While strolling with Nanette through the English countryside, I happened upon this magnificent stone cottage, nestled amongst trees and a lavish garden. The stone itself was massive, weathered, impervious to changes of climate or season. But the blooming world around was exquisitely sensitive to every cloudburst, every soft breeze, every golden shower of sunshine. The contrast between stone and flower, between the obdurate rock and the sensitive plant, the enduring and the evanescent is at the heart of Spring at Stonegate.