Everything has Changed ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

“These times are too progressive. Everything has changed too fast. Railroads and telegraphs and kerosene and coal stoves -- they're good to have but the trouble is, folks get to depend on 'em.”

― Laura Ingalls Wilder

More at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Ingalls_Wilder
Artwork Sybil Andrews http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sybil_Andrews

Things that are Good ~ William Penn

“But agriculture, says he, is especially in my eye. Let my children be husbandmen and housewives. This occupation is industrious, healthy, honest, and of good example. Like Abraham and the holy ancients, who pleased God, and obtained a good report, this leads to consider the works of God, and nature of things that are good, and diverts the mind from being taken up with the vain arts and inventions of a luxurious world.”

~ William Penn

More at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Penn

Artwork from Walt Curlee
 http://www.waltcurleeart.com/WRC-RuralAmericanaSeriesMountainLandscapeOilPaintings.html

Cultivation and Perfection ~ Masanobu Fukuoka

“When it is understood that one loses joy and happiness in the attempt to possess them, the essence of natural farming will be realized. The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings.”

― Masanobu Fukuoka

More at  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masanobu_Fukuoka

Artwork from Andy English http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_English

Let Them Grow ~ E. Nesbit

"All round the year the changing suns and rains
Beat on men’s work—to wreck and to decay—
But nature builds more perfectly than they,
Her changing unchanged sea resists, remains.
All round the year new flowers spring up to shew
How gloriously life is more strong than death;
And in our hearts are seeds of love and faith,
Ah, sun and showers, be kind, and let them grow."

E.Nesbit

More at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._Nesbit

Artwork by the painter, and friend of Nesbit, Hugh Bellingham Smith, about whom the internet tells us little.

Foolish as Much as the Wise ~ Walt Whitman

“I am of old and young, of the foolish as much as the wise,
Regardless of others, ever regardful of others,
Maternal as well as paternal, a child as well as a man,
Stuffed with the stuff that is course, and stuffed with the stuff that is fine, one of the nation, of many nations, the smallest the same and the the largest”

~ Walt Whitman

More at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Whitman

I cant track down the artist of this linocut, but am on the case!

Pride in Revealing ~ Daniele Varè

“The verb 'to darn' is explained in my pocket dictionary as follows: 'To mend by imitating the texture of the stuff, with thread and needle.' But this definition does not correspond to the work accomplished by good Chinese housewives. When they mend a sock, they do not try 'to imitate the texture of the stuff'. Their art makes no attempt at concealment: it even takes a certain pride in revealing itself.”

~ Daniele Varè

More at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniele_Var%C3%A8

Socks did belong to Rachael Matthews, but I know nothing more about them.