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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.