My Photo Journal: Red-winged Blackbird in a Wildflower Meadow

FLOWERS AND WEEDS
by GEORGE COOPER
(originally published March 8, 1887)

HAVE you ever heard what the fairies say,
Little girl, little boy? Oh, hear and heed!
For each smile you wear on your face today
There's a flower grows; for each frown a weed.

So to make this world like a garden bright,
Little girl, little boy, keep frowns away.
Oh, the loving lips that can say tonight,
We have scattered flowers o'er the earth today!

The image above shows a red-winged blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) perched on top of a wildflower stalk (it looks like a goldenrod not yet in bloom).

These throwback photos were taken in 2012 on a walk through the DuPont Gordon Richards Park located near the waterfront in Whitby, Ontario. The park is a great place to spot many diffent types of birds and wildflowers, such as the strikingly pretty but incredibly invasive broad-leaved everlasting-pea or Lathyrus latifolius (below).

I hope you are enjoying beautiful weather where you are and wish you many hours of walking along happy trails filled with birdsong every step of your way.

Photos © FieldandGarden.com. All rights reserved.


Public domain poem is 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.

Free Vintage Outdoor Illustration for Collage Art, Graphic Design, Papercrafts or Scrapbooking: Mother and Daughters in the Woods 1

Walk straight ahead
Listen to no one
Trust not in the walls or doorways
For they will mislead
And close behind you
As you walk through
The forest, not knowing
Where you’ve come from
Or where you’re going …
If anywhere at all.
― Renée Paule, Just Around The Bend: Más o Menos

Vintage outdoor illustration of a Victorian mother and her daughters on a walk in the great outdoors. From an 1861 issue of Journal des Demoiselles.

You can download theis vintage illustration as a free 8" x 10" @ 300 ppi JPEG without a watermark for collage, graphic design, papercrafts or scrapbooking projects 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.

Free Vintage Outdoor Illustration for Collage Art, Graphic Design, Papercrafts or Scrapbooking: Edwardian Lady on a Walk in the Forest, 1905

This life is yours. Take the power to choose what you want to do and do it well.
Take the power to love what you want in life and love it honestly.
Take the power to walk in the forest and be a part of nature.
Take the power to control your own life. No one else can do it for you.
Take the power to make your life happy.
― Susan Polis Schutz

And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul.
― John Muir

From the front cover of Le Moniteur de la Mode dated March 25, 1905. This colour engraving shows an Edwardian lady holding a key on a chain as she heads into (or walks away from) a lush forest.

You can download theis vintage illustration as a free 6" x 8" @ 300 ppi JPEG without a watermark for collage, graphic design, papercrafts or scrapbooking projects 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.

Free Vintage Garden Poem: The Rabbit and the Carrot by Jenny Wallis

THE RABBIT AND THE CARROT
by JENNY WALLIS

I SING in rhyme a romance sweet,
A tender tale as e'er you'll meet.
'Tis all about a pretty rabbit;
Our little yard did he inhabit.

Beyond the fence Miss Carrot grew;
Her beauty his attention drew.
He daily thought, "Would I were able
To reach that lovely vegetable!"

He tried each space; found all too small;
Beneath there was no room to crawl.
Then off he tore a cabbage leaf,
And on it wrote his tender grief.

Then through the fence he tossed the note,
And to her feet he saw it float;
On which she read, with great surprise,
Words that were very far from wise.

She saw full well that he would win her,
Only to make on her his dinner;
So said, "Kind sir, your note I've seen;
But, pardon me, I'm far from green."

A humourous garden poem originally published March 8, 1887. If you would like to download the illustrated poem as a high-res 5.5" x 10" @ 300 ppi JPEG without a watermark, you can find it 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.