Flowers at Victoria Park

Here's a post that never got posted and that is a lot late being posted but we think you still might enjoy it anyway.  Also, Carol's computer crashed this week so our posts might be sporadic until the new computer comes.

Anyway, it's a tradition that everyone visits the flower markets for New Years. The biggest and most popular Flower Market is at Victoria Park. We went a couple of days early to the Victoria Park flower market because we were told that the mass of people makes it impossible to hardly move on New Year's day as it's wall-to-wall people  but it was still so very crowded when we went.

Narcissus, peach blossoms, orchids, Kumquat trees etc. are believed to bring good luck, wealth and prosperity for the upcoming New Year.

There were all sorts of flowers and trees.  We looked for the Good Fortune Plants but we weren't sure what they were. There were Lucky Bamboo arrangements, Bonsai trees, etc, etc.

There were also tons of booths with decorations, souvenirs, bowls, toys, etc. etc. but we're just showing the flowers today. Actually, there's a really short video below that shows a few of the booths.

Several of the little children were dressed up in traditional costumes.

Interesting, but not true.

There were orchids, bougainvilleas, sunflowers and all sorts of house and garden plants.

Here's our good fortune flowers that we brought home.  Pretty, huh?  

Remember the cock or the rooster is the animal for 2017. How's this for a pretty fancy cock?

These beautiful orchids are in the entry of our area office.




This is called a water chestnut cake.  We shared ours with some of the people in the office who really really love this type of cake.  Gloria, one of the Filipino sisters who is a domestic helper made 150 of these for her employer to give away for New Year's gifts.  Her employer also allowed her to make a few for her friends so that is why we received this gift. If you are interested in the ingredients and want to make it, click on this link: Water Chestnut Cake

Okay, now back to the present time, even though this is turning into a longer post than was originally planned but we wanted to add this photo because the Hong Kong Temple was opened last Sunday (March 5th) for the sweet Filipino sisters who rarely are able to attend because Sunday is their only day off.  It was so wonderful to be with them in the temple, to also see some of them go there for the first time and the joy this brought to them.  They appreciate so much the great privilege of attending the temple and receiving the ordinances.  We had a wonderful week of being able to help in the temple on Tuesday night, attending with the Area Presidency on Thursday, helping the sisters there on Sunday and then helping again the following Tuesday so we have had  wonderful and spiritual experiences this last week. Wherever you live, we hope you are able to attend and participate regularly in the temple.

Jen, who is another amazing sister made this beautiful swan for us.  It is made of tiny pieces of folded paper.  There must be a thousand or more pieces to it.   Here's a link to one that is similar that I found on the internet Origami swan or peacock So sweet!  We hope you have a "sweet" and happy week, too!