{ the jaunty magpie }

What? No pretty summer dresses and sparkly sandals?! This Bird's wardrobe has been relegated to gardening gloves and dirt-smudged workpants of late, digging around in soil beds and pulling the occasional weed. What can I say? It's quite the rage, dusting dirt from one's hair and tromping around in workboots through the mud. OK, maybe not so much, but it yields such pretty results in the garden. The last of the spring bulbs are in bloom and while they weren't in the Jaunty garden, I plucked handfuls of wild roses from Mother Nature's garden to collect the fragrant petals for making herbal tea. Sometimes finding the true Jaunty Life is walking one's own path and getting dirt under the nails now and then.

To share the Jardin J'adore, here are some thoughts to go along with summertime blooms:

Flowers are the sweetest things God ever made, and forgot to put a soul into
- Henry Beecher

Earth laughs in flowers
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

I'd rather have roses on my table than diamonds on my neck
- Emma Goldman

Bread feeds the body, indeed, but flowers feed also the soul
- The Koran

When you have only two pennies left in the world, buy a loaf of bread with one, and a lily with the other
- Chinese Proverb


Jaunty Fine Print: photos by Denise Sakaki