Orchids and Wildfires...

One of my loves is Orchids...I have (had) 10 plants, I think.

 

With that many orchids, I usually have one or two in bloom.  The two plants currently blooming are both yellow varieties, but I have whites and pinks as well.  I thought you might enjoy seeing them...

 

 

Today, I received a rather impressive box in the mail.  Very light.  From Hawaii (Mom & Dad just visited). Labeled as live plants....

 

This was what was inside, five new "baby" orchids from my Mom... 

 

I have placed them in a "nursery" of sorts...under my glass dome.  They came in the plastic tubes you can see in the bottom left photo above...it was interesting to try and extract them from those without harming the plant.  I did succeed.  I am sure I will need to transplant them soon, but they seem to not have outgrown their small pots as of yet.

 

Four of these are Dendrobium orchids and one is a Cattleya...I have had primarily Phalaenopsis orchids in the past.  I do have one Dendrobium, but have not been successful in getting it to rebloom for me.  The Phaleonopsis bloom a couple of times a year typically, sometimes more, and for as long as 9 weeks at a time.  This will be interesting, the new babies came with detailed care instructions...I am excited and very hopeful that these will flourish under my care.

 

On another note, these are photos of the sunset tonight...

 

 

The sun is so red due to the smoke moving into the area (we live in Pueblo, CO).  You could see the layers of smoke moving in from at least two fires.  We had escaped the smoke until now, making it seem slightly surreal that things were burning so just an hour north of us in Colorado Springs/Black Forest and an hour west in Canon City/Royal Gorge.  It seems real now.  There are more fires, started by lightning today, both south and west of us.  Prayers for rain and moisture for Colorado would be appreciated...

 

Off to load my shuttles...I have a butterfly pattern to play with (May 1983 Workbasket), thanks to Michelle...had thought my day was going to be a calm one and I would get to play with the pattern earlier, but things got busy, and time flew.  I do need a few minutes with my threads before I call it a day though...