Orchids

I finally listed this photo in our etsy shop tonight. Rob took it last spring, and while it traveled the fair circuit with us in 2008, it somehow slipped through the cracks of being added to our online shop. I love it with a 4x10 crop.

Orchids are one plant that I now hold dear. When my mom was alive, she would always find an excuse to purchase a new orchid. She'd be lucky if they rebloomed after initially being brought home. I never paid much attention to them.

Then, after she passed away in 2005, it seemed like orchids were everywhere I looked. In my grief, they took on a new meaning-- a new living connection to her. When I approached her first birthday without her, I drove myself to her favorite greenhouse and impulsively purchased two purple orchids from them. They were a little pricey, but I felt consoled.

Now, almost four years later, the same orchids have rebloomed for me twice a year on a consistent schedule--once around her birthday (March/April), and once again around her death (September/October). Over the summer, I purchased a new orchid to add to the flock, which I noticed today is sending out new shoots to begin new blooms again.

Our store has a wide variety of orchid photos now that we both pay more attention to them. Rob and I joke that if my mom was still here, her walls would have been covered with them.

I hope they bring happiness to your household, correspondence and computer screens as well.