Three Fs

F is for flower show. That is, THE Flower Show – the oldest in the U.S., first held in 1829 and still among the nation's largest and finest: the Philadelphia Flower Show. Roundabout Exit 151, flower shows tend to be held in the early spring, providing welcome relief from miserable gray weather as well as inspiration for the new growing season. Although when I visited on Friday it may have been warmer outdoors than inside the convention center – a record high of 76 F (24 C).

This year, the large displays included a forty-foot (12 m) floral topiary aptly titled (what else?), Floratopia, and a noisy geyser with a crashed space ship (?), but my faves are the smaller competitions and, of course, the marketplace. I walked and gawked until my feet fell off, stocked up on hard-to-find garden items, and had some excellent soul food at Delilah's at the Reading Terminal Market. And I took lots of pix, including an entire Project Spectrum in orchids (click to see larger).



For orchid fans and fanciers: the orchids are white Phaelonopsis; red, orange, yellow, and purple Brassolaeliocattleya; green Cymbidium, and blue Vanda.

F is for fear of felting. I still haven't felted or fulled anything, at least not intentionally. There oughta be a clinical classification or at least a name for this extreme reluctance to place handknits in a washing machine, this dread that disaster will ensue... maybe something like pilopoiiaphobia – from the Greek, pilos, felt + poieo, to make + phobos, fear, pronounced pill-oh-poi-ee-ah-phobia. With thanks to Fyberduck for the crafty etymology and pronunciation guide (did you see her Knitting Olympics button in Classical Greek?).

And F is for fur. Incredible to relate, there are handknitting yarns made of strips of real fur as well as those fun and funky fakes. Fabulous to be sure, but not among my favorite knitting fibers.

(See the rest of my ABCs.)