Orange and orange and orange

Today was Farmer's Market Day, and as has been my custom for the few weeks it has been open, I bought a plant from Mt. Eden Greenhouse. This is a Capricorn Begonia rex, and just the sort of thing I tend to gravitate toward.

But I notice a theme this year, one that I did not expect or even realize was happening, but it seems I must have turned into an "orange" person, a color I rarely associate with myself. This is Amazon Sunset Parrot's Beak.

Just planted this one tonight- Orange Marmalade Crossandra

And this Copperleaf Plant.

I read this poem today and it touched something deep in me. Maybe my sudden love for orange is a craving for fire and flame.

Fire -- Judy Brown


What makes a fire burn
is space between the logs,
a breathing space.
Too much of a good thing,
too many logs
packed in too tight
can douse the flames
almost as surely
as a pail of water would.
So building fires
requires attention
to the spaces in between,
as much as to the wood.

When we are able to build
open spaces
in the same way
we have learned
to pile on the logs,
then we can come to see how
it is fuel, and absence of the fuel
together, that make fire possible.

We only need to lay a log
lightly from time to time.
A fire
grows
simply because the space is there,
with openings
in which the flame
that knows just how it wants to burn
can find its way.