Free Vintage Garden-Themed Birthday Greeting Card: Nature's Fair Picture

HAPPY RETURNS
May the fair and glowing pictures
Nature paints o'er all the land,
Be the symbol of the beauty
Life shall paint with skilled hand.

Very pretty vintage birthday card from the early 20th century featuring a young woman with a bouquet of pink flowers surrounded by a floral border of cream and gold. You can download the high-res 4" x 6" @ 300 ppi JPEG without a watermark here.

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From my personal collection of ephemera. These images are to be incorporated into your creative endeavors and not for resale or re-distribution "as-is". Please credit FieldandGarden.com as your source when sharing or publishing.

Vintage Art Appreciation: Lawn Billiards, 17th Century

Gentlemen playing troco or lawn billiards while ladies and gentleman dine in an ivy-covered pergola near a formal garden, early 17th century. Artist unknown.

Leisure is only possible when we are at one with ourselves. We tend to overwork as a means of self-escape, as a way of trying to justify our existence.
Josef Pieper, Leisure: The Basis of Culture

My father taught me to work, but not to love it. I never did like to work, and I don't deny it. I'd rather read, tell stories, crack jokes, talk, laugh -- anything but work.
Abraham Lincoln

Certainly work is not always required of a man. There is such a thing as a sacred idleness, the cultivation of which is now fearfully neglected.
George Mac Donald, Wilfrid Cumbermede

I do not particularly like the word 'work.' Human beings are the only animals who have to work, and I think that is the most ridiculous thing in the world. Other animals make their livings by living, but people work like crazy, thinking that they have to in order to stay alive. The bigger the job, the greater the challenge, the more wonderful they think it is. It would be good to give up that way of thinking and live an easy, comfortable life with plenty of free time. I think that the way animals live in the tropics, stepping outside in the morning and evening to see if there is something to eat, and taking a long nap in the afternoon, must be a wonderful life. For human beings, a life of such simplicity would be possible if one worked to produce directly his daily necessities. In such a life, work is not work as people generally think of it, but simply doing what needs to be done.
Masanobu Fukuoka, The One-Straw Revolution

My Photo Journal: To Rose (1)

Photo © FieldandGarden.com. Printable copy without a watermark here.
Above, you can find a lovely nature poem entitled "To Rose" by William T. Saward, originally published in 1897. You can download a printable copy of the poem as a 5.5" x 3" @ 300 ppi JPEG here.
I am also including an initial letter "R" that has been decorated with an illustration of rose hips. You can download the 3" x 5" @ 300 ppi JPEG without a watermark here.

Creative Commons Licence
From my personal collection of ephemera. These images are to be incorporated into your creative endeavors and not for resale or re-distribution "as-is". Please credit FieldandGarden.com as your source when sharing or publishing.

Vintage Art Appreciation: Path from Loschwitz to Rochwitz by Gustav Otto Müller

Path from Loschwitz to Rochwitz, 1896
by Gustav Otto Müller (1827-1922)

Cherish your solitude. Take trains by yourself to places you have never been. Sleep out alone under the stars. Learn how to drive a stick shift. Go so far away that you stop being afraid of not coming back. Say no when you don’t want to do something. Say yes if your instincts are strong, even if everyone around you disagrees. Decide whether you want to be liked or admired. Decide if fitting in is more important than finding out what you’re doing here. Believe in kissing.
Eve Ensler

Solitude is independence. It had been my wish and with the years I had attained it. It was cold. Oh, cold enough! But it was also still, wonderfully still and vast like the cold stillness of space in which the stars revolve.
Hermann Hesse, Steppenwolf

