Through the Looking Glass: flowers

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Happy new year!

I thought it only appropriate to celebrate the new year (and break the almost 1-year hiatus on this blog) with an appreciation post about orchids.

ORCHIDS!!! They're so interesting! There are so many types! I'm sure there are many many other plants out there that are MUCH more diverse and interesting, but recently this has taken the forefront of my attention for two reasons:

These two friends!

David got me an orchid sometime ago in 2013(?), and it bloomed beautifully for the whole summer. In the fall, it went to sleep and then hibernated for the whole year. Over the course of time, it lost a few leaves and roots, though at some point I think it grew an entire new leaf (which I then probably killed...). A few days ago he got me the mini orchid, the double stemmed one in the front. I still kept the original orchid all this time because I've heard that they sometimes regrow. Although I had almost given up on it (and admittedly kind of forgot to water it after I left it in the living room), I saw this after putting the two together:

Baby stem!!!!

The leaves aren't looking so great, and the roots aren't all super happy, but Momma orchid has begun to sprout again! Here you can see a new little stem coming out for air. Not only that but it's sprouting more roots as well! Here's another angle:

Can you see the tiny root on the bottom of the picture?

Plants are so cool. I just realized my previous post from last year was also about plants, somewhat.

In the spirit of orchid-appreciation, here are some other cool orchids from around the world and internets!! (So some of them may not be correctly labeled, sorry)

White egret orchid

Orchis Italica

Ballerina orchid

Another set of dancing ladies orchid

Laughing bumblebee orchid

A collection of monkey orchids

Tiger/Lion orchid

This looks like the same one flipped upside down - cheetah orchid??

And here are some impatiens that I thought were orchids... maybe I'll do an impatiens appreciation post another day!

Parrot impatiens

Dancing lady impatiens

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Creativity motivates

Recently I've discovered a new thing about myself.

(Actually it's probably not that new - but I've never really thought about it before!)

I need to do something creative, on a regular basis.

I'm not actually sure what a "regular basis" means, but I've noticed that during spans of time when I don't make anything or design anything, my brain gets flustered and tired, I'm not easily distracted and bored, and I can't seem to do anything else productively.

On the other hand, when I am able to do something creative, I find that during work, or house-keeping, or even cooking, I have a much better line of focus and I seem to be able to do things faster! Maybe that's just a matter of psychology.

Anyhow - that led me to think, What does creativity entail?

For me, lately, it's included flower arranging, web design and developing, tailoring old clothes, trying out new dishes, building a lightbox, gift-making and card-writing...

Oddly enough, it doesn't include knitting or crocheting! Those are the first two things that I initially thought about.

Maybe it's because I haven't tried anything new in knitting or crocheting in a while. Perhaps, then, it's not so much about the craftiness of it, but about how much it is a new sort challenge?

Hopefully the next challenge I'll be able to take is responsive web design...