...


ONCE AGAIN, I OWE IT ALL TO YOU, dear Louie--the pleasure of these delicate papery blossoms. The salmon-pink shade of them delights me even more than the blooms on that first plant you gave me (though please don't misunderstand me--I was very fond of that one, too!)


And the fact that this plant is flowering
now, right now, in the dead of
winter...












(Forgive me, I can't help
myself, I have to
say it a few more times...
dead of winter
dead of winter
...oh, lordy, that's just
what it is--the dead of winter!)

So, anyway,
as I was saying, Louie,
I'm so pleased that it's blooming
right now--
little sparks of new life
in the deadness of winter!

Merci! Merci!

...