Hong Kong: Goldfish, Flower, and Bird Market

We spent a week in May exploring the urban jungle of a city that is Hong Kong. Suffice to say that we took so many photos and even more potential topics about our visit that it's almost too daunting to start this series. But if I get the ball rolling...

Perhaps if I begin by featuring our visit to three quirky markets that were adjacent to each other: The Goldfish, Flower, and Bird Market.

I first heard about the Goldfish market many years ago so when we pencilled in a trip to Hong Kong this was one the first ones I've jotted in as part of our itinerary. Despite the name 'Goldfish' they sell so much more than that but practically anything that is alive and can be kept in an aquarium. So it's an aquatics market, but there's something very quirky about this living pet fish market...

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In Beautiful Brugge

This is going to be a bit of a retro post, rewinding back to the 5th of May when we spent a long weekend in the beautiful medieval city of Brugge.

It is one of those cities that is achingly beautiful and truly lives up to its hype of being breathtaking to behold.

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Plastic Fantastic

A recent post on Piece of Eden wherein a plastic flower was mentioned has reminded me of our recent stopover at Beijing Airport en route to Tokyo. In the central departure area past the security there is this garden:

It looks cool and a relaxing enough spot and not that dissimilar to some of the gardens found within Changi Airport in Singapore.

On closer scrutiny though you quickly realize that the only things that were not 'plastic' (or inorganic more appropriately) were the gold fish and the water. Yep, all plants were plastic on the main area. But strangely at the back of the display were real ones.

Still it's an oasis in a place that can get chaotic during peak times. And to round up this quick post, a sign that made me smile:

Mark :-)

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Déjà vu Marché aux Fleurs

Supposed to be out and about in the garden today but alas rain has stopped play and I'm indoors now keeping myself dry.

So what else to do? Reminisce and write about it! I make it sound a bit negative but it is a wonderful thing to do, especially life can get so fast paced that looking back can become very tricky...

Not today anyway.

Only a few days ago we featured our visit to Marché aux Fleurs on our most recent visit to lovely Paris. Around the same time Loree of Danger Garden has featured it too. Now is my time to wade in as I share my take of this central Paris plant and flower market!

First things first, before we actually got in to the market we checked out one of the quirky knick knack shops we passed along en route and spotted these mini succulents and pots, nice! Forgot the name of the shop though, oops!

Although we can bring plants across the channel, we went away without buying any of these cute beauties. Now on to the market.

With spring finally descending upon Paris then (with London remarkably behind), there were lots of colour already going on in the market. Ahh Paris in the spring time!

And once in awhile you have to take customary 'pose with the plants' shot, with Gaz for scale.

Walking through the pathway I can't help but admire these vistas...

My favourite though were the stalls selling exotic plants and succulents.

I was intending to bring one of these back with us but alas we didn't get the chance to pass by here again the next day, Alocasia 'Stingray'.

Hopefully they'll still have some available on our next visit!

Mark :-)

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Yorkshire Break

As mentioned earlier in the week we had a trip up to Yorkshire last weekend catching up with friends and exploring a little part of this county.

The first stop was the village of Saltaire. Saltaire is a Victorian model village built by mill owner Titus Salt. Salt moved his factories out of the nearby industrial city of Bradford, he wanted a healthier life for his employees and built a huge new factory, homes, schools and other facilities for the people that moved there. The village is now a UNESCO world heritage site. The name of the village is a combination of the founder's surname and the name of the river

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Yorkshire Revisited

Almost five years ago we wrote about friends garden in Yorkshire. Well last weekend we went "up North" for a visit and although the garden is only just waking up in April it was a delight to revisit this gem.

An old beach tree that was removed due to disease lives on as these characters

As you enter the garden a greenhouse that most of us would be very proud of greats you. full of tempting exotics tucked away for winter periods. Bananas were just starting to wake up. Unfortunately I go carried away in talking about the plants to actually remember to take a photo inside.

 

The stone cottage would typically be surrounded by cottage style plantings, however a backbone of hardy yuccas and tetrapanax and an understory of far more interesting plants provide a much more interesting feel.

A brave cat surveys her territory

The garden has a great addition with a valley style portion to the side of the house, with a covering of large deciduous natives, the exotics give a Cornish feel to this garden. Something we remarked on in our previous blog.
 

 

 The dappled spring sunlight filtering through a stand of bamboo.

 

One of the other garden kitties "helping out" by stripping the bark

 

 

Once again we were delighted to visit our friends garden, and we promise not to leave it quite so long for a follow up.

Gaz

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Marché aux fleurs revisited

Having only just returned from Japan, we had another short break last weekend, with two days in Paris to celebrate our anniversary.
 
Paris in the Springtime! We are fortunate that Paris is a short journey for us either via Luton airport or train (just one change from the station five minutes walk from home).
 
With only a short stay planned we decided not to have too much of a plan and just enjoyed being there. A favourite haunt of us both is Marché aux fleurs, a flower market on Île de la Cité (one of the two islands in the Seine in central Paris), close to Notre Dame.

Its quite an eclectic market, with produce aimed at both tourists and locals alike. After all there's not many tourists that could take home a large bamboo or yucca as a souvenir.

Although most of the weekend was bright and sunny, we did seem to manage to visit the market during the only overcast period in the whole weekend!



Notre Dame

Shortly after we had left the market the sun was back!

Gaz

 

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Japan 2018 - Part 1

As mentioned yesterday we had a return visit to Tokyo at the end of March. This trip was planned for some time and we had hoped to see the cherry blossoms, it was always a risk with only one week as to whether we would be there at the peak but fortunately we were very lucky!

On our first morning, we had a tempting glimpse of what may be ahead with a small park outside our hotel full of blossom.

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Meguro River Cherry Blossoms

We are just back from a trip to Tokyo to see the Cherry Blossoms. As many people will know Japan has a love for the flowering cherry and the annual flowering is a time for celebration. Signalling in the new season in spectacular fashion.

One of the highlights of the trip was an evening at Meguro River in Tokyo, this is a fairly small tributary river lined with trees on both sides. At night the trees are illuminated which made for a magical experience. With food and drink stalls and a party atmosphere this felt more like we were at a music festival than a botanic event!

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Tropicalismo!

 

Not usually into posting about the plantings on hotel grounds and resorts (bar exceptional ones like those found in Madeiran and Cornish hotels) as they tend to be formulaic and regimented. But going through our photos on our recent trip to Vietnam I couldn't help but long to be transported back to where we stayed, especially seeing once again the lush tropical planting they had there.

View from our balcony

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