On one of my annual June trips to photograph the natural rhododendron gardens on Roan Mountain, straddling the North Carolina - Tennessee border, I arrived to find the gardens fog-bound and dripping from an overnight rain. The diffused lighting conditions made for excellent close-up photography of the rhododendron blossoms. After I finished with macro shots of the flowers--and being completely untempted to look for grand scenic shots because of the gray skies--I walked the short trail network that exists within the gardens. During that walk, I came upon this scene which seemed to speak to the cycle of life itself. The old moss-covered stump in the foreground and the decaying tree trunk it once supported serve to enrich the soil and provide a fertile bed for the new growth springing up just behind. Beyond the young trees are tall, mature mid-life trees of the same species; their presence completes the depiction of the cycle of birth, growth, maturity and death that is a constant in all species.