The Sunday porch: Mobile, Alabama

The Sunday porch:enclos*ure- Tom Riley Hse., 1936, Mobile, Ala., HABS“Tom Riley House,” 256 North Jackson Street, Mobile, Alabama, September 1936, by E. W. Russell for an Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

Decaying. . . but still elegant.

A Google street view for this address shows an empty lot, but the house next door is still standing.

Life in gardens: satisfaction

girl with possessions, museum victoriaThe queen poses in her side-yard kingdom with her horses and doll-courtiers, 1925, Euston District, New South Wales, via Museum Victoria.

Contributed by Beryl Leslie to “The Biggest Family Album of Australia” project.

Some men are born to own, and can animate all their possessions. . .
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Life in gardens: two mowers

Two mowers, 1956, Museum VictoriaAnother nice backyard scene via Museum Victoria: John and George Lee with push mowers, September 1956, Greensborough, near Melbourne, Australia.

The photo was contributed by Mrs. Brenda Lee to The Biggest Family Album of Australia project.

Life in gardens: backyard sprinkler

Jumping sprinklerGerald Brocklesby of Blackburn (near Melbourne), Australia, jumps over the sprinkler in his family’s backyard, January 17, 1953, via Museum Victoria.

The photo was contributed by Mr Mark Brocklesby as part of the museum’s Melbourne’s Biggest Family Album  project in 2006.

Fair seed-time had my soul. . .
— William Wordsworth, from “The Prelude

Life in gardens: fall flower show

Fall flower show, via Library of Congress. . . at P.S. 15, Manhattan, New York City, ca. 1921, by Paul & Co., via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

This hand-colored glass lantern slide was used by Frances Benjamin Johnston in her garden lecture series.

The original black and white photo may have been taken for the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.  Its online photo collection has several 1921 pictures of P.S. 15 and P.S. 62 children working in their “nature rooms.”