Category: nature

Life in gardens: Woodbine

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Woodbine, Iowa, 1940, J. Vachon, Library of Congress“Planting a garden in the backyard, Woodbine, Iowa,” May 1940, by John Vachon, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division (both photos here).

Woodbine, Iowa, 1940, Library of Congress

In the spring of 1940, John Vachon was on assignment for the Farm Security Administration in the Midwest.

. . . I photographed Spring – clothes blowing on the wash line, kids playing marbles, women planting backyard gardens, blossoms on trees.

— John Vachon’s journal

Woodbine is a town of about 1,400 people on the Boyer River.  It was named for the woodbine vine (Parthenocissus vitacea) by the wife of the first postmaster, according to the community’s website.

The banks of Flat Creek

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May 2, 2010, at Flat Creek near Beatrice, Alabama, an infrared photograph by Carol M. Highsmith, via the Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

for the creek racks
strongest in springtime when everything’s liquid,
tightroping over the rocks
in the plashing braid. . .

— Jonathan Galassi, from “Flow“

A study in steps: pink umbrella

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A glimpse of an old Japanese garden. . .

Steps in a Japanese garden, ca. 1900, Natl. Museum of DenmarkA hand-colored photo taken between 1860 and 1910, from a collection that belonged to journalist Holger Rosenberg,  via National Museum of Denmark.

Unfortunately, the museum does not have any other information about this image.

When has an umbrella ever
Kept the rain and the mist from entering a heart
And shaking it with dreams?

— Luis Muñoz Marin, from “Umbrella“

Life in gardens: sod roof oven

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Breadbaking, West Jutland, 1929, National Museum of DenmarkBaking bread on a small farm on the moor in Koelvraa, West Jutland, Denmark, 1929, by Kai Uldall via National Museum of Denmark Commons on flickr (all photos here).

Click on the images to enlarge them. I would love to visit this landscape.

Breadbaking, West Jutland, 1929, National Museum of DenmarkTaking the bread out of the sod-covered oven.

Breadbaking, West Jutland, 1929, National Museum of Denmark, slightly croppedBread cooling in a bed (photo cropped slightly by me).

Was that where the three women worked baking bread? —
Where they began at morning, by their fire under the wet boughs.
And laid the loaves in the sun?

— H. L. Davis, from “Baking Bread“

Vintage landscape: begonias

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A little Monday morning pink and white…

Flowers in a Greenhouse, early 20 c., Te Papa“Flowers in a greenhouse,” between 1900 and 1930, an autochrome by James W. Chapman-Taylor, via Te Papa Tongarewa (Museum of New Zealand)

Begonia House, c. 1913, via Te Papa“Begonia House, Domain Gardens, Auckland,” 1915, an autochrome by Robert Walrond, via Te Papa Tongarewa.

The irresistible and benevolent light
brushes through the angel-wing begonias. . .

The blooms are articulate deluge. . .

Elizabeth Woody, from “Illumination“