Book Recommendations and A Small Miracle

I’ll start with the miracle. The forty-seven-year-old Christmas cactus has popped out two more blooms here in spring!

Yes, you read that right. 47 years. Actually the plant is a bit older than that, because it was fair-sized when given to me forty-seven years ago this May by my husband’s Granny. We had journeyed to Granny’s to introduce her to her new great-grandson. A tiny woman in her eighty’s, she got a shovel and dug it from her yard as a gift for me. (When have you ever seen a Christmas cactus growing in a yard?)

I brought the cactus home, set it in my best ceramic pot and placed it on a windowsill shelf. Although it grew, it did not bloom for the first two years that I had it, until Granny died. That year it bloomed profusely. We moved south, and I took the plant to the new home, and then yet another new home. It grew large and bloomed each December to January.

When we moved here to Alabama, I set it outside in a bright but shady spot. It flourished. Until I forgot to bring it inside when freezing temperatures hit. The cold melted it like the Wicked Witch. I couldn’t bring myself to throw it away, so I set it in the garden room and forgot about it. One day months later, I found little green shoots appearing on the woody base. The poor old thing is strange looking now but has grown large if straggly.

I’m sure there’s a lesson in there somewhere along the lines about not giving up. And no matter if you are strong or weak or look like the others, you can still bloom, just as you are made to do.

When’s Mummy Coming? by Rachel Wesson

Actually a new book from last year. I started this book one evening and read a third of it before I made myself put it down and go to bed. That is unusual for me these days. The author knows her history. She gives faces to the children who were saved from the Nazi Holocaust by the Kindertransports to England. The writing is smooth and compelling, the characters and setting well drawn, and the pacing swift. If you are interested as I am in WWII history, I believe you will be fascinated with this story. I highly recommend.