3 Free eBooks – July 2017

My picks for this month are about gardens…and all published between 1912 and 1914.

Rusinol, Santiago. Jardines de Espana. Madrid: Renacimiento. 1914. Available from Hathi Trust here. There is a timeless quality to gardens. Do we enjoy them in the same way today – when we aren’t distracted by the modern world? The depictions of Spanish gardens of 1914 would fit into modern notions of pleasant outdoor places as much as they did a century ago. I particularly liked the limited color illustrations.

Villiers-Stuart, C.M. Gardens of the Great Mughals. London: A. and C. Black, 1913. Available from Hathi Trust here. Lush and full of architectural elements like pools, fountains, and canals…I wished the scanning had been higher quality for the illustrations.

Thomas, H.H. The Garden at Home. London: Cassell and Company. 1912. Available from Hathi Trust here. Less formal gardens – with beds blooming profusely and roses on trellises. Is this the type garden we still strive for around our homes?

Memory Prompting Scenes

A row of daffodils blooming between the house and the road – connecting to outbuildings. In the other direction, the daffodils continued and a pear tree was in full bloom. The picture will remind me of the day I flew to Texas and drove to Oklahoma…to visit people that have known me my whole life and are now fragile. Every time I see them now is precious since there might not be another time.

The next night – the moon came up and a big crowd celebrated a birthday. I stepped outside into the cold and quiet for a few seconds for a few seconds…to create the memory scene of the event.

Back in Texas a few days later – a 20+ year old rose bush that was a birthday gift for my grandmother (maybe for her 80^th  birthday) was blooming.

 It has a dense stand of other flowers planted around its base.  The scene always reminds me of her and the gardening she enjoyed. That rose bush is a memorial to her more than the monument is the cemetery further away.

Last but not least - a garden scene...with pieces of travels and earlier times of our lives surrounded by greenery that gets more lush each year. Even most of the plants were obtained from other family gardens...evoking lots of good memories.