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I went out yesterday with a friend in search of spring colors to paint.  We weren't disappointed.  A small stream in Monroe on the Dahlia Farm Road offered all we were looking for.  Instead of working in oils, I took along pastels, a relatively new medium for me.  What fun I had using them.  The colors at the stream were deep and gentle at the same time, the air was clear and warm, and a chorus of bird song entertained us.  This  painting was completed in the morning. 

Enticed by the experience, we stopped for lunch and chose a different spot to paint in the afternoon.  Dorothea Dix Park in Hampden became our destination; a quest for early Lady Slipper blossoms was our mission.  No luck with Lady Slippers  -  too early in the season - but we found a delicious place to paint near a small, intermittent pond in the park.  It was dark, luscious, green, and gold, oozing new life. 

As I painted, the colors and the intensity of the experience reminded me of a beloved poem by Robert Frost.  I share it here as a reminder to myself and to others to savor each seasonal gift as it comes, ephemeral though it may be.  Enjoy.

Nothing Gold Can Stay

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.