Find meaning. Distinguish melancholy from sadness. Go out for a walk. It doesn’t have to be a romantic walk in the park, spring at its most spectacular moment, flowers and smells and outstanding poetical imagery smoothly transferring you into another world. It doesn’t have to be a walk during which you’ll have multiple life epiphanies and discover meanings no other brain ever managed to encounter. Do not be afraid of spending quality time by yourself. Find meaning or don’t find meaning but 'steal' some time and give it freely and exclusively to your own self. Opt for privacy and solitude. That doesn’t make you antisocial or cause you to reject the rest of the world. But you need to breathe. And you need to be.
Albert Camus, Notebooks 1951-1959

My Photo Journal: October Lake at Twilight

O night, O sweetest time, though black of hue,
with peace you force all the restless work to end;
those who exalt you see and understand,
and he is sound of mind who honours you.
You cut the thread of tired thoughts, for so
you offer calm in your moist shade; you send
to this low sphere the dreams where we ascend
up to the highest, where I long to go.
Shadow of death that brings to quiet close
all miseries that plague the heart and soul,
for those in pain the last and best of cures;
you heal the flesh of its infirmities,
dry and our tears and shut away our toil,
and free the good from wrath and fretting cares.
Michelangelo Buonarroti, Complete Poems and Selected Letters

The hours I spend with you I look upon as sort of a perfumed garden,
a dim twilight, and a fountain singing to it.
You and you alone make me feel that I am alive.
Other men it is said have seen angels, but I have seen thee and thou art enough.
George Edward Moore

Soft, dusky twilight by the shores of Lake Ontario in October.
© FieldandGarden.com. All rights reserved.

Vintage Garden Illustration for collage Art, Graphic Design, Papercrafts or Scrapbooking: The Gardener, 1889

“Everyone must leave something behind when he dies,” my grandfather said.
A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built or a pair of shoes made.
Or a garden planted.
Something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die,
and when people look at that tree or that flower you planted, you're there.

“It doesn't matter what you do,” he said, “so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that's like you after you take your hands away.”
The difference between the man who just cuts lawns and a real gardener
is in the touching, he said. The lawn-cutter might just as well not have been there at all;
the gardener will be there a lifetime.
Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

Vintage illustration of a young female gardener from 1889. 4.5 x 6" @ 300 ppi JPEG without a watermark here. Larger image size available for licensing. Please inquire.

Creative Commons Licence
From my personal collection of ephemera. These images are to be incorporated into your creative endeavors and not for resale or re-distribution "as-is". Please credit FieldandGarden.com as your source when sharing or publishing.

Vintage Art Appreciation: In the Garden by Jindřich Tomec

The best way to not feel hopeless is to get up and do something.
Don’t wait for good things to happen to you.
If you go out and make some good things happen,
you will fill the world with hope, you will fill yourself with hope.
Barack Obama

This is the real secret of life --
to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now.
And instead of calling it work, realize it is play.
Alan Watts

Painting is titled "In the Garden," (?) c1920s by Jindřich Tomec (1863–1928). Originally found on Wikimedia. Digitally enhanced version of the painting as a 11" x 8" @ 300 ppi JPEG here.

Creative Commons Licence
Digitally enhanced reproductions of public domain fine art are shared under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

My Photo Journal: Sunny Possibilities

Listen to the mustn'ts, child.
Listen to the don'ts.
Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles,
the won'ts.
Listen to the never haves,
then listen close to me...
Anything can happen, child.
Anything can be.
Shel Silverstein

The bright sunbeam-yellow Black-eyed Susan blooms have been a staple in every garden I've started in the last 20 years. Originally a native wildflower of North America, this perennial cultivar is easy to grow, drough tolerant and attracts pollinators galore!

I currently have two clumps of Rudbeckia fulgida var. sullivantii 'Goldsturm' (originally just one clump but divided in its second year), and one stand of Rudbeckia hirta 'Prairie Sun' (outstandingly prolific this year) but am always on the hunt for more varieties as I expand my existing garden beds.

Photo © FieldandGarden.com. All rights reserved.

