It's Spring - The Birds are Back

 
Sophie Gengembre Anderson (French-born British artist) 1823 - 1903 The Thrush Nest

Spring in 19c Europe

 
George Hitchcock (American painter) 1850 - 1913 Springtime in Holland

Spring in 19C Europe

;
George Hitchcock (American painter) 1850 - 1913 Springtime in Holland

Spring 19C in the Orchard

John Everett Millais (British artist, 1829-96) Spring

19C Personification of Spring by Franz Xavier Winterhalter (1805-c 1873)

Franz Xavier Winterhalter (German Academic Painter, 1805-c 1873) The Spring

Memorial Day

 Remember Them...

From Decoration Day to Memorial Day

The years following the end of the Civil War in 1865 saw American communities tending to the remains & graves of an unprecedented number of war dead. All of the previous wars & conflicts fought by the United States combined did not add up to the deaths in the Civil War.

For more than a century, the ritual of visiting cemeteries, memorials & gravesites served as the  start of summer. It was an annual act of remembrance, clearing away the dirt & grime from those hallowed markers. It was a time to decorate those personal memorials. Until 1971, Memorial Day was known as "Decoration Day."

On the 1st official Decoration Day -- May 30, 1868 -- future president James A. Garfield, a former general, addressed a crowd of 5,000 gathered at Arlington National Cemetery: "our children's children shall come to pay their tribute of grateful homage. For this are we met to-day...assemblies like this are gathering at this hour in every State in the Union.

"Thousands of soldiers are to-day...visiting the silent encampments of dead comrades who once fought by their side. From many thousand homes, whose light was put out when a soldier fell, there go forth today to join these solemn processions of loving kindred & friends."

After Garfield spoke, the 5,000 visitors made their way into the cemetery to visit the tens of thousands of graves in the newly formed Arlington cemetery.

But Decoration Day was not an official holiday. May 30 was a day seen by the Grand Army of the Republic, an association of Union Civil War veterans, as an official day of remembrance for people across the country. The idea was to honor the war's dead by decorating the graves of Union soldiers.

Local municipalities & states adopted resolutions over the following years to make Decoration Day an official holiday in their areas. Each of the former Union states had adopted a Decoration Day by 1890.

As time went on, "Memorial Day" began to supplant "Decoration Day" as the name of the holiday, & it became a day to honor all fallen American troops, not just Union soldiers from the Civil War. After the 2nd World War, Memorial Day was the term in more common usage, & the act of remembering all of America's fallen took on a renewed importance.

In 1968, the U.S. government passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which put major holidays on specific Mondays to give federal employees 3-day weekends. Memorial Day was one of these holidays. 

It all went into effect in 1971 &, by then, there were no more Civil War veterans - but there were decades of American vets from later wars.   

Memorial Day Memories & Mountain Laurel & Peter Kalm 1716-1779

Memorial Day always brings 3 things to my mind.  - 

The peonies that my mother & I gathered to place on the graves of loved ones, when I was a child. - 

The incredible bravery of my great grandfather & his 2 brothers who left the South to go to Illinois to enlist in the Civil War to fight against slavery. - 

And, way up here in the woods where I live, the mountain laurel always bloom on Memorial Day.  The amazing blooms peek out of the sides of the lane up to the house, and they define the area between the grass & the woods surrounding the rear of the house.  A soft, sweet, beautiful reminder of the meaning of the day.

The American mountain laurel was named Kalmia latifolia during the 1700s, when America was still just a collection of colonies.  The plant was first recorded in America in 1624, soon after the English began to settle along the Atlantic coast.  The genus Kalmia was named by Carolus Linneaus himself, for his student Pehr (Peter) Kalm, who sailed across the Atlantic to travel through the countryside collecting plant samples to send back to Sweden. In Kalm’s account of Mountain Laurel, he calls the plant the “spoon tree.”

Memorial Day

“Nature is the art of God.” Dante (1265-1321) - Creatures are filling the Spring Earth

Holding on to the Sweet Divine - “The Lord God took man & put him in the Garden of Eden to work it & to keep it.”  Genesis 2:15. 

Taking Peonies from our Garden to the Cemetery

Every Memorial Day weekend my mother would cut peonies from our garden to place on the graves of relatives, after we wiped each gravestone clean.

