On this December 30 morning I am doing as I always do every morning. I am sipping green tea and while sitting on my favourite chair, reading The Toronto Star from back to front my mind is dozing. This morning is a little different as there is a crispness about the environment as a heavy white frost coats the lawn and trees. I peer out the front window and wave to the same dog walkers and see the same cars drift down the street carrying sleepy workers to their jobs.
Through these hazy eyes I see my old friend the Christmas cactus. It is now the main attraction in the front window as the Christmas Tree is packed away for another year. I see it in a different light as it was pushed to the background for a few days and now appears as it should as a solid fixture in our home. It has a glorious history being over 150 years old. It once graced the home of my mother in laws's husband's grandmother's home in British Columbia. As the previous owners have long gone to their kind reward the plant became the property of my wife Theresa.
It is large by any standard and when Theresa decided to come East to live in Ontario it appeared that the plant would land in the hands of a stranger. When I first saw the beautiful flowering cactus I decided to make it my own and when returning from a visit to B.C. I tucked it in the back seat of a Honda Civic. It was quite a job to get it in the small car and it took up all the back seat space. As I travelled East I watered it but forgot to protect it from the sun. Part of it got burned along the journey.
I removed the plant from the car and established it to its place of importance and it has been there ever since, I have made many plants from the frowns of this cactus and its babies are just as beautiful as itself. A cactus such as this becomes a living symbol of the beauty of nature and during the cold winter months this flower not only blooms once but twice. The first blooming begins in December and lasts about two months and the second one begins in March and lasts until April. This show of colour brightens our spirits during a long winter.
Through these hazy eyes I see my old friend the Christmas cactus. It is now the main attraction in the front window as the Christmas Tree is packed away for another year. I see it in a different light as it was pushed to the background for a few days and now appears as it should as a solid fixture in our home. It has a glorious history being over 150 years old. It once graced the home of my mother in laws's husband's grandmother's home in British Columbia. As the previous owners have long gone to their kind reward the plant became the property of my wife Theresa.
It is large by any standard and when Theresa decided to come East to live in Ontario it appeared that the plant would land in the hands of a stranger. When I first saw the beautiful flowering cactus I decided to make it my own and when returning from a visit to B.C. I tucked it in the back seat of a Honda Civic. It was quite a job to get it in the small car and it took up all the back seat space. As I travelled East I watered it but forgot to protect it from the sun. Part of it got burned along the journey.
I removed the plant from the car and established it to its place of importance and it has been there ever since, I have made many plants from the frowns of this cactus and its babies are just as beautiful as itself. A cactus such as this becomes a living symbol of the beauty of nature and during the cold winter months this flower not only blooms once but twice. The first blooming begins in December and lasts about two months and the second one begins in March and lasts until April. This show of colour brightens our spirits during a long winter.
This cactus just shows us that some things never grow old but get better with age. We can take a lesson from this when dealing with old folks.
I really like Christmas cactus and I am glad you have been able to keep it going. I lose them after a couple of years, but maybe I should not move them once I find a good place for it. Thanks for sharing this.
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