My Photo Journal: To Live (1)

To live is the rarest thing in the world.
Most people exist, that is all.
Oscar Wilde

I may not have gone where I intended to go,
but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.
Douglas Adams, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul

Finish each day and be done with it.
You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in;
forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day.
You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit
to be encumbered with your old nonsense.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Warm and sunny day down by the waterfront at Kiwanis Heydenshore Park in Whitby, Ontario. Heydenshore Pavilion (with the lighthouse a stone's throw away) is located within 15 acres of scenic parkland in Heydenshore Kiwanis Park. The park is on the shore of Lake Ontario adjacent to Whitby Shores Waterfront Trail, with a spectacular view of the lake from its open patio.

Starting in 2023, the historic Pump House on Whitby’s waterfront got a new lease on life when Town Brewery was awarded a five-year food and beverage pop-up licence to open the Waterfront Beer Garden. The restaurant is now closed for the season (re-opening May 2025) but the park remains busy with families that want to savour the still-mild October days.

© FieldandGarden.com. All rights reserved.

Vintage Illustrated Children's Poem: Calling the Flowers by Mary A. Lathbury

CALLING THE FLOWERSS
by Mary A. Lathbury
(Originally published c1880)

Sweet Lady Pea, fly hither to me!
Light and white are your wings, I see.

Golden Rod, touch me, I pray you, over
The thousand heads of the low, sweet clover.

Snap-dragon, quick! There’s a “bee in your bonnet!”
Pinch him and send him off thinking upon it.

Lily-bell, whisper and tell me true,
What was the himmingbird saying to you?

Poppy, flaunting your silken dress,
You’ll yet wear a seedy cap, I guess.

Buttercup, bring your gold saucers to me;
Here are two butterflies coming to tea.

Daisy, Daisy, look over this way!
Why do you stare at the sun all day?

Pansy, what are you laughing about?
“Born to the purple” were you, no doubt.

But Violet, sweet! O Violet, sweet!
Fairer are you at the Pansy’s feet.

You can find a printable copy of the poem as a high-res 8" x 10" @ 300 ppi JPEG here. The blank, high-res template without the poem can be found here.

Creative Commons Licence
From my personal collection of ephemera. These images are to be incorporated into your creative endeavors and not for resale or re-distribution "as-is". Please credit FieldandGarden.com as your source when sharing or publishing.

Illustrated Template for Collage Art, Graphic Design, Junk Journaling or Scrapbooking: Calling the Flowers

Calling the Flowers illustrated template on lightly textured, painted paper.
High-res 8" x 10" @ 300 ppi JPEG without any words/watermark can be found here.
Template featuring vintage garden poem by Mary A. Lathbury here.

Creative Commons Licence
All pre-made templates by FieldandGarden.com are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Please credit FieldandGarden.com as your source when sharing or publishing.

My Photo Journal: My Sunset Sky

Clouds come floating into my life,
no longer to carry rain or usher storm,
but to add color to my sunset sky.
Rabindranath Tagore, Stray Birds

Life is full of beauty. Notice it.
Notice the bumble bee, the small child, and the smiling faces.
Smell the rain, and feel the wind.
Live your life to the fullest potential, and fight for your dreams.
Ashley Smith

Burning red, outrageously orange, and moody purple sky at sunset over a nearby park.
Photo © FieldandGarden.com. All rights reserved.

Printable Bird Illustration for Altered Art, Graphic Design, Papercrafts or Scrapbooking: Swallow with Four-Leaf Clover

A flock of swallows flying high over castle turrets with lead swallw carrying a four-leaf clover in its beak. A colourful border of brilliantly blue forget-me-nots surround the edges of the scene.

5" x 7" @ 300 ppi JPEG without a watermark here.

Creative Commons Licence
From my personal collection of ephemera. These images are to be incorporated into your creative endeavors and not for resale or re-distribution "as-is". Please credit FieldandGarden.com as your source when sharing or publishing.