Memorial Day Food & Marketing in 1940s Indiana

My husband & I would often drove up to the Amish market in Pennsylvania to buy plants for our Spring gardens. It looked so much like the City Market in downtown Indianapolis; where my mother took me, when I was a toddler. For family holiday gatherings. like Memorial Day, we would travel into town to the city Market to buy fresh fruits & vegetables for the holiday meal.

Since the city’s founding in 1821, Indianapolis had hosted a public market. The City Market connected rural farmers with the expanding urban inhabitants & provided social interaction & business opportunities for growing immigrant populations.

Images from Life Magazine

19C Spring by James Jacques Joseph Tissot (1836-1902)

James Jacques Joseph Tissot (French artist, 1836-1902) Springtime

1644 Spring Garden Preparation by David Teniers the Younger (1610–1690)

1644 David Teniers the Younger (1610–1690) Spring. Love the Gardeners in the background moving pots outdoors and raking the garden.

During the early medieval period, gardens were primarily about food for the table & medicinal herbs. Calendars in the Later Middle Ages began to change garden illuminations for the Spring of peasants digging, ploughing, pruning & chopping their way through shrubbery & undergrowth, with those of people preparing for pleasure gardens & planting flowers. The pleasure garden had long been an important part of the houses & grounds of the elite. Calendars in the Later Middle Ages began to change garden illuminations for the Spring of peasants digging, ploughing, pruning & chopping their way through shrubbery & undergrowth, with the majority of those workers preparing for pleasure gardens & planting flowers. The pleasure garden had long been an important part of the houses & grounds of the elite. Now, however, it also became a joy for townsfolk & perhaps even peasants. Decorative flowers were planted everywhere. Now, however, it also became a joy for townsfolk & perhaps even peasants. Decorative flowers were planted everywhere.

15C Spring - Garden of Love & Earthly Delights - Illuminated Manuscripts

 

3rd Day, 10th Tale, from Boccaccio's Decameron, trans. Laurent de Premierfait. 15th C French MS with Flemish illuminations

1601 - Preparing the Spring Garden

1601 Gardener Preparing the for the Spring Garden - Die Hausbücher der Nürnberger Zwölfbrüderstiftungen. Here the gardener is expanding the cultivated landscape beyond the traditional geometric garden beds in the background, Calendars in the Later Middle Ages began to change garden illuminations for the Spring of peasants digging, ploughing, pruning & chopping their way through shrubbery & undergrowth, with the majority of those workers preparing for pleasure gardens & planting flowers. The pleasure garden had long been an important part of the houses & grounds of the elite. Now, however, it also became a joy for townsfolk & perhaps even peasants. Decorative flowers were planted everywhere.

During the early medieval period, gardens were primarily about food for the table & medicinal herbs. Calendars in the Later Middle Ages began to change garden illuminations for the Spring of peasants digging, ploughing, pruning & chopping their way through shrubbery & undergrowth, with those of people preparing for pleasure gardens & planting flowers. The pleasure garden had long been an important part of the houses & grounds of the elite. Now, however, it also became a joy for townsfolk & perhaps even peasants. Decorative flowers were planted everywhere.

Medieval Garden Myth & Reality - Spring - Preparing the Garden

1607 Gardener with a spade Die Hausbücher der Nürnberger Zwölfbrüderstiftungen

During the early medieval period, gardens were primarily about food for the table & medicinal herbs. Calendars in the Later Middle Ages began to change garden illuminations for the Spring of peasants digging, ploughing, pruning & chopping their way through shrubbery & undergrowth, with those of people preparing for pleasure gardens & planting flowers. The pleasure garden had long been an important part of the houses & grounds of the elite. Now, however, it also became a joy for townsfolk & perhaps even peasants. Decorative flowers were planted everywhere.

18C Allegory of Spring in a Garden

1758 Spring from The Four Seasons  After Nicolas Lancret by John Simon. 

Here is a garden with a fountain with putti atop & a birdbath lying on the ground, where a young man holding a spade talks to a young woman holding a basket of flowers, while another woman is watering plants. Just a bit of romance perhaps.

17C Spring Boating Party Gathering Green Branches

Sebastian Vrancx (Flemish artist, 1573-1647) The Four Seasons - Spring Boating Party Gathering Green Branches to decorate their homes.  

Celebrating our Earth.  Holding on to the Sweet Divine - “The Lord God took man & put him in the Garden of Eden to work it & to keep it.”  Genesis 2:15.

