New Things

(Forewarning-there is no knitting content for this post as I have been horribly sorry. My apologies in advance)

So I got a call from my Mom this week telling me that my Step-Dad had gotten me an orchid from his work. I had no idea what awaited me in Kansas, and went up this weekend to pick it up since my Mom was paranoid that she was going to kill it. It has these little bitty flowers on it. (So cute! They bloom with bright yellow lips that change to orange and then back to red as the blooms age.)

Click for big.

I have no idea what kind of orchid it is. I know that it is some sort of dendrobium, but nothing more than that.

This plant is old. We're talking really, really old.

There is an aerial root coming off of this thing that is 8 feet long. They apparently took decent care of it while it was at the greenhouse. Here comes the bad news, though:

Now I have to figure out what to do with it.

We were thinking about building a greenhouse in the backyard anyway, but we may have to now as there isn't really a place that we can put something of this size indoors where it can get sufficient light.

Ok, enough about plants. This isn't just a Nature Monday blog. There are other things too, like, um...oh yeah! I bought a new camera that came this week! It's a Canon Rebel XTi, the 10.1 megapixel offspring of the 8 mp Canon Rebel XT. I am soooooooo excited about it! My dad has the XT and I've played around with it (trying to keep the drool off), and finally I was able to save up for one of my own and several (very very nice) zoom lenses. I will still tote around my little 5 mp sony cybershot since it is much more portable than my new camera and lenses, but I REALLY look forward to playing around with my new camera (especially since it actually SEES colors like oh, say, blue and purple accurately). I'm still getting used to it, though.

Freya says,"Get used to it a little faster, please! I'm trying to sleep!"

One last thing-during all the barbeques and camping and enjoyment today, please take a moment and remember those who have served our country or passed away serving our country. Right now it is too difficult for me to talk about my FiL, Ricardo, who has passed away, so maybe that will be a story for another day. Happy Memorial Day, everyone!