Festivals, Flowers and Fancy Cakes.

Bauhinias - Hong Kong's National Flower.

13.11.2020 - 14.11.2020

We make our own entertainment in school. Today the Indian members of staff treated everyone to samosas to celebrate Diwali - the Hindu Festival of Light. During this festival people pray to Lakshmi, the Indian goddess of prosperity and wealth. They light little lamps called diyas and eat lots of sweets.

Celebrating Diwali.

Here 3 Indian members of staff are dressed in Indian clothes and holding diyas.

Holding diyas.

Bauhinias.

As I was coming home from work today, I noticed the bauhinia trees near my flat were looking beautiful under a heavy burden of purple flowers, so I could not resist taking some pictures.

Bauhinias.

The bauhinia is sometimes called the Hong Kong Orchid Tree. It blooms from early November to the end of March, so adds a lot of colour to the winter months here.

Bauhinia.

In 1906 the first bauhinia tree in Hong Kong was found near the ruins of a house by a group of Fathers from the French mission in Pokfulam. Cuttings from this plant were later grown in Hong Kong Botanical Gardens.

Bauhinia.

Bauhinias.

The bauhinia is the emblem of Hong Kong and is found on the Hong Kong flag and on its money.

Bauhinias.

Saturday afternoon we decided to treat ourselves to afternoon tea at the Auberge Hotel. The three-tiered cake stand was heavy on the sweet side. Savoury was cucumber sandwiches, salmon with waffle, melon with ham and finally wonton. Sweet was mango pudding, tiramisu, mini berry tarts, scones, meringue, biscuits, strawberries dipped in chocolate and unfortunately green tea sponge filled with red bean paste, just to remind ourselves this is Asia. Surprisingly it didn't come with tea. It came with prosecco instead, but I'm not complaining about that. Guess the diet has been postponed yet again!!!

Cheers.

Prosecco.

Afternoon tea.

Posted by irenevt 02:13 Archived in Hong Kong

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Comments

Beautiful pictures. Keep taking more of the photos of HK please, before you leave. Stay Safe. Alec.

by alectrevor

Hi Alec, I will. Hope you are doing ok in lockdown. This isn't an easy time but I still believe we'll get through it. Stay strong.

by irenevt

Hello, Irene! What a pleasant surprise! Thanks for sharing your story here! I will think of creating something similar about our part of the world...

by Vic_IV

Hi Victor, please do. I loved your article on the Ukraine on the Corona virus blog Toonsarah started. I know nothing about the Ukraine and found it very interesting.

by irenevt

What gorgeous flowers! I love purple and these would certainly brighten my winter

by ToonSarah

Diwali is the name of my favorite scarf shop in Paris. Wonder how they chose the name?

I love your flowers. They are beautiful. We have winter flowers here too. It's very cheering in the winter.

by Beausoleil

Great photos - and interesting information

by greatgrandmaR

Hi Sarah, Sally and Rosalie. The trees are certainly very colourful and cheerful. Thank you for visiting.

by irenevt

I see you and hubby are in top bibulous form after the information I discovered and imparted about those tall beers being beneficial in flushing nasty clogging plaques out of the arteries and other blood vessels.

Nice pictures of the Hong Kong flowers, as a dedicated amateur gardener my favourite plant was always the Venus Fly Trap, I forget the correct horticultural name but they are hard to find nowadays, the Glasgow Botanic Gardens used to have loads of them growing in the Kibble Palace, but despite numerous notices imploring patrons not to steal them this caveat seemed to be universally ignored by local visitors, so now they are quite rare, I accidentally poisoned my own Venus Fly Trap by slipping a piece of sausage into its open fang leaves, ignorant of the fact that they only feed on trapped flies!

by Bennytheball

Hi Benny, I'm a big fan of plants. There are lots of different flowering trees here. All very beautiful. Having a Venus fly trap sounds fun. Hope all good with you.

by irenevt

That afternoon tea looks so yummy! And I wouldn't complain about prosecco either!

by hennaonthetrek

It was good but afterwards we were on a real sugar rush. i think I'm more of a savoury person really.

by irenevt

Irene, I consider prosecco a marvelous substitute for tea.

by Beausoleil

Take it easy on the cream cakes, my mother was addicted to them and suffered a TIA ( transient ischaemic attack) caused by raised cholesterol, she survived it but visibly aged by ten years. I see hubby is on the right track wielding two goblets of artery plaque-flushing plonk, a much healthier option.....

by Bennytheball

Haha, Sally, can't argue with you there.

by irenevt

Hi Benny, no danger of cream cake addiction. We don't normally eat much cake.We are more into savoury.

by irenevt