1671 Allegories of Spring- In a Garden with Putti

1671 Spring from The Four Seasons by Matthias Scheits (German artist c 1625 - 1700) Landscape with 5 putti in a landscape playing with birds. 

Celebrating our Earth.  Holding on to the Sweet Divine - “The Lord God took man & put him in the Garden of Eden to work it & to keep it.”  Genesis 2:15.

17C Allegory of Spring with Putti in a Garden

1650s Spring from The Four Seasons by Jonas Umbach (German artist c 1624 - 1700) Four putti in a garden with a fountain in background: one putti is being crowned with a flower wreath.  

Spring is the perfect time to celebrate Earth's Beauty & Bounty.  Flowers gave beauty & inspiration to mankind's basic struggle to live & to populate & to protect his home-base, The Earth.  Holding on to The Sweet Divine - The Lord God took man & put him in the Garden of Eden to work it & to keep it...Genesis 2:15.

16C Spring Landscape by Lucas Van Valkenborch (c 1530-1597)

1587 Lucas Van Valkenborch (Flemish painter, c 1530-1597) Landscape in Spring Detail

Lucas van Valckenborch or Lucas van Valckenborch the Elder (c. 1535-1597) was a Flemish painter, mainly known for his landscapes. He also made contributions to portrait painting & allegorical scenes. Court painter to Archduke Matthias, the governor of the Spanish Netherlands in Brussels, he later migrated to Austria & then Germany where he joined members of his extended family of artists who had moved there for religious reasons.

17C Allegory of Spring in a Garden

1660 Spring from The Four Seasons by Jean Leblond 1605-1666. Here a couple sit on a turf seat under a tree in a garden setting.The young woman is holding flowers in her right hand and placing her left hand on the man's thigh.  The man appears to be holding a staff in his left hand. 

18C Allegory of Spring - Love & Bird Nests

18C English Woodcut of Spring. A bird's nest with chirping chicks is gently placed in the young woman's apron.  

17C Mythical Personification of Spring - Flowers & Delight by Martin Droeshout 1601-1639

Martin Droeshout (British printmaker, 1601-c 1639) Spring

In Pagan Rome, the celebration of Floralia, from April 27-May 3 was the festival of the Flower Goddess Flora & the flowering of Springtime.  

Spring is the perfect time to celebrate Earth's Beauty & Bounty.  Flowers gave beauty & inspiration to mankind's basic struggle to live & to populate & to protect his home-base, The Earth.  

Spring in Early 20C Europe

 
Edwin Harris (English painter) 1855 - 1906 Apple Blossoms

Squirrels on the ground up here in the Spring Woods again...

France 13C (Orléans, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 9, fol. 187v)

The Smithsonian relates that when the weather catches a chill in the autumn, squirrels begin what looks like preparation for a wide-scale scavenger hunt. In great numbers, squirrels begin to bury nuts!  They know food will be scarce throughout the  winter & spring...How do the squirrels find their nuts again? In the US, Eastern gray squirrels, in particular, bury their nuts far & wide. 

Scientists have observed gray squirrels frequently burying & reburying their nuts... The gray squirrel community is rampant with nut theft. Squirrels can lose as much as 25% of their cached nuts to thieves! Luckily, squirrels have developed some clever tactics to protect their nuts. Scientists have observed squirrels creating false caches in order to trick thieves. If squirrels are suspicious of thieves, they will also start to hide their nuts in difficult to reach places (such as under bushes or in muddy areas).  

A squirrel eating a nut, Add MS 18852, f. 88v

While it might be frustrating for squirrels to lose their carefully hidden nuts, it can be beneficial for other organisms. It can help the forest itself! A study done at the University of Richmond in Virginia, cites that squirrels fail to recover up to 74% of the nuts they bury. Misplacing of so many acorns (the seeds of oak trees), the study says, is likely responsible for oak forest regeneration. When squirrels misplace these buried acorns, they allow for these seeds to eventually grow into full oak trees near & far! 

See

University Of Richmond. "Researchers Tackle The Nutty Truth On Acorns And Squirrels." ScienceDaily. 26 November 1998. 

Illuminated Manuscripts - Creatures - The Birds return in Spring

Owl looking astonished that he actually caught a bird (Morgan Library)

Spring in 19c Europe

George Hitchcock (American painter) 1850 - 1913 Spring Crocus 

Spring Bliss