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“

The Sunday porch: Eutaw

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Eutaw, S.C., 1938, Library of Congress“The Lodge” at Eutaw Plantation, Berkeley County, South Carolina, 1938, by Frances Benjamin Johnston, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

Eutaw Plantation, South Carolina, 1938, via Library of Congress
The plantation was established by William and Elizabeth Sinkler in the early 1800s.  Their descendants owned it until the 1940s, when the South Carolina Public Service Authority flooded the area to build the Santee Cooper hydroelectric project.  The estate now lies beneath Lake Marion.

The Lodge — built to resemble a Greek temple — was used as a medical office by a physician member of the family.

I came to explore the wreck. . . .
I came to see the damage that was done
and the treasures that prevail.

— Adrienne Rich, from “Diving into the Wreck“

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“