, we had fois gras sandwiches for lunch.

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A little farther east, on the street between the Royal Palace (above slides) and Brussels Park, sod had been put down over the stone block paving, and people were picnicking on every kind of organic cuisine.

I also really like Brussels Park (below slides).  It has very formal wide gravel walkways laid out in the shape of the Free Masonry symbol of an architect’s compass. Two rows of espaliered trees surround its perimeter.  But inside, there are forest-style groupings of very tall trees, long berms planted in a natural way with a variety of shrubs, and some well-used grass.

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In the afternoon, we went back to our hotel for a rest and found that the street under our window had been blocked off for children’s activities. A local radio station had set up a stage, and, for the length of our planned nap, it featured a teenage punk rock band. I must admit they sang and played (what seemed like) their one song over and over again with some proficiency (I guess).

We ended our lovely day of walking in the neighborhood of Dansaert, along Rue de Flandre (or Vlaamsesteenweg), where the shops and residents were having a street-long yard sale/block party. At no. 17, we ate traditional Belgian food at the restaurant Viva M’Boma** (long live grandmother), which we highly recommend — as long as you eat meat.

To scroll through larger versions of all the photos above, click on ‘Continue reading’ below.

*Except for buses, taxis, some delivery vans, police, and ambulance.  The event is always in September, to coincide with the  European Week of Mobility.  I found one webpage indicating that it will be on September 16 in 2014.

**But they are normally closed on Sundays — and Wednesdays.  Main courses are between 11€ and 18€.

 

Vintage landscape: California living

Cindy at enclos*ure4 Comments

Back yard, Turlock, CA, 1943, by Russell Lee, Library of Congress

I just like this life-in-the-garden photo by Russell Lee, * of a (May) 1942 Turlock, California, backyard.  (Unfortunately, it’s not very sharply focused.)  The caption, possibly by the photographer, reads:

Housewife waters the lawn. All garden furniture and barbecue pit were made by her husband; about one out of every three houses in this town has such an arrangement in the backyard, and during the summer months people eat and spend many hours in their yards.

I particularly like the rolling sofa thing with the awning.  Turlock is located in central California between Modesto and Merced.

Lee was working for the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information at the time.  He seems to have been sent to Turlock to photograph townfolks being resilient in the face of changes brought on by the war.  He took a number of photographs of this family, described in the Library of Congress online catalogue as from the “upper middle income group.”

Grillling steaks, Turlock, CA, 1943, by Russell Lee, Library of CongressAbove: “Man of the house barbecues steaks over open grill in his backyard. This family keeps vegetables, fruits and meats in frozen food lockers in town.”

Setting the table, Turlock, CA, 1943, by Russell Lee, Library of CongressAbove: “Husband and wife get ready for dinner in their backyard. Menu: barbecued steaks, fresh peas, potato salad, potato chips, celery and olives, strawberry shortcake, and coffee.”

The package around the loaf of bread says, “Better Bread.”  Over the hedge, the neighbors seem to be putting in a greenhouse.

Tending the garden, Turlock, CA, 1943, by Russell Lee, Library of CongressAbove: “Housewife works in her vegetable garden. She lives in small town where there is ample space for gardens; says she would move to country if she couldn’t have a garden in town.”

It’s quite impressive — and particularly that she works it in a dress.  Here’s another view, below:

Son's garden, Turlock, CA, 1943, by Russell Lee, Library of CongressAbove: “Housewife helps her son with his garden.”

Arranging flowers, Turlock, CA, 1942, by Russell Lee, Library of CongressAbove: “Housewife arranging flowers in her kitchen.”

I like her dotted swiss curtains.

I’m going to take a break from blogging for a few weeks (except for “The Sunday porch”), but I’ll be back for GB Bloom Day in October.

* All photos here via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

Picturing D.C. (year by year)

Cindy at enclos*ure10 Comments
"Photographers shooting cherry blossoms, Washington D.C., April 7, 1922," by National Photo Company, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
“Photographers shooting cherry blossoms, Washington D.C., April 7, 1922,” by National Photo Company, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division and D.C. Past.

I want to share my recent discovery of D.C. Past, a tumblr blog that is “curating the photographic history” of Washington, D.C.

Kate Birmingham and Guillermo Esteves choose 19th and 20th century photos from the online catalogues of the Library of Congress and the National Archives.  However, when shown on D.C. Past, the images are generally much larger and (pretty darn) sharp.

I love this early shot, below, of the Lincoln Memorial — the Reflecting Pool is still only a wetland.

"Lincoln Memorial with Marsh in foreground," 1917, by National Photo Company, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
“Lincoln Memorial with marsh in foreground,” 1917, by National Photo Company, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division and D.C. Past.

Four years later. . .

"Lincoln Memorial from Monument," May 30, 1922, by National Photo Company, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
“Lincoln Memorial from Monument,” May 30, 1922, by National Photo Company, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division and D.C. Past.

You’ll have to go to D.C. Past, here and here, for the “much larger” part.

I like these swimmers below too.  They’re in the Tidal Basin.  And yesterday’s post was interesting — look at the (lack of) height of the fence.

"Bathing Beach," Washington, D.C., Tidal Basin, ca. 1912-1930, by National Photo Company, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
“Bathing Beach,” Washington, D.C., Tidal Basin, ca. 1912-1930, by National Photo Company, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division and D.C. Past.

(A link to the photo at the top is here.)

D.C. Past is still rather new; its first picture was posted in March 2013.  But this makes it easy to catch up and get hooked.

There is also a NYC Past here and a Chicago Past here.