It snowed on Friday. A lot. It was snowing in the morning, stopped, started… This went on all day. It was the kind of day where it was better to stay home if you didn’t absolutely need to go out. So, we stayed in. We cancelled plans to meet a friend for dinner – we’re taking a raincheck – and stayed home.
I knew it was going to get cold overnight, and I was hoping that on Saturday morning the snow would have stopped. It was still snowing, but only lightly. Cold and snowing. What to do? Bake! So, I made cake.
At one point, I looked out the window and it was just beautiful. Blue sky and snow laden trees. Almost the perfect winter scene. I went back to my baking, looked outside again, and the blue sky had changed to white. Now that it was cloudy, everything was white. Not quite as cheery as the beautiful blue sky. Ah well. It’s winter, and where we live the weather is predictably unpredictable.
In the midst of it all, on this cold winter day, there is new life coming to see the world. One of our orchids is opening. The orchids belonged to my mother-in-law. She has been gone almost a year – in some ways it seems so long ago and in some ways I can’t believe where the time has gone – and now her favourite orchid is about to bloom. She had three, and I asked if I could have them when she passed. My husband and I had given them to her many years ago, so it seemed appropriate for us to take care of them after she was gone.
She took care of them for years, giving them new growing medium every year so they would get new nutrients, and soon they were much bigger than when we gave them to her. One had a baby plant and she put it into its own pot. So now we have them. A yellow, a white, and the baby white. The white one was her favourite and one of its buds is opening as I write this. The yellow one has buds but I think they will take a while to get big enough to bloom, which is fine. Maybe it will be blooming when the white one is finishing.
The yellow one was blooming when she gave it to us and got more buds not long after she passed. It bloomed for us just in time for Easter, which was such a gift. I have been waiting for the white one because it was her favourite, and it is lovely that it is blooming during this snowy time – which she would have spent skiing and snowshoeing.
I remember being in the store admiring the orchids many, many times with her. She thought – like many people do – that they must be so hard to grow. I told her they weren’t but I’m not sure she believed me until we got her one for Christmas. She took such good care of it, and soon we got her another one. She loved them, and it showed.
Despite telling her they aren’t as fragile as they seem, I was worried what would happen to them when we brought them home. It was January, and goodness knew what the short walk from the car to the house would do to them. I remember her telling me not to worry if I killed them, that she wouldn’t know anyway, and that maybe the stress of the move would actually help them to bloom. Somehow that didn’t make me feel better. But they have been okay, even blooming for us.
When orchids start to open, it is wonderful to watch. They take a day or so and you can see them opening more and more through the day, like a miracle happening before your very eyes.
And so, on this snowy day, now that the cake has cooled, I am going to stay cozy and warm in my slippers and under my blanket, and watch through the day as her orchid opens and says hello to the world.
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I hope you enjoyed it!