My Photo Journal: Happiness (1)

We can complain because rose bushes have thorns,
or rejoice because thorns have roses.
Alphonse Karr, A Tour Round My Garden

When life is not coming up roses
Look to the weeds
and find the beauty hidden within them.
L.F.Young

We all live with the objective of being happy;
our lives are all different and yet the same.
Anne Frank

Lightly textured pink rose with backlighting.
Photo © FieldandGarden.com. All rights reserved.

Vintage Art Appreciation: Girl with Cats in a Summer Landscape

"Girl with Cats in a Summer Landscape"
painted in 1892 by Elin Danielson-Gambogi (1861–1919).

Originally found on Wikimedia.
Digitally enhanced version of the painting as a 14" x 11" @ 300 ppi JPEG here.

Creative Commons Licence
Digitally enhanced reproductions of public domain fine art are shared under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Whimsical Fairytale Illustration for Altered Art, Junk Journaling, Papercrafts or Scrapbooking: A Rainy Day

A Rainy Day (drawn by F.S. Church)
5" x 10.5" @ 300 ppi JPEG without a watermark here.

Creative Commons Licence
From my personal collection of ephemera. These images are to be incorporated into your creative endeavors and not for resale or re-distribution "as-is". Please credit FieldandGarden.com as your source when sharing or publishing.

Illustrated Template for Altered Art, Graphic Design, Junk Journaling or Scrapbooking: Vintage Poppies Border with Old Paper Texture

Vintage Poppies Border on Aged Vintage Paper with Painted Texture
High-res 12" x 12" @ 300 ppi JPEG here.

Creative Commons Licence
All pre-made templates by FieldandGarden.com are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Please credit FieldandGarden.com as your source when sharing or publishing.

My Photo Journal: Just a Little Early Autumn Stroll

Many people lose the small joys in the hope for the big happiness.
Pearl S. Buck

I am content; that is a blessing greater than riches;
and he to whom that is given need ask no more.
Henry Fielding

Two contented-looking ducks taking an early autumn stroll at the Ed Broadbent Waterfront Park in Oshawa, Ontario.

Photo © FieldandGarden.com. All rights reserved.

Creative Commons Licence
Public domain poem is from my personal collection of ephemera. These images are to be incorporated into your creative endeavors and not for resale or re-distribution "as-is". Please credit FieldandGarden.com as your source when sharing or publishing.

Vintage Outdoor Graphic for Altered Art, Graphic Design, Papercrafts or Scrapbooking: In a Wildflower Patch 1

Young Lady in a Patch of Wildflowers and Blackberries
8.5" x 11" @ 300 ppi JPEG without a watermark here.

Creative Commons Licence
From my personal collection of ephemera. These images are to be incorporated into your creative endeavors and not for resale or re-distribution "as-is". Please credit FieldandGarden.com as your source when sharing or publishing.

Vintage Art Appreciation: Three Girls in the Garden by Eliseu Visconti

"Três meninas no jardim" (Three Girls in the Garden),
painted in 1935 by Eliseu Visconti (1866–1944).

Originally found on Wikimedia.
Digitally enhanced version of the painting as a 12" x 15" @ 300 ppi JPEG here.

Creative Commons Licence
Digitally enhanced reproductions of public domain fine art are shared under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Vintage Illustrated Children's Poem: The Queen's Messenger by Tudor Jenks

by Tudor Jenks
"Spider, spinner! ― you're very late!
What do you think will be your fate
Should the Fairy Queen and court arrive
To find the tent you promised to spin
Of the glossiest web at precisely five
Not ready for holding the dances in?
She may change you into a tiny gnat,
Or a fly, or something worse than that!
There's only an hour before the ball
To finish the room for our dance to night,
So that when the dew shall fall
It will spangle all with silver light.
You've wasted time in catching flies ―
I read the truth in your eight green eyes!
To work with a will, for the sun is low,
And soon the moon comes over the hill;
The fairies begin to gather, you know,
As soon as they hear the whippoorwill.
Haste, then; spin! ― or you'll be too late.
The Fairy Queen will never wait;
And unless the pavilion shall be complete,
The nug gray roof with dew pearls spread,
The silken rug for the fairy feet,
Oh, spider! you may quake with dread!"

