The final moments before nightfall. . .
These photos were taken yesterday about 6:20 p.m. — standing on the center steps looking down to the lower lawn and out to our view of the city and Mt. Kigali.
The Sunday porch: the begonia
“Woman standing beside potted begonias on porch, message from Rosa to Alice on back.” Via the Samuel Bell Maxey Collection of the Texas State Archives Commons on flickr.
Beautiful plant. Conditions must have been ideal on the porch. Or was it recently evicted from the living room for taking up too much space?
Unfortunately, Rosa’s message to Alice is not revealed. A thank you note for the original cuttings? Or just a little gardening conversation/showing off?
I’m also curious about whether the chicken wire all along the front railings was supporting vining plants or keeping animals (or even chickens) back.
The Archives’ photostream gives no information on the photographer, location, or date for this image. The Samuel Bell Maxey Collection includes the late 19th and early 20th century photographs of the Maxey family of Paris, (northeastern) Texas.
The winter garden: palms
“Glover House, Washington, D.C.(?),” c. 1900, a cyanotype by Frances Benjamin Johnston, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
I haven’t been able to find out anything certain about Glover House. It seems possible that it was the home of Charles Carroll Glover, who purchased and then donated the land for Rock Creek Park in Washington, D.C., in the 1870s. (He lived at “Westover,” at 4300 Massachusetts Ave., N.W., which is now a modern townhouse development.)
He and Johnston moved in the same social circles at the turn of the 19th century. As part of her photography business, she took pictures of the homes of many wealthy Washingtonians (and the White House).
Three more winter gardens are here.
The palm at the end of the mind,
Beyond the last thought, rises
In the bronze decor. . .— Wallace Stevens, from “Of Mere Being“
Wordless Wednesday: ornamental bird
John Wesley Baxter house, Greenwich, Connecticut, 1920, by Frances Benjamin Johnston, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
Vintage landscape: a winter’s night
Sharp shivers thro’ the leafless bow’r. . . *
The east side of the U.S. Capitol, Washington, D.C., ca. 1920 – 1950, by Theodor Horydczak, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
*by Robert Burns, from “A Winter Night.”
enclos*ure 