Vintage Art Appreciation: Last Flowers by Jules Breton

Last Flowers, 1890
by Jules Breton (1827 – 1906)

The magic fades too fast
the scent of summer never lasts
the nights turn hollow and vast
but nothing remains...nothing lasts.
Sanober Khan

If today is not your day,
then be happy
for this day shall never return.
And if today is your day,
then be happy now
for this day shall never return.
Kamand Kojouri

Life is made up of a collection of moments that are not ours to keep. The pain we encounter throughout our days spent on this earth comes from the illusion that some moments can be held onto. Clinging to people and experiences that were never ours in the first place is what causes us to miss out on the beauty of the miracle that is the now. All of this is yours, yet none of it is. How could it be? Look around you. Everything is fleeting.

To love and let go, love and let go, love and let go...it's the single most important thing we can learn in this lifetime.
Rachel Brathen

Free Vintage Garden Clipart for Crafts, Collage or Junk Journaling: A Victorian Aviary and Flowering Angel Trumpets

Larks in the morning, crickets at night. There is no other world.
Marty Rubin

A black and white illustration of an aviary in a Victorian garden, surrounded by climbing roses and wild convolvulus. This particularly ornamental aviary was manufactured by Mr. E. Crook of 5, Carnaby-street, Regent-street, London, and was quite popular with many ladies of that era. You can download a 8” x 7” @ 300 ppi JPEG without a watermark here.

May I a small house and large garden have;
And a few friends,
And many books, both true.
Abraham Cowley

A botanical illustration from Henderson's Handbook of Plants that shows a small flowering tree growing in a landscaped, walled garden. The "tree" is actually a standard shrub of Brugmansia suaveolens, also commonly known as angel trumpet or angel's tears. The remarkably beautiful flowers (usually white but can be yellow or pink) are sweetly fragrant in the evenings so they can attract pollinating moths but hang half-closed during the day. A lovely graphic to use in crafts, collage or junk journaling. You can download the 8” x 10” @ 300 ppi JPEG without a watermark here.

Creative Commons Licence
From my personal collection of ephemera. All digital scans by FieldandGarden.com are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Please credit and link back to FieldandGarden.com as your source if you use or share this work.

Free Vintage Illustrated Template: Thanksgiving Invitation or Harvest Menu Template with Stylized Grapevine Border

What are you planting today to harvest tomorrow?
Lailah Gifty Akita

A pait of illustrated borders, originally published in a printer's manual circa 1900, that features stylized bunches of grapes nestled in thick masses of grapevines and leaves. Great for decorating invitations to Thanksgiving dinner but could also be used to display menus, as place cards, to feature recipes or as decorative frames for a journal page?

Download this free high-resolution 11" x 8.5" @ 300 ppi JPEG without a watermark here. You can insert words by opening the file in any graphic or text editing app. I recommend printing on heavy card stock.

Creative Commons Licence
All pre-made templates by FieldandGarden.com are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Please credit and link back to FieldandGarden.com as your source if you use or share this work.

Free Vintage Nature Poem: Back to the Farm (Part 4 of 4)

You can download this illustration by N.C. Wyeth for free as a 5" x 7" @ 300 ppi JPEG here.

BACK TO THE FARM
Part 4 (of 4)
by Martha Gilbert Dickinson Bianchi

Out in the dews with the spider at his shuttle --
In that half-dreaming hour that awakes the whippoorwill
And sets the nighthawk darting sinister and subtle,
F'er the full moon complacent loiters o'er the hill.

Back to the farm!
With the friendly brute for neighbor,
Where youth and Nature beckon, the tryst who would not keep?
Back to the luxury of rest that follows labor,
Back to the primal joys of hunger and of sleep!

Creative Commons Licence
Public domain poem is from my personal collection. All digitized poems by FieldandGarden.com are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Please credit and link back to FieldandGarden.com as your source if you use or share this work.