The Cthulhu Orchid

Today would have been the day I would have bought horseback riding supplies. Alas. The shop was closed due to vacation. NoKey and I enjoyed the beautiful weather and cycled onwards. Through Capelle we went, to the IJssel. We sat there, enjoying the sun for a while and then cycled past the edge of the town and the Hitland on the other side (square synthetic artificial recreational ""forest"" area it is). We arrived in the shady area between Capelle and Nieuwerkerk, where we found an obscure little road near the old dike. There, we stumbled upon "Orchid Breeding the Willow". A hobby gone wild. The man must be in his sixties, and had an overwhelming hobby: to breed and crossbreed and grow Orchids. His daughter hobbied on Bonsai trees. The humid greenhouses were literally filled with orchids and other plants. Bits of turf and cork were hanging from walls, sprouting short shoots of plants, sometimes with flowery tresses and flowers of less than 3mm in size.

The place was wonderful. It felt loved. And we stumbled upon a very nice variety, a blackish purple and yellow orchid, for € 12,- We carefully wrapped it and brought it home, where it now graces our table.

It's strange in what forms the beautiful plant comes.
These pictures are all really beautiful, and illustrate the many varieties of orchid there are. These names are in no way correct. Except the dracula vampira. It's actually called that. Anyway, you have the....

• Monk Orchid (Pratchett's Auditors actually popped in my head first, but soit);
  
• the Oh My God That Looks Like A Face Orchid;
  
• the Flying Faery Orchid;
  
• the Butterfly On Fire Orchid;
  
• the Er... Sandworm? Orchid;
  
• the Sneeuwklokje Orchid;
  
• the That's Just Scary Orchid;
  
• the Edelweiss Orchid;
  
• the Red-Pantsed Faery Orchid;
  
• the Dracula Vampira Orchid;
  
  Our orchid was not in the huge collection of orchid pictures on the site, but most looks like the Brassavola Nodosa, though still very different from that. We called it Cthulhu.
  
  Tonight we picked up some stuff in Puttersgat, with Ragar, and then drove to Barendrecht, to NoKey's grandmother. Now that we had the car available I reprimanded him for not seeing his grandmother, with her being quite old but still with us. So we got the car and went to visit her. It was fun to meet her, the not quite fragile yet lady of 93 years old (bouwjaar 1912). Her short-term memory was iffy, and I got to explain three times what I did (seamstress), twice where I lived (with NoKey), and where that was exactly (Rotterdam). We drank tea and I finally saw a picture of NoKey as a youngling of about 5 years old (cute!) and of an adolescent of about 18 (V. CUTE!).
  
  With the finding of the Cthulhu Orchid, Lorian coming over for yummy pancakes yesterday, and the visit to NoKey's grandma, this weekend is becoming quite a success already.
  Now it's time for Quality Time!! *wink*
  
  EDIT: Found it! Googled the name of the place where we bought it and it came up with an Orchid Society in 't Gooi...with pictures and names of the hybrids sent in. It's an Encyclia cochleata! With about 20.000 species of orchid, and 100.000 artificial hybrids...I'm lucky to find a pic even in the right colours.