An illustrated Victorian fantasy poem titled "The Queen's Messenger" written by Tudor Jenks about a spider tasked with spinning a party tent for the Fairy Queen. Great for framed poetry, graphic design, papercrafts, nursery art or scrapbooking projects. You can download the poem in full as a high-res 8" x 12" @ 300 ppi JPEG without a watermark here.

Creative Commons Licence
From my personal collection of ephemera. These images are to be incorporated into your creative endeavors and not for resale or re-distribution "as-is". Please credit FieldandGarden.com as your source when sharing or publishing.

My Photo Journal: Blackberries from the Garden (1)

You have to wait for a fruit to ripe before you harvest.
You must also learn to wait for the fulfillment of your visions.
Lailah Gifty Akita, The Alphabets of Success: Passion Driven Life

It's that time of year when fat, juicy blackberries are ripe for plucking and eating! Are you eating yours fresh or making into pies and jam? If you love drawing out the season like me, here is a low-sugar, blackberry jam recipe from Practical Self Reliance that is perfect for putting on scones while drinking tea beside a roaring fire.

Photos © FieldandGarden.com. All rights reserved.

Vintage Illustrated Children's Poem: Roses Red (Garden-themed Nursery Rhyme & Sheet Music)

ROSES RED
Roses red, roses red,
Whisper how you're growing!
Then I can tell
Dear little Nell,
And we shall both be knowing.

Roses red, roses red,
Some folks say you're fleeting!
But we have come
To take you home,
And keep the summer's greeting.

Roses red, roses red,
Say, why are you dying?
If I could tell
Poor little Nell,
Perhaps 't would stop her crying.

An illustrated children's garden poem originally published in June 1887. It is sung to a little tune which is shown below the drawing of a boy and girl in the garden, gathering roses from a vine that is climbing along a brick wall. Great for framed poetry, graphic design, papercrafts, nursery art or scrapbooking projects. You can find the high-res 6" x 8" @ 300 ppi JPEG without a watermark here.

Creative Commons Licence
From my personal collection of ephemera. These images are to be incorporated into your creative endeavors and not for resale or re-distribution "as-is". Please credit FieldandGarden.com as your source when sharing or publishing.

My Photo Journal: Two Habitats (A Juxtaposition)

We forget, in a world completely transformed by man,
that what we’re looking at is not necessarily the environment wildlife prefer,
but the depleted remnant that wildlife is having to cope with:
what it has is not necessarily what it wants.
Isabella Tree, Wilding

We will spend billions making inhospitable distant planets habitable.
And yet we spend trillions destroying the abundant ingredients for life on our home planet.
Freequill

A photo taken many years ago showing two different types of dwellings that we stumbled upon as we were wandering in the area around the Music Gardens in downtown Toronto, a small park fronting on its ineer harbour. I am not sure if the magnificent bird house is still there but it would be lovely if it was!

Photos © FieldandGarden.com. All rights reserved.

Vintage Botanical Illustration & Nature Poem for Altered Art, Graphic Design, Papercrafts or Scrapbooking: A Grungy Honeysuckle and Illustrated Letter H

Maybe that's what it all comes down to.
Love, not as a surge of passion,
but as a choice to commit to something, someone,
no matter what obstacles or temptations stand in the way.
And maybe making that choice, again and again,
day in and day out, year after year,
says more about love than never having a choice to make at all.
Emily Giffin, Love the One You're With

Honeysuckle is an ancient plant, with references to this fragrant vine found in Greek mythology. [1] It derives its name from the edible sweet nectar obtainable from its tubular flowers. The name Lonicera stems from Adam Lonicer, a Renaissance botanist. [2]

