exotic beauty

Hey there ... hope your weekend was terrific, even though it was an hour shorter.

We spent Sunday out with friends ... first a visit to the American Orchid Society Gardens here in Delray Beach, and then we enjoyed a relaxing dinner at LemonGrass, an Asian bistro ... love their red curry dish, made with coconut milk, bamboo shoots & peppers, YUM! But before that, we walked the lush, 3.5-acre gardens and toured the 4,000 sq.ft. greenhouse at the AOS, all the while amazed at the exotic beauty of wild orchids. They're such incredibly complex and intricate flowers!

Ordinarily, I would give you a glimpse of it in photographs here, but ... when I tried to upload the photos from my camera's digi memory card to my laptop, it didn't work. Thumbnails of the photos flashed on the screen, and then it went blank. {gulp} I tried again ... nothing. Tried using Sal's laptop ... again, nothing. UGH !!! My photos are gone? Oh no! I'll try again at a photo store, but I'm not holding my breath. I also had photos on there of Buddy from last week, so cute ... we have a tradition: I bring home groceries, put the bags on the kitchen floor, and he runs over and investigates what I bought (beagles LOVE food). He has such fun with it! I guess I'll have to do another photo shoot with Buddy the next time I get groceries, but if I can ever recover my MIA orchid photos, I'll post them here. They were so pretty too! So, a gentle reminder --- if you have photos sitting on your camera's memory card, upload them soon ... and back 'em up!

It was our first time visiting the orchid gardens, and unfortunately it'll probably be our last. :-( I recently read in the newspaper that they'll be closing in May due to, what else?, the economy. Oh what a shame! I had always meant for us to visit, but never got around to it, so we decided that we'd better hurry and enjoy it before it's no longer open to the public. They claim that they'll be maintaining the gardens (with the help of volunteers), and they hope to re-open when the economy improves, but who knows?

Have a great week ahead,