My first three-year stint as President of the Board at State of the Art Gallery ended in 2009. As a thank you gift, the members gave me a beautiful orchid with rich magenta flowers. They clearly had no idea of my history of killing house plants through neglect.

But it turns out the orchids don’t mind being ignored sometimes. The worst thing is if you over water them. That first gift stayed in bloom for almost six months! I began collecting more. Then I started creating cross stitched designs. The first in this series was from a pattern I purchased online. I added the lattice and a branch to increase the sense of depth. Later, I began creating my own cross stitch designs from photos of both my own and other people’s orchids.

That first gift from my colleagues is still going strong. Right now, I have six orchid plants. Winter is the season when they usually bloom. This year, for the first time, all of them have new flower spikes! It’s going to be a lovely season.