Nature

 This orchid has had quite a life. We found it placed on our deck in Redwood City the winter before we moved to Florida.  It was in full bloom and we thanked the realtor who sold the house next door and found this lovely plant left behind.

Months later, the Turk had to fly to Florida to work on the house for the tenant, so he carefully uprooted the plant, placed it in plastic, and packed it in with his clothes.  American Airlines was not thinking there might be something alive in the Turk's luggage when they lost it for a couple of days.

The luggage was finally found and the plant was retrieved, looking a bit worn from the experience.  We sent the orchid to Mickie's (Tim's wife) mom who grows all kinds of orchids.  She'd not seen a ground orchid before and was kind enough to take this homeless, traumatized plant in to nurse it to health.

We retrieved the orchid when we moved to Florida, and ignored it as we were told. Orchids dont like alot of fuss and attention - but I'm pretty sure they dont like lost suitcases either.  Fast forward 4 years - because the plant did nothing during that time but grow leaves.

Then, in October we saw something amazing... a shoot was starting. Then a second.  And now we've been able to enjoy weeks of perfect orchids in shades of pinks.  We appreciate them even more because we had to wait so long to see them.

I was walking on the beach the other day and had to stop and laugh.  One bird would not stop 'yelling' at the other one - her mate?  The quiet one just stood stoically, looking at me walk by as if to say - "she wanted to winter in Florida, and now she doesn't like it. What am I supposed to do!? We have the beach reserved the whole season."