Free Vintage Garden-Themed Postcard: Gathering Summer Flowers

THE ROSES
One day in summer
when everything
has already been more than enough
the wild beds start
exploding open along the berm
of the sea; day after day
you sit near them; day after day,
the honey keeps on coming
in the red cups and the bees
like amber drops roll
in the petals: there is no end,
believe me! to the inventions of summer,
to the happiness your body
is willing to bear.
― Mary Oliver, Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver

An early 20th century real photo postcard featuring a young woman gathering flowers into a basket as she walks through her summer garden. You can download the high-res 4" x 6" @ 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 works. Not for resale "as-is." Credit to FieldandGarden.com appreciated but not required.

Vintage Art Appreciation: 1910 Poster for Biological Exhibition by Theodorus van Hoytema

The Peace of Wild Things
by Wendell Berry

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

The above illustration was in a poster advertising a biological exhibition at the zoo in The Hague from June 11-21, 1910. It was produced by printamaker Theodorus van Hoytema (1863–1917), and was originally found on Wikimedia. My digitally enhanced version of the painting can be downloaded as an 11” x 7” @ 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.

Free Vintage Outdoor Illustration for Collage, Graphic Design, Papercrafts or Scrapbooking: A Summer Shower

August rain: the best of the summer gone, and the new fall not yet born.
The odd uneven time.
― Sylvia Plath

It’s not that we have to quit
this life one day, but it’s how
many things we have to quit
all at once: music, laughter,
the physics of falling leaves,
automobiles, holding hands,
the scent of rain, the concept
of subway trains... if only one
could leave this life slowly!
― Roman Payne

Vintage illustration of a Victorian woman caught in a summer shower. Luckily, she is prepared for the capricious weather with her rain boots and umbrella! 6” x 9” @ 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 works. Not for resale “as-is.” Credit to FieldandGarden.com appreciated but not required.