It seems that all I'm capable of doing this year has either been nursing a sore throat, a cold, a back ache, a headache, or an ailments of some sort.  Now in addition to a bad flu I've lost my voice too.  While it's true that my job can be a bit stressful at times, I've simply not taking good care of myself over the past few years.  Whatever happened to that girl that goes to kick boxing class and yoga three times a week?  As I am right now I  barely have enough energy to walk my dog one time around the block, and I don't love this sickly version of myself.

As of now there's not much I could do except to wait and recover, but I really can't wait to get my fabulous self back.  It's truly time to be best friends with the gym and yoga studio again!

I purchased a mini sized humidifier in order to give my orchids proper humidity. I have been keeping several orchids near a window by the shower with great results. For other orchids, they now have this little machine for proper moisture!

Every time I see my lady slipper orchids, I think of the phrase, "the lady is a tramp!"

Over the past year I have truly become a fan of orchids. Getting a couple of long time orchids of mine to bloom really helped increase my interest as well, besides, I can't think of any plants that can thrive indoors that are nearly as beautiful and have as many different variety!

Surprisingly, this miniature orchid is my absolutely favorite one so far! I am going to really miss the flowers when the blooms are over. It's a miniature orchid, the leaves are quite small, but with a thin spike and large heavy flowers, it forms a natural arch!

A while ago I wrote this post about one of my grocery store cattleya orchids had all the roots rotted away. I trimmed off all the rotted parts and re-potted it along with a few other orchids in similar condition.

Now a little more than a month later, ta-dah! I've got healthy green roots growing out!

It's such a big deal for me, I proudly show this orchid to anyone who comes to my house!

I was also lucky to find another cattleya orchid from the grocery store the other day, except now I'm not as nervous about taking care of it!

I've been running around a lot for work, at the end of day I'm always happy to be back to my humble little vintage house filled with puppies and flowers!

I really have not gone on any trip or vacation anywhere for almost three years. This Spring it's my top priority to at least go on a short road trip and relax for a few days. 

  

I'm still very much in an orchid fever, The re-potting, watering and fertilizing are all such relaxing activity like nothing else at the end of a day. This pink orchid was labeled as a mini orchid, however, other than the pot and leaves being terribly small, the flowers really do not appear to be in mini size, it's almost like a large puppy whose paws are way too big for the its body size if that makes any sense! The flowers are such a lovely shade of pink and they cascade down in a nice arch in spite of being compact. This is definitely one of my favorite orchids so far!

We really have not gotten much rain lately, so when it finally started pouring tonight, I moved all my orchids that are not in bloom to the backyard so they could get a good drink of rain water. 

There's no where else that relax me like my own home, especially when princess Kelly pose like a white burrito!

My orchid collection is ever growing. The ones not in bloom are not as exciting on picture but I enjoy watching new leaves and roots growing out just as much as I enjoy the flower. Anyhow, back to my flowers, I had a pinkish purple one like this a few months ago that had lush green leaves, but it died right away after purchase, I suspect it was the leaf shine product that the employee sprayed on it right before I took it home. This one is a younger orchid but the blooms are just as incredible!  With some loving care hopefully I will get beautiful lush green leaves too!

Here's another orchid with medium sized white flowers. Not all whites are the same, I have one with large flowers and a young green color in the middle, and one with yellow color in the center, I've wanted one with a pink center color and found this gorgeous orchid with pink, yellow and purple pattern in the middle! The flowers are not quite big but it's got double spikes, hopefully that means I will continue to get double spikes in my future blooms too!

This little guy is the "dishwasher" at my house. I've been cooking meals for my doggies lately with ground meat of either chicken, beef, turkey or fillet of fish and shredded veggie mixed in. I add some supplements at the end and sometimes a little dash of butter for taste, Uggie usually would finish his own bowl of food first, wait til Kelly and Fie Fie are finished and then do the rounds and clean up their leftovers carefully and systematically.  He is so good at picking up the scraps, the bowls are licked clean inside out, even the bits and pieces dropped onto the place mats are "cleaned" up. 

Some very random thoughts...

Once again I've failed to keep up with this blog.  Sometimes there is simply too much to do in a day to think about anything else other than work and chores... that's me even with some help from neighbor taking care of my doggies and occasional help from a cleaning lady taking care of the up keep of my house. Still many nights I find myself cooking ground beef or salmon with veggie for my doggies because it is 9 pm, my pups haven't eaten and I have completely ran out of dog food.  It's even easier to forget that weeks had gone by and no one has had time to stop and smell the roses for a second.  Sometimes I wonder what working non stop for days and nights are for?  Do many people actually come out on top of the daily grind by working so hard?