I DID IT! I did the Orchid Show!

Sunday we went to the Orchid Show in San Francisco.  I was worried about walking and standing for a couple of hours.  But I knew I could rest  in the food court if need be.  I walked and stood, and looked for 2 1/2 hours before taking a break.  Then I walked another 45 minutes.  Tired but not exhausted.  It was a wonderful time.

I of course took lots of pictures, around 100.  After deleting bad ones and self editing, I will show you around 20.  Remember to click on the picture to enlarge it.

Welcome to beauty

Love this pointy petal

A winning cattleya.  This is the corsage flower all girls in the 1960's hoped for.  This meant he was serious.  Thank you  Jonathan-Ladd.  Loved mine.

The theme for the show was The Last of the Orchid Hunters.  Some of the displays were outstanding.

Love the this orchid.  We have a white one.  The colored ones are hard to come by and are more expensive.  

Lovely color and interesting little dots.

This orchid had a wing span of at least a foot.  Absolutely marvelous to see.

Love this deep deep color.  The deeper the reds and purple, the more they cost.  No way we can buy one like this.  

Okay, if you wore an outfit with these colors and different designs, awful.  But this orchid wears it well.  Stunning.

Polka dots work for me.

The throat of this orchid looks as if it is on the back of the bloom.  A very flat looking flower.   Still gorgeous.

A mix of cattleyas.

Love the twisty tendrils on this bloom.

Another fancier display.

This is our favorite of the whole show.  The star bloom is very waxy and will last about 6 weeks.  Also it is very fragrant. We looked through dozens of vendors and only found 2 selling this type of plant.  It is rare.  We bought a young plant that will not have its first bloom for at least a year.  I will have to talk to my oncologist about keeping me around a long time so I can see it bloom.

Little cattleya.  We bought two plants, white and a yellow.

This is one of the strangest orchids we saw.  It glistens on the red feeler looking ends.  This looks as if it should live in the ocean.  Be sure to click on it in order to see those ends better.

A lovely mix of orchids.

Our second favorite orchid.  Love all the ruffles and twisty things.

I hope you enjoyed my orchid show.  It was a wonderful day for us.  This was not a "normal" day for me.  This a once a year spectacular event.  And I did it. I walked it, did not need the wheelchair.  

And another update on me

Sunday I had lab work done to see if everything would be a go for Chemo on Tuesday.  Because of the holiday the infusion clinic was closed Monday.  No  one would be able to call me if the numbers were off and they couldn't do the chemo.  

Tuesday morning Kirsten took me to Kaiser.  The nurse came out for me and said my liver enzymes were high.  She was waiting for word from the doctor on whether they would cancel chemo or do a lower dose.  We were all betting that the dose would be lowered.  The nurse took me back to the chemo recliner, took my vitals and then we waited.  Finally word came, do the chemo with a lower dose. 

After the chemo we met friends for lunch. As I have said before the effects of chemo are accumulative.  So I was becoming tired during lunch.  Kirsten noticed, she is a little mother hen, and said she needed to get me home for a nap.  She was right.  I  never knew when Marty came home.  I slept off and on most of the afternoon.  Later that night I had mild nausea and took a pill that took care of that.

I have been tired this week, as warned.  But I am still walking 30 minutes a day.  I am cooking meals and washing dishes.  Trying to do that normal thing. 

Marty and I decided last night to add another chemo as suggested by the oncologist.  The side effects are about the same as the one I am already doing.  She thinks I will just be a little more tired and maybe mild nausea.  This new chemo is also a more gentle one than the pre Christmas ones.  So I shouldn't end up in the ER or the hospital again.  Keep your fingers crossed.

We plan to go to the Orchid Show this week end.  I have been in training since Christmas to be strong enough to walk and stand for a couple of hours.  I really do not want to take the wheelchair and be pushed around.  If and when I get tired I can go back to the food court and sit down to rest.

I find it interesting that as long as I am wearing a mask, I can go out into groups of strangers.  But church and groups of friends are a no no. Friends want to hug me, kiss me, hold my hand.  My immune system can't take that.  Strangers don't touch me or hug me. 

At the orchid show, I won't be touching anything except maybe a chair.  At church I would be touching books, attendance pads, pews that members have touched.  Communion would be an issue because the loaf of bread is grab and rip a piece off.  Other hands have been there.   I would love to go to book club, I could wear a mask.  But by evening I am tired and don't want to be anywhere except in the recliner. 

