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.