This is a view from my corner kitchen window - all of my pretty little orchids blooming in the spring sunlight! It has taken me quite a few years to build up my collection after the heater went out in the greenhouse, late one winter night. All of my orchids died from the cold- even the ones that had supplied my wedding bouquet many, many years ago.

I was devastated - particularly so, because a few years after the greenhouse accident, my friend Ken, who had given me the orchids for my wedding, died of cancer. First the special plants were gone, then Ken was gone. It took me a few years to even want to buy a single plant, but now my kitchen is full of them again. This beauty has three branches and fifteen flowers that are open right now, with more buds on the way. Ken would be proud of me!