Corner View - Miniature Worlds

OK.  Another post about flowers.  Do you mind?  Terribly?  These are called "Kalanchoe Fedtschenkoi", or commonly, "Purple Scallops" and may be also known as:  "Bryophyllum fedtschenei".  That according to a label on the side of one pot.  I was a little ambivalent in the fall about having bought two pots of them.  (On two separate occasions, which might indicate to me that I actually fell in love TWICE.  Either that, or, they are utterly forgettable.) Whatever the case, which seems more likely the latter, post-purchase, I was not REALLY much in love.  I said to my husband, "I am not so sure about them.  That salmony pink of the leaves.  So not me.  The green that is not really green.  That frosty haze on them.  So indeterminate and unconvincing.  So sidling up to being beige.  Who wants a beige plant?  Sure the leaves have that nice sort of cookie-cutter flat scalloped edging. Those purpley stems are kind of engaging.  But they look rather limp, don't they? And spindly?  And o.k.....Blah."  I was so not feeling those plants.

And.....questioning......myself.

But then January came and little boring buds appeared.  The buds turned into, hmm, bells.  In time, the bells opened.

Do you know the Victorian story books that are full of little elves and fairies?

They have little flower hats and they are playing hide'n'seek beneath the broad sloping sometimes feathery leaves.  Or having siestas leaned up against some big fat stem.  Or picnicking .  Using the insides of flower blossoms as slides. And petals as umbrellas.  Funny little elves inhabiting miniature worlds.

These blossoms take me there.  In order to be able to see inside them and their delicate-but-tangy pink and orange coloration, and the tiny red pistils like fine paint brushes or eye lashes, spangled with poppy seeds, you have to make yourself very small.  Like an ant.  Or a ladybug.  And position yourself way below them.  They will never EVER look up at you. 

I think that that is kind of cool.