I have another orchid

to care for and the responsibility is a little concerning. Orchids need to be cared for in more than a "give it a bit of water every day" sort of way. Indeed, you do not water an orchid every day.

Middle Cat has given it to me. There are actually five beautiful flowers on it. They are the colour of good milk with a delicate yellow centre. 

I know very little about orchids. I know very little about flowers. I can name some, but not all. I know what I like.

Our mother grew orchids. The Senior Cat covered an area of the side garden for her to have the right sort of environment in which to grow them. Many of them grew in great pots. They would be nothing more than dull looking leaves for long periods of time and then they would flower. There would be sprays of them. I remember some of them as being as long as thirty centimetres. 

Mum would stand there with the very old man who lived "over the back fence" and they would discuss them at length. He grew orchids at the side of his gladioli beds. The gladioli were his first love and the garden beds were filled with colour each summer. He would bring our mother great sheaves of gladioli. They would be the "imperfect" ones he was not showing. In return she would give orchids she had repotted as they broke out of their containers. The two of them got on well. They both had green thumbs. The Senior Cat would simply go back to his tomatoes and peas and leave them to it.

I thought of all this as I looked at the new orchid this morning. I am no gardener. If S...., who comes to help, can give me a hand to keep the weeds under control that is all I ask. I don't have the time or the physical capacity to grow the vegetables I might otherwise grow. If the bluebells come up of their own accord each year (and they do) then I am happy enough. Middle Cat is much more interested. She went off to a gardening club with the Senior Cat. They went to look at gardens for gardening purposes. I would go to look at gardens for their appearance, for their colours.

And this is what frustrates me. I see those colours. I want those colours in knitting yarn. They don't make it the way I want it and I don't know enough about dyeing my own to do it. I need more than twenty-four hours in each day to even contemplate starting on this.

But I will appreciate the orchid. Yesterday was a low point. I went to look at a possible future home. There was a queue waiting to inspect it...a queue that stretched down the street. I had promised Middle Cat I would look. I joined the queue. I looked. 

It would be an ideal places in many ways but I know that others will offer far more than I can afford. One of those offers will be accepted. Middle Cat has arranged to see it tomorrow but we both know that someone will have offered a hundred thousand more than it is worth. That is how desperate people have become. 

But, as Middle Cat said when she gave me the orchid, it doesn't have a garden. I think I need some greenery even if I do not have a green thumb.