“Prune Orchard near Santa Clara, California,” undated, from the Visual Instruction Department Lantern Slides Collection of Oregon State University, via flickr.
America the plum blossoms are falling.
— Allen Ginsberg, from “America“
Tag: California
The winter garden: San Francisco
The dome of the Conservatory of Flowers, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, California, 1981, by Jet Lowe for an Historic American Buildings Survey, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
The Conservatory is the oldest public wood-and-glass conservatory in North America, opening to the public in 1879.
Vintage landscape: February flowers
“Tulare Valley, California; gathering flowers in February,” 1868, by Alexander Gardner, via SMU Central University Libraries Commons on flickr.
You can click on the image and enlarge it.
Best and brightest, come away!
Fairer far than this fair Day,
Which, like thee to those in sorrow,
Comes to bid a sweet good-morrow
The Brightest hour of unborn Spring,
Through the winter wandering,
Found, it seems, the halcyon Morn
To hoar February born.
Bending from Heaven, in azure mirth,
It kissed the forehead of the Earth,
And smiled upon the silent sea,
And bade the frozen streams be free,
And waked to music all their fountains,
And breathed upon the frozen mountains,
And like a prophetess of May
Strewed flowers upon the barren way,
Making the wintry world appear
Like one on whom thou smilest, dear.— Percy Bysshe Shelley, from “To Jane: The Invitation“
(Posts with photos from the here and now are coming shortly. We had house guests and were traveling last week.)
enclos*ure 