Another Unknown Soldier

More Unknown Soldiers

More unknown soldiers. On the reverse, the caption "Ft. Benj Harrison 9-24-10. Getting ready for inspection. Frank." Postmarked 9/27/1910

This is about actual size as displayed on the blog. Clicking on the photo enlarges it. The preserved detail on these old photos can be impressive.

How many of these men went to their deaths in unknown battles?

Vintage Photo. Brothers?

I don't know who they are. The photo was in Emma Herrman's collection from Quincy, Illinois. They look like brothers.

Elephant Ear vintage photo

I think this would be Colocasia esculenta. no details on the location of the photo, or the lady in it. Probably from 1920s, I'm guessing.

Unknown Soldiers 1907

 

Unknown Soldier 1907

There is no identification on the photo. It was taken in San Francisco, probably 1907. Look into his eyes. It's haunting.

I don't know why I've been posting these photos. Some are at least 100 years old. I dont know the people in them, not even their names. They do something to me.

The soldiers, in some of the photos, may not have survived another year after their photos were taken. Or they may have lived 65 years more. No way to know. I like the photos of people with their favorite shrub, or in their garden, because they remind me of... me. Actually, the same with the soldiers, too, since I was one (over 30 years ago).

To some extent, I look at these and think, their lives were not so different from our lives today. Then I think, yes they were, it's a different world entirely now. Then I think, what about tomorrow? If we waste the gift of this green earth, who will be there to remember those who went before? Will it matter?

Nothing to do with gardening, maybe a little about being greener - a protest against the Iraq war is planned for downtown Portland tomorrow. I wonder if an old veteran like me should be there?

Church Ladies (unidentified place and date)

Probably Quincy, Illinois, 1920's or 30's. I'm only guessing that it's a church.

"Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most" - Mark Twain, via thinkexist.com

In the veggie garden

Who is this lady? Early 1900s, probably about 1910.

353 year old fig tree in Brittany (1610-1987)

From a post on the gardenweb fig forum, this fig tree was planted in the Brittany region of France at the religious order of the Capuchin (a Franciscan order) and apparently survived until the community needed a parking structure (ouch!).

The automatic translation from the French is difficult to read but here is a link.

Apparently, it wasn't a delicious fig although the author may have been biased ("Herbaceous and little sweetened savour these fruits, made us find them hateful by comparing them with our excellent figs South") .

From the photos, it looks like it was grown on a massive arbor. The Winkler Mission Grape vine at Davis California is a similar, but much, much younger, grape version of the same concept (covering a 60 X 60 foot arbor)

(Some comments on using old photos. I am not a lawyer, but I did look up copyright law in Wikipedia. According to that source, works published before 1923 are all in the public domain. In addition, in most countries, if the author has been dead more than 70 years, the work is in the public domain. All works created by the US government are in the public domain. So these photos should be OK to post.)

Nice Hydrangia

What a large hydrangia. Postcard mailed Dec 25, 1938 from Berkeley, California.