There’s a scene in the Woody Allen film Stardust Memories when Woody’s character sees the character played by Charlotte Rampling for the first time. He tells her: “You’re beautiful.” She replies: “I guess I’m a little on the beautiful side.”
I was reminded of that scene the first time I found an orchid for myself. It was nothing special by the standards of the world’s intrepid orchid-hunters, a southern marsh orchid to be precise, but it had the same sense of complete confidence in its own beauty. I found it growing on a patch of boggy ground near