The Promise of Summer Series began with the early budding of spring bleeding hearts in my flower garden and drenching rains. After the cold, dark Vermont winter, yearning for summer is strong. Inherently there is faith in the dormant seeds, awakening bugs, and critters. There is faith in the act of planting of vegetable gardens, in the migrating cedar waxwings, and the returning honeybees. Expectation is high. Our usual brief spring became 59 days of rain and gray. We threatened the weather gods with a vacation to the Caribbean, to no avail. Summer started to disappear, before it even got started. My normal outdoor exuberance was forced into the studio. As the pouring rain would abate, I would dash to the garden to collect new buds (they had snorkels and fins) to print with. I played with those images of delayed summer, my flat paper and inks, and the series emerged. All summer I worked inside, waited for the first peony scent, hoped for ripened tomatoes, and reckoned with my ultimate submission to the power of nature.