July fourth has always meant Wimbledon and if Novak Djokovic is on court (up Serbia!) or Serena or Venus is playing (Up dynamic, powerful young women especially if they're black!) I'm there on the couch. Well, this year Novak was out but there was Serena in the final and her young Polish challenger (Up ex-oppressed peoples of Eastern Europe! But I'm still for Serena.)
Being Wimbledon, you start with solemn words about tradition etc. and then the long walk of the two to center court through endless Wimbledonian corridors. But instead of bursting out into the sunlight in a cloud of smoke like the Hurricanes, the two paused to be given big beautiful bouquets and there they were- bouquets of vandas.
There, against the Wimbledon white, was the deep purple-blue of our Motes Indigoes, the two-tone tawny pink of the big Sanderiana- and some background blooms that were a deep pink like our Motes Hot Petunia and the same color as Serena's head band and her knickers!
The camera zoomed in, the two stood there, bouquets tilted towards the viewer ( a thousand and one! A thousand and two!...)- Then out onto the court and the orchids again front and center being exchanged for tennis rackets.
Oh yes, said Dr. Motes, vandas are all the rage in Europe now.
Is it global warming- climate change? The last time we were at the London Orchid Show in a nasty cold March, most of the orchid- buying Brits just backed away from us. The phrase "warm-loving vandas" will do that.
If it is climate change, the greenhouse effect (Ha!) then I have to say I'd trade the spread of our "warm-loving vandas" if it meant keeping polar bears.
