Crazy Week...with a little Zen at the end.

It has been a bit of a crazy week.On Wednesday we had a pipe burst in the main floor flat AND the lights on our large kitchen fish tank (pictured here) stopped working. Both issues were quite urgent since it was a radiator pipe that broke we had to shut of the heat. We are lucky in that we have lovely tenants and the issue was quickly resolved. We will need to do more on it but not until the spring/summer. The fish tank on the other hand took a lot more work to solve the problem. It was a race against time since the corals need light to live and can only live 2-3 days without it...we had the lights up and running again by the end of the day Thursday, before any serious damage could be done. Lastly, we are waging a war against the mice in our house. We typically get one 2 two every winter but this winter has been especially bad. We have caught 5 so far (2 adults and 3 babies), we think there may be more but aren't sure...and since my allergies are out of control, this weekend will be a deep clean of the whole apartment...closets and everything. This will help to control my allergies but also let us know if they are still around. In the mean time I will leave you with some photos of the flowers that bring me joy everyday, even among all this chaos!
This is bloom from a piece of my great-grandmother's Christmas cactus. I have had it now for 2 years and this is the first time it has bloomed. We had the original in our house for a long time when I was younger but I had forgotten the colour of the flowers.
My friend gave me her 2 orchids before moving back to Venezuela. One has started blooming and reminds me of her every day. I am looking forward to when the other one blooms. Two others from my collection are also blooming and are so bright and cheery, you cannot help but smile.
I love the delicate dots on the one above and the small stripes on the ones below!Have a great weekend! Now I am off to clean!