Garden bed of carnations (Dianthus caryophyllus) and water tank at Pine Range, Australian Capital Territory, ca. 1935 via National Library of Australia Commons on flickr.
The flower seller, Paris
A flower seller, Place Voltaire, now Place Léon-Blum, Paris, France, May 1918, by Auguste Léon, via Archives of the Planet Collection – Albert Kahn Museum /Département des Hauts-de-Seine.
The autochrome above is one of about seventy-two thousand that were commissioned and then archived by Albert Kahn, a wealthy French banker, between 1909 and 1931. Kahn sent thirteen photographers and filmmakers to fifty countries “to fix, once and for all, aspects, practices, and modes of human activity whose fatal disappearance is no longer ‘a matter of time.'”* The resulting collection is called Archives de la Planète and now resides in its own museum at Kahn’s old suburban estate at Boulogne-Billancourt, just west of Paris. Since June 2016, the archive has also been available for viewing online here.
*words of Albert Kahn, 1912. Also, the above photo (A 14 052) is © Collection Archives de la Planète – Musée Albert-Kahn and used under its terms, here.
My mother’s garden
Wordless Wednesday pictures from an August 2012 post. . .
Northern Virginia, August 2011.
Click on any thumbnail below and enjoy.
The garden and view from the patio on the first of three terraces. A small pond is hidden by the arbor.
The view from the pond. The area is planted with lamb’s ear (Stachys byzantina), Russian sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia), and a bright green small creeping sedum. You can also see the spent stalks of naked lady lilies (Lycoris squamigera) and some irises.
The arbor, built by my father, holds Clematis montana. In the foreground is beautyberry, Hellebores, and wild violets. The center holly has been limbed up by the deer. My father also built the stone retaining walls, using stone from the woods. On the top terrace (hidden by the arbor) is a patio area covered by a pergola.
Clear filament protects Viburnums and Hostas. The dark green plants in the background are Hellebores.
Hellebores border a path from the woods to the pond.
The pond.
A tall persimmon tree and a perennial bed that covers the site of an old sinkhole. Beyond is the old Christmas tree farm.
The view of distant mountains.
Sophie hunts in the Miscanthus; a grove of persimmon trees is in the background.
A birdhouse surrounded by Buddleia, goldenrod, and Miscanthus.
View from the house.
Looking down from the top terrace level and pergola.
My grandparent’s garden chairs.
“Tread lightly.”
Stepping stones with the imprints of grandchildren’s hands and feet.
The holly over the bench was limbed up by the deer.
Lichens on the bench.
A high fence protects the vegetable garden.
We brought this sculpture made from old auto parts back from Niger.
Spruce Grove, Alberta
Alan or Robert (Jr.) Brebner on the homestead, Spruce Grove, Alberta, ca. 1905, via Provincial Archives of Alberta (both photos).
Robert McKay Brebner, a farmer and amateur photographer, immigrated from Scotland to Alberta in 1882 and secured a homestead in Spruce Grove. About 1894, he married Emily Wrench, and after the birth of their first child, Alan, in 1896, they built a two-story house. Robert died suddenly in 1909, and Emily ran the farm with hired help until Alan could take it over at the age of 17.
In a vase on Monday: tulips
This morning, I have arranged purple and red tulips in assorted small glass vases along the radiator cover in the dining room.
I found the large shells in the woods behind the house soon after we moved in. I guess a former resident had tossed them out there.
To see what other garden bloggers have put in vases today, please visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden.
enclos*ure 