Revisiting an old hobby

At every year end, I like to reflect and plan for the new year.  Each year there's a lot of shift in the air and so much seems to change even though time goes by very quickly.  Lately I've been thinking about ways to inspire and motivate myself, particularly as the pandemic still drags on and my life very much is completely disconnected with much of outside world, I really want something I can put my energy into and a hobby that I could expand my imagination on. 

One of the hobbies I really want to revisit is orchid growing.  I went a few years back on my phone and found a few pictures of orchids that I had, unfortunately most of these are lost and my only option is to start over.  I'm not exactly sure what made me completely stop the last time but I think it was a combination of being super busy and stressed all the time, and also a bad case of pest infestation that completely turned me off on this hobby.  In 2018 I lost my favorite fairy garden and it was too big of a loss to recover from and I never picked up the steam to grow anything again. 

Restarting an orchid collection this time around I'm planning to keeping things on the small side.  Big box stores like Lowe's and Trader Joe's are surprisingly good places for orchids as I find the quality of plants much better than mismanaged orchid nurseries that have pest and virus infestations.  

I'm starting with learning more about disease and pest control and being vigorous about screening the orchids that come through the door.  So far I've picked up a few phalaenopsis orchids to try my hands in.  I also found a couple of Christmas cactus from Grocery Outlet that's been doing very well.  It' amazing what a few flowers and plants could do for a space, they truly bring so much joy to a home!

I recently was gifted a leaf off a large plant from my neighbor, it looks like some sort of cactus although I've yet to find out what it's called.  It's living alongside my new vanda orchid above the kitchen sink.  Vanda requires daily watering, about twice a day, so it sits near by the sink for easy access.  

I used to have this set up in my sitting room with beautiful display of orchids, and I'm looking forward to restore it in the near future.