"A Real Little Trooper"

I wonder if anyone still uses that old phrase (the title of this post) ... so often said backstage during the old show biz days :)

I meant to put up this post recently when I wrote a couple of others. This one is in the "Nature's Wonders" category of my mind. It's about a poinsettia plant that I bought three or four Decembers ago either at the grocery store or Kmart; it summered outdoors and then came in each autumn just before the frosts would begin. I would bring in the scraggly (neglected) plant because it was clinging to life so valiantly; I admired that.

Last summer's drought hurt and even killed some of the plantings I attempted to keep watered, dragging the hoses around the property in the intense heat each day. The poinsettia was not on my plant priority list but, somehow, it managed to catch enough water spray when I when I watered my other outside plants to hang on ...  and it still had a leaf or two when autumn arrived, so I brought it indoors in November so it wouldn't freeze. It stands on a table with my houseplants here on my sun porch and now has a full crop of leaves on new branches and bright red brachts with the little yellow flower centers.  It looks proud :)  All this with no special care except weekly watering.  

I admire and respect the life force ... the courage and determination an organism (including human) can have under adverse conditions, in order to endure, grow, blossom, and fulfill its purpose.  And so I've named this plant "Little Trooper" :)  

Opulent Pink --

Every so often, I post about a frivolity. It seems to serve a purpose similar to that of "comic relief". Something to giggle, twitter, smirk, or smile about -- to "gentle-ize my personal world (I'm inventing words again). The color pink is known to psychologically soften and gentle-ize people's emotions and moods -- well, I'm in favor of that. Recently, I bought a beautiful pink-peach-yellow blend rose bush, which is now planted in my front garden. A few days later found me in Walgreen's, selecting a "new shade" of Revlon polish for my toenails. Who knows why painted toenails can do so much to delight a woman?! The shade is called Opulent Pink! Not long ago, I painted the long wall of my bedroom in a light pink shade that I got at Home Depot. Soon, I'm going to move my computer stuff out of my bedroom and into my loft office, so I then can enjoy my "girly" bedroom.