So friends know I miss you, but have to take care of myself. 

East Meets West, Orchid Show 2013

This year the Orchid Show was the weekend of the Chinese New Year.  All through the show were displays highlighting the New Year.

It is almost overwhelming when you walk into the show.  There are thousands of orchids: some beautiful, some weird, some a little of both. There are orchid blooms as tiny as a gnat’s behind, and orchid blooms as big as a soup bowl.  We walk around taking picture after picture.  The plants are brought from all over the world.  Other plants types are there also, and they are strange and beautiful too.  A few orchids are fragrant but most aren’t.  That is a good thing, if they all were fragrant one would be nauseated from the varied aromas.  I took over 100 pictures and want to use them all.  I won’t.  I picked some favorites to share with you.  Enjoy.

Be sure to click on the pictures to see the details.

This is me taking a picture of me and some winning orchids.

This orchid is strange and beautiful.  Strange shape and strange color.  Who would think a brownish floppy flower could look so great.

Marty showing you the tiny blooms.  Orchids on a stick.

                                  

Several exhibit tables.

Just because they are pretty and are shaped differently from many orchids.

Lady slippers.  The one type which Marty has had no success. 

Look at this.  The blooms are tiny and are almost on the ground.  In a field you might miss them.  You would just be seeing the “grassy” leaves.

                 

Yes, these are orchids.  Weird and strange shaped. 

                                                                             

This is my favorite ever exhibit.  A fire breathing surfing dragon with pruning shears.

Another fun exhibit.

More sophisticated exhibits.

This table is just outstanding.

                                             

This plants has really tiny blooms.  Each yellow stalk has dozens of blooms. 

Orchids on and in a Metropolitan from the 1950’s. 

                                                   

I take this shot every year.  This is the sales area of the show.  Orchids and everything you need to grow them in one compact space.

The Orchid Show every year is fun, educational, and costly.  It cost a lot to get in, to eat a sandwich here, to park, and of course to buy 1 or 2 beauties to take home.

 

The Orchid Show

Sunday, Marty and I went to the Orchid Show in San Francisco.  Marty has grown orchids since the early 70s.  He buys plants and nurses them into blooming year after year.  He isn’t into breeding or working from seed.

This show brings growers from around the world.  The growers exhibit the flowers and also sell plants.  It is a wonderful beautiful show.

I took 102 pictures.  I have deleted 5 pictures.  I edited myself down to about 30 pictures.  As I write this blog I will edit some more.  But there will be lots of pictures that are there just because they are beautiful.  Remember to click on the pictures to enlarge them.

As we entered the show they had a mock Golden Gate Bridge surrounded by orchids.  The theme this year was the bridge.  Marty is way up the bridge in the yellow shirt.

Not all orchids are beautiful.  This looks like dead ducks hanging to me.

This one is beautiful.

Information, beauty, and a rare seed capsule.

These are pitcher plants that are among the most expensive orchids.

                                                            

This is another pitcher plant orchid.

This orchid has a strange puckered lip.  It really is interesting.

                                                            

This cattleya was huge, and the colors are just wonderful

Some orchids are very very tiny.  The yellow flower is really many little flowers.

                                                                

This shows a “woman” standing on the Golden Gate Bridge wearing orchids.  The woman in green would be me.

This is in black and white because Marty had on a yellow shirt and cream pants.  The lights to highlight the flowers made him one big white glare.

                                                                                   

These phalaenopsis were huge.  The white ones were as big as a saucer.  Just beautiful.

The hand of about 4 inches, belongs to a little girl.  The cluster of orchids is made up of little tiny flowers.

These were so lovely.

A close up of the previous picture.

                                                                 

This plant won the best plant of the show.  All these yellow blooms are from one plant.  It was spectacular.

As usual the orchid show was wonderful.  Many of the plants we saw, Marty has in his greenhouse.  Many more we wanted to own.  But there is a point you have to say, no more room.  That is where we are now. 

From the pictures, you can see some orchids are very ordinary, some are ugly, and but most are absolutely spectacular.  It does your heart good to walk around and see and smell these wonderful plants.  I can’t wait for next year’s show.