Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Valentine's Surprise

I just love plants, and usually in the winter my home looks a bit like a misplaced jungle smack-dab in the Midwest. (Hey, I even have three little jungle animals roaming around to scare the natives!)
However, when we came back from our Christmas/New Years vacation to the Sunny South, I was very saddened to see that almost all my beloved plants had died due to extreme cold. Since I can commiserate with them, I couldn't really be angry. Extreme cold makes me want to shrivel up into a limpid ball of smellyness too.

Since then, I've been a bit depressed. Some of those plants I've had from before I was married to my first husband (which is Handyman. I just like to teasingly call him my "first husband" for the effect). They were a bit like my pets, except they didn't poop on my floors or leave hair on my yarn. Having them gone is like suffering the loss of a pet, except it's more like losing twenty beloved pets.

Even Handyman, not usually the most emotionally astute person, picked up on my sadness. (I think wailing into his chest and drenching his shirt with tears might have tipped him off.) So, for Valentine's Day, he did a truly sweet thing and bought me a Dendrobium Orchid, one of my favorites.
I love orchids. I love the exotic-ness of them; the incongruity of a tropical plant living in the Midwest (I can relate).

Most of all?
The color makes me happy.

4 comments:

Ellen said...

Oh no! I'm sorry about your plants. I am pretty attached to one of my plants too... I LOVE your orchid - it's gorgeous!

Sereknitty said...

Fabulous orchid! Big kudos to 'handyman' for being so astute -- he'll be living off that one for a long time :)

Wishful Acres Farm said...

How sad! Maybe next year you should pass your new plant(s) off to other homes to be babysat. Although we don't get -50 windchill every winter I suppose.
The orchid is beautiful though!

Too Little Time said...

Sorry to hear you lost all your babies - -- beautiful orchid - perhaps the closing of the old and beginning of the new :) K