Blanche Update

A number of readers have asked how Blanche, our orchid, is doing. (Blanche was sent to us by my family in Baltimore.)

Blanche is doing splendidy well, thanks for asking. When she arrived, she had three blooms on one spray and five on the other. And there were two buds at the end of each spray as well. And now all four of those buds have bloomed and look every bit as breathtakingly beautiful as the others. So that's a total of 12 blooms. And twelve is a very powerful number, as most of you know... But that's not the amazing part of the story.

Blanche's pot came with several seemingly dead sticks artfully arranged behind the orchid. Very lovely: the opulence of the orchid blooms in sharp contrast to the dead sticks.

Well, it turns out that the sticks weren't dead at all. Two weeks ago, they began to sprout green leaves as well (see photo -- and click on it for an enlarged view). And I'm taking this as a metaphor for my own resurgent health. A sign, if you will...

Thank you for asking about Blanche. She appreciates the attention.