Early summer in North Carolina. It has been a cool season thus far thankfully. I am not a girl who likes the sweltering heat. I do love my garden. The best part about it is that I didn't have to plant it. The lady we bought the house from was a horticulturalist. I have every variety of lilly you can imagine, and hundreds of other things I can't name. It is glorious in spring and summer. I have added a bit to the garden.

I can see this vignette through my front door. It is a little courtyard at the entry to the house enclosed by a lovely rock wall. The contrast of the flowers, along with the faucet stuck in the ground, and the beautiful metal hummingbird and flower stake by my friend Lewis just make me smile right down to my toes.

gold

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
-Robert Frost

I love this poem. As I was working on the page for the gold inchie swap at Altered Art Obsession, I couldn't help but recite it in my mind over and over again. Winter is turning to Spring here in North Carolina. The light is pale golden, and tender shoots are pushing their way up through brown earth.