Orchids as a Reward
First, about my new orchids. Because, you know, gardenblog.
So I’m trying to eat healthier, like many of you, I’m betting. Over a lifetime of unhealthy eating I’ve tried lots of fixes but what I think I need is rewards. Good ones!
(That’s how I quit smoking back in my 20s, using SmokeEnders. We were told to calculate the money we would have spent on cigarettes and then to treat ourselves with it a year later. It’s hard to believe now but my reward was a week in Martinique! And that’s when cigarettes were dirt cheap.)
Back to food, I decided to take action the day after Christmas, which I think of as my “bottom” in addiction terminology – my addiction being to sugar. So my healthier eating scheme is giving myself rewards of pure-fun money for each week that I succeed at just two goals: eating no sweets, and not eating past 6 pm.
And so far, so great! In four weeks I’ve accumulated some money, money I needed to spend according to my scheme. (Twist my arm.) Normally the only thing I enjoy shopping for is plants, and now it’s the dead of winter so choices are limited. But I have one orchid in my kitchen window sill and room for two more, and a very pretty garden had just gotten in a truckload of them so – timing!
I eyed the orchid choices for quite a while, wanting them all, then selected two that fit on the window sill and – I’m hoping but don’t have enough information to really know – are the easiest to keep alive. My picks – Casa Orchid ‘Petite’ and ‘Waterfall’ – have tags telling me to water them every 14-21 days and fertilize monthly. Does that sound right you, any readers who know anything about orchids? (Coz I don’t.)
And what type are they, I’d like to know and wish the tag had told me. Here I learned that ‘Waterfall’ is a type of Phalaenopsis. I’m not sure what the ‘Petite’ tells me – just that it’s short. And is this care info correct?
Orchid Book to the Rescue?
The same day I brought my new orchids home I got an email containing the PDF of a new book about orchids – Saving Orchids by Philip Seton and Lawrence W. Zettier. It’s rare that I’m offered a book to review that I actually read, I’ll confess, but this one I definitely will and maybe even review here. It’ll be a nice companion to my orchid-gazing at the kitchen sink.
Van Gogh Kimono as Reward
Another reward, kinda plant-related, is this kimono of Van Gogh’s nature paintings that I found at the National Gallery of Art.
If you’re wondering what happened to my head in the photo, I cropped it off before posting to the free blogger.com blog I created about my healthier eating scheme. It’s another tool, an anonymous space online for accountability and for gathering images of all the cool things I buy for myself as rewards. Plus menu ideas, and more.
Best Reward of All – Frankie the Kitten!
Now you may suspect that I bought the orchids just so I could show off these next photos on a gardenblog and in my defense – sure, maybe subconsciously. But then who’s going to complain about seeing kitten photos?
Frankie with an admirer, and posing alone on the day I adopted him.
I wasn’t thinking of rewards when I stopped at a PetSmart to buy special food for the 5-year-old girl kitty I adopted in August. But as I searched the shelves I heard a cry coming from a cage, holding such a bundle of cuteness that I gasped and was immediately drawn into a lovefest of strokes and purrs. I couldn’t walk away.
Until I asked myself if I could think of a single reason NOT to take this bundle of joy home. Not coming up with an answer, I quickly filled out the adoption paperwork and an hour later I drove home with him.
I immediately invited my favorite 4-year-old to come visit, anticipating another lovefest, some even-cuter photos, and pure fun to watch.
I named him Frankie for FDR, and my girl cat is Ellie, for Eleanor Roosevelt. The names feel just right in my home and town that both Roosevelts were involved in designing.
Cat Tree as Reward
With my next chunk of reward money I was back at PetSmart buying this cat tree, fully assembled, thankfully. (No thanks, Internet.) And it was such an instant hit with both cats that I can’t believe I ever pooh-poohed cat trees, thinking that they’re ugly in living rooms. But I don’t mind this one at all.
Shopping for Plants as Self-care
There’s lots of talk about self-care these days – in the media and among my friends – and I’m all in. But what about shopping as self-care?
I’m generally averse to shopping, so buying things in museum shops is different for me. But over the years I’ve been plant-shopping and -buying more than ever, however full my small garden may be, and it’s making me happier. I’m buying dozens more annual plants than ever, and some relatively expensive alliums because they add SO much more to my spring garden than my pitiful batches of daffodils. Every garden photo looks better with alliums in it! Oh, I even surprised myself by spending $250 on a bird bath.
From now on I’m declaring even non-essential purchases like that to be self-care, and maybe even essential after all – to my happiness.