Spring?

Not quite. She isn't rushing to make her entrance; either that or winter won't let her. It snowed yesterday, it snowed today. Mind you, these squalls are only distant relatives of our mid winter storms. The falling snow looks every bit as substantial but it doesn't last and the sun follows along swifty. But still, it's been feeling pretty wintery with temps in the 30s. Though I have to admit that's 40 degrees warmer than January! So we have progressed. Won't be long now.

It's feeling quite spring-y inside the house and I'm ever so excited to announce the blossoming of 2 of my Phalaenopsis Orchids (also known as "moth" orchids). As you may recall I had my orchids out on the stoop last summer and was beaming over the fact that 2 of them had put out a flower shoot and were budding. They were just getting ready to grace the place with their beauty when I brought them in to protect them from dropping temperatures. On their second night inside, a mouse helped himself! I awoke to find both flower stems looking like leftovers from the rodent's buffet! It was especially upsetting because one of the phals hadn't blossomed in 2 or 3 years.

Well, that's all past. The large orchid put out another shoot and is now in bloom and the medium orchid has done the same. The smallest one has just now begun putting out a shoot. Oh how thrilling! I've been coddling them this past week, making sure their drywells have fresh, clean water and that they don't get sunburn. Last week, I purchased another phal.--a deep red color, and Saturday I really dove into deep water and purchased a Cattleya Orchid (also know as "corsage" orchids). Yup, I'm ready to try again. I attempted a Cat. some years ago but was not successful in getting it to reblossom and now I think I know why: temperature differences between night and day. In the apartment in NY the inside temps were pretty steady round the clock and orchids need to get a temperature drop at night in order to set out flower shoots. So I think I'm going to have better luck up here.

Here are my 2 phals. getting a drink in the sink:


Here they are a few weeks ago, in situ in the south-east window:


Here is the medium sized one with all three of its buds open:


And HERE is the new Cattleya:


And my latest phal. Isn't that a pretty color!:


Finally, I removed the smallest phal. from it's pot and mounted it on a piece of cork. It has started to put out a shoot:


It may not quite be spring outside but it's definitely springing in here! And progress on the quilt continues; currently about half the squares are made: