Green finger

My mother loved gardening. In fact one of my earliest memories was sitting in the middle of my mother’s garden looking at the many colours of her bougainvillea collection. She cut the grass by hand. I remembered watching her weed the lawn using an old knife to prise the roots from the ground. We had a lot indoor plants as well. She used to grow them from cuttings, root them in water and voila another plant is born. What green fingers! Amidst all these greenery, my mother absolutely adored orchids and they would hold a lasting memory for me.
I didn’t think that I could buy let alone grow orchids in England when I first arrived here. When I noticed that my local garden centre started stocking on these exotic blooms I toyed with the idea of buying a specimen as an indoor plant. My first orchid didn’t survive the winter in my conservatory. But last year hubby bought me a beautiful white orchid for Valentine’s day. This time I nurtured the plant with utmost care.
Instead of putting it in the conservatory, I positioned it on my kitchen window sill. Even with our house move it survived. However, the story might have been different if I hadn’t spotted snails munching at it one day. It lost a couple of beautiful leaves as a result. I was desolate until one day I saw a little shoot sprouting off from its roots. I thought nothing of it until it started to grow upwards. To my delight it started to grow buds…yes finally my little orchid bloomed for the second time. I added some more to my collection and like my mother I am hooked. According to our local florist, she would be stocking on hardy miniature orchids. That got me interested. I wonder if I could grow them successfully?
***

I thought this photo of Sam is really good. It captures his mood--always ready for his 40 winks. Like any animal Sam seems to find the warmest place in the house. This is taken from our attic room. We have a window on top of the stairs where the sun shines its brilliant rays.That's one of Sam's favourite spots in the house.