Orchid Season

It has been a too-long, too-cold winter. And a reluctant spring has been damp and coldish with occasional mild days just to remind us that it is not really winter or to tease us with what we are missing. Recently the air hung so heavily that nearly everyone had headaches. Remarkably, it has been a good season for orchids. Here in the north of Scotland we have grand scenes of rocks and shorelines but our flowers tend to be of the quieter, ground hugging variety. So it is with our orchids.

A friend invited me to have a look at the orchids that are flowering along her driveway in a profusion of Lady Gaga notice me pink. Each orchid is a queen in her own right, hence the photo below of Her Majesty the Queen.

Not to diminish their majesty at all--rather to show their sensibleness, I offer this photo from a close up view of the Lilliputian world over which they hold sway. The daisy lady in waiting is duly miniature in keeping with court protocol and good sense in a kingdom where the wind can roar and bluster the larger, brasher things that seek to reach above themselves in a windy treacherous world.

And of course I see in their gladsome season a metaphor. A reminder to us all that no matter how grim the situation, there is something that can thrive and we need to be mindful to notice and to cherish it.