My Photo Journal: Summer Phlox (1)

The first week of August hangs at the very top of summer, the top of the live-long year,
like the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning.
The weeks that come before are only a climb from balmy spring,
and those that follow a drop to the chill of autumn,
but the first week of August is motionless, and hot.
It is curiously silent, too, with blank white dawns and glaring noons,
and sunsets smeared with too much color.
― Natalie Babbitt, Tuck Everlasting

All in all, it was a never-to-be-forgotten summer
— one of those summers which come seldom into any life,
but leave a rich heritage of beautiful memories in their going
— one of those summers which, in a fortunate combination of delightful weather,
delightful friends and delightful doing, come as near to perfection as anything can come in this world.
― L.M. Montgomery, Anne's House of Dreams

What is currently blooming in your garden this summer? Phlox and black-eyed Susans are obviously enjoying their moment in the sun but other perennials presently thriving in my garden are Buddleia (butterfly bushes), Echinacea (coneflowers), various lilies, summer roses, hardy hibiscus, and Japanese anemones, just to name a few.

I've harvested massive handfuls of tomatoes and baskets full of Swiss chard, okra, strawberries and early potatoes from my vegetable beds. The garden is teeming with life and beauty, and my senses are overloaded with nature's plenty. I feel blessed and thankful as summer asserts its glow on my heart.

True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future,
not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears but to rest satisfied with what we have,
which is sufficient, for he that is so wants nothing.
The greatest blessings of mankind are within us and within our reach.
A wise man is content with his lot, whatever it may be, without wishing for what he has not.
― Seneca

© FieldandGarden.com. All rights reserved.

Printable Vintage Art: Dahlias in Vases by Maurits van der Valk

Blue Glass Vase with Lilac Dahlia

Glass Vase with Red Dahlia

You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.
― Marcus Aurelius

It is good to love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is well done.
― Vincent Van Gogh

Man often becomes what he believes himself to be. If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing, it is possible that I may end by really becoming incapable of doing it. On the contrary, if I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning.
― Mahatma Gandhi

Vintage paintings of dahlias in glass vases by Maurits van der Valk (1867–1935); oiginally found on Wikimedia here and here. Digitally enhanced versions can be downloaded as 8” x 18” @ 300 ppi JPEGs here and here.


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

Free Vintage Nature Poem and Garden Illustration: Homing Birds

HOMING BIRDS
by Mary Rowles Jarvis

Out and away through the morning skies,
Where the rosy glamour of dawning lies,
As our silvery pinions cleave the blue,
Through the sun's dominions our course is true,
For we circle and soar the wide heavens through;
And many a beautiful thing we know
Of the sunlit skies, and the world below,
And many a secret we might show.
But though much we see, and though far we roam
We always come back to our own dear home!

We love to wheel round the leafless trees
In the keen delight of the northern breeze;
When dell and dingle their songs attune,
And roses mingle their sweets for June,
We curve and float through the dreamy noon.
And when the autumn its wealth hath told,
And earth is shorn of its bending gold,
We still go forth on our journeys bold,
As free as the sea-bird that skims the foam,
Yet bound by love to our own dear home.

Right glad are we as we mount and soar
Where only the lark hath passed before;
Where no annoyance, or fear, or toil,
Our eager joyaunce can fret and spoil,
Or dust of the earth our plumage soil.
But dearer far to the heart of a dove
Than sapphire breadths of the realness above,
Is the lowly shelter where love wins love;
Where wings too weary again to roam
All rest and happiness find at home.

Ah! homing birds, we too could tell
The old sweet lesson you preach so well!
Be it only a dove-cote, three feet square,
Or a Palace Beautiful, wide and fair,
The spell is the same spell everywhere.
Where perfect trust as the warden stands,
And kindness welcomes with outstretched hands,
And love makes silken her bonds and bands,
In moss-roofed cottage, or royal dome,
The heart rejoices in home, sweet home!

Amtique illustration of a young woman feeding her homing birds in the garden. 8.5” x 11” @ 300 ppi JPEG without a watermark here. You can also download the poem as it was originally printed (see below) by clicking once to expand, and then right-clicking on the image to save to your device:

Antique nature poem and illustration are from my personal collection of ephemera. They can be incorporated into your creative works but are not for resale “as-is.” Credit to FieldandGarden.com appreciated but not required.