My Photo Journal: A Quiet Start to January

Are the days of winter sunshine just as sad for you, too?
When it is misty, in the evenings, and I am out walking by myself,
it seems to me that the rain is falling through my heart
and causing it to crumble into ruins.
― Gustave Flaubert

A cold wind was blowing from the north,
and it made the trees rustle like living things.
― George R.R. Martin

I do an awful lot of thinking and dreaming about things in the past and the future
- the timelessness of the rocks and the hills - all the people who have existed there.
I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape
- the loneliness of it, the dead feeling of winter.
Something waits beneath it, the whole story doesn't show.
― Andrew Wyeth

December and January have been very quiet months for us. Usually spent in celebration with a flurry of birthdays and holiday get-togethers, we were instead filled with listless introspection, downcast by the passing of my father-in-law in November while also being plagued with health/pain problems.

Christmas and New Year were spent mostly walking in woods and along wintry lanes. These pictures were taken in Darlington Provincial Park. Trudging up to the wind-swept beach, we saw this tiny little giraffe braving the cold. He did make us smile and provided a glimmer of warm-weather activities. I hope his owner comes back to collect him when the weather improves!

And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees,
just as things grow in fast movies,
I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer.
― F. Scott Fitzgerald

© FieldandGarden.com. All rights reserved.

Vintage Art Appreciation: Geraniums by Childe Hassam

Summer is a period of luxurious growth.
To be in harmony with the atmosphere of summer,awaken early in the morning
and reach to the sun for nourishment to flourish as the gardens do.
Work, play, travel, be joyful, and grow into selfless service.
The bounty of the outside world enters and enlivens us.
― Paul Pitchford, Healing With Whole Foods: Asian Traditions and Modern Nutrition

Altered vintage painting titled "Geraniums" by Childe Hassam (1859–1935). You can find the image of the original painting on Wikimedia here and you can download my digitally enhanced version of the painting as a 8.5" x 11" @ 300 ppi JPEG here. Simply print and frame for tabletop or wall artI but could also be used as a cover in a garden journal or scrapbooking project.


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

Vintage Art Appreciation: A Spanish Garden by Martín Rico

I almost wish we were butterflies and liv'd but three summer days
― three such days with you I could fill with more delight
than fifty common years could ever contain.
― John Keats, Bright Star: Love Letters and Poems of John Keats to Fanny Brawne

A tale begun in other days,
When summer suns were glowing ―
A simple chime, that served to time
The rhythm of your rowing ―
Whose echoes live in memory yet,
Though envious years would say 'forget.'
― Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There

Altered vintage painting titled "A Spanish Garden" by Martín Rico (1833 – 1908). You can find the image of the original painting on Wikimedia here and you can download my digitally enhanced version of the painting as a 6" x 9" @ 300 ppi JPEG here. Simply print and frame for tabletop or wall artI but could also be used as a cover in a garden journal or scrapbooking project.


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

Vintage Art Appreciation: Summer Meadow, Pobojka by Stanislav Yulianovich Zhukovsky

Summer Meadow, Pobojka, 1938
by Stanislav Yulianovich Zhukovsky (1873 – 1944)
Summer afternoon—summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.
― Henry James

Spring flew swiftly by, and summer came; and if the village had been beautiful at first, it was now in the full glow and luxuriance of its richness. The great trees, which had looked shrunken and bare in the earlier months, had now burst into strong life and health; and stretching forth their green arms over the thirsty ground, converted open and naked spots into choice nooks, where was a deep and pleasant shade from which to look upon the wide prospect, steeped in sunshine, which lay stretched out beyond. The earth had donned her mantle of brightest green; and shed her richest perfumes abroad. It was the prime and vigour of the year; all things were glad and flourishing.
― Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist

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

Vintage Art Appreciation: Winter Landscape in Areskutan by Carl Brandt

Winter Landscape in Areskutan, 1921
by Carl Brandt (1852 - 1930)
I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently? And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says, "Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again.
― Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass

What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness.
― John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley: In Search of America

Spring passes and one remembers one's innocence.
Summer passes and one remembers one's exuberance.
Autumn passes and one remembers one's reverence.
Winter passes and one remembers one's perseverance.
― Yoko Ono