There are hundreds of species of honeysuckle, most being native to Europe and Asia. Much like clematis, is likes to have cool feet and a sunny top — that is, roots in the shade and sun on the leaves. [3]

It is the favorite food of hummingbirds far and wide, and has been a cornerstone of medicine in many ancient cultures. In ancient China, the honeysuckle was widely revered as a cure-all. Adding to their historical importance, the honeysuckle also has some heavy symbolism attached to it. In its plainest form, the honeysuckle is a symbol of pure happiness, sweetness and affection. At its heaviest interpretation, the honeysuckle represents the flames of love, and the tenderness for love that has been lost. [4] The honeysuckle is also used in many magic spells, [5] and is believed to attract abundance and prosperity. [6]

Above, you will see a somewhat grungy, vintage black and white illustration of a branch of honeysuckle from 1897. At the bottom right of this illustration, I have included an illustrated letter "H". You can download these graphics in one 8" x 10" @ 300 ppi JPEG here. Good for altered art, graphic design, papercrafts or scrapbooking projects.

Creative Commons Licence
From my personal collection of ephemera. These images are to be incorporated into your creative endeavors and not for resale or re-distribution "as-is". Please credit FieldandGarden.com as your source when sharing or publishing.

Vintage Outdoor Graphic for Altered Art, Graphic Design, Papercrafts or Scrapbooking: Two Ladies Outdoors 4

An acquaintance merely enjoys your company,
a fair-weather companion flatters when all is well,
a true friend has your best interests at heart
and the pluck to tell you what you need to hear.
E.A. Bucchianeri, Brushstrokes of a Gadfly

Somewhat distressed, vintage illustration of two ladies on a summer stroll down a country lane. You can download this outdoor-themed illustration as an 8" x 12" @ 300 ppi JPEG without a watermark for altered art, graphic design, papercrafts or scrapbooking projects here.

Creative Commons Licence
From my personal collection of ephemera. These images are to be incorporated into your creative endeavors and not for resale or re-distribution "as-is". Please credit FieldandGarden.com as your source when sharing or publishing.

Vintage Botanical Illustration & Nature Poem for Altered Art, Graphic Design, Papercrafts or Scrapbooking: Yellow Rose 2

Antique illustration from The Botanical Magazine of Fortune's Double Yellow rose showing prickles, thorns and bowing stems, as well as flowers being pale in colour, unrecognizable in shape, and hardly likely, in Graham Thomas's words, "to make people blink even today".

Accompanying the yellow rose illustration, you can find a nature poem, simply titled "To Rose" that was written by William T. Saward and published in 1897.

You can download the public domain poem as a high-res 6" x 6" @ 300 ppi JPEG without a watermark here. The vintage botanical illustration can be downloaded as a high-res 6" x 9" @ 300 ppi JPEG here. Good for altered art, graphic design, papercrafts or scrapbooking projects.

Creative Commons Licence
From my personal collection of ephemera. These images are to be incorporated into your creative endeavors and not for resale or re-distribution "as-is". Please credit FieldandGarden.com as your source when sharing or publishing.

Vintage Art Appreciation: Children in the Garden by Władysław Podkowiński

No matter the state of the world,
or how dark the shadow that has fallen on our city,
I find it curiously comforting to know that if you plant a seed
and give it sunlight and water, it will grow.
Sarah Jio, All the Flowers in Paris

Altered vintage painting titled "Children in the Garden," originally painted in 1892 by Władysław Podkowiński (1866–1895). You can find the image of the original painting on Wikimedia or you can download my digitally enhanced version of the painting as a 8" x 6" @ 300 ppi JPEG here. Simply print and frame for tabletop or wall artI but could also be used as a cover for a journal or scrapbooking project.

Creative Commons Licence
Digitally enhanced reproductions of public domain fine art are shared under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.