Bringing in 2012

The "Talisman"

Truth be told, the arrival of the new year was trumped, in my mind, by the anticipated arrival of our daughter, who has been working her way through Europe for three months via the World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms program.   We've been tending her orchid next to our kitchen sink, since she's been gone.  It was without flowers when she left, but a bud began to swell on the main stem a couple of months ago.  We urged the bud along as it grew and turned pinkish, but it dropped off the stem before blooming.  And then, the same thing happened a few weeks later.  At that point -- having had no experience with orchids -- I began to wonder if we were over-watering the orchid, or if these buds were in fact precursors to the real deal, and a bloom was yet to come.  Finally, another bud emerged that came on faster than the other two, and surpassed them both in size.  Then we began to speculate about the timing, intrigued by the coincidence of the impending bloom that would surely occur on New Year's Day, or perhaps in time for our daughter's arrival today.  As it turned out, the bloom began to open on New Year's and fully opened this morning -- just in time.  :)

To all who have landed here, I wish you all that is good in 2012.  To those of you who have been following along, I thank you for your friendship, and for your interest and support of my work.  Most importantly, I thank you for sharing your knowledge on your own blogs, and for the wonderful work and the goodwill that you are generating around the world.

Happy New Year!!