Is this supposed to be spring?

Emails from Europe bring news of snow drops. The crocuses will be out in Kew Gardens followed by the fritillaries and the daffodils. Oh how I miss those early signs of spring. That was my season: almond blossom, magnolia and flowering cherry nodding at me from front gardens as we walked to school, tiny narcissi in the garden and bluebells on the Common.

It being my first year in Hong Kong I am not quite sure what form the seasons actually take here. In the course of our seven month stay it’s been very hot and humid, slightly less hot and not humid, cool and dry, cool and foggy and now not particularly cold but very decidedly wet. The pages of our books have started to go crinkly and a friend who’s been in the tropics for years pointed out that we needed to dehumidify before the books turn mouldy. Check your clothes too, she said. And your electronic gadgets: computers hate the damp. Oh no!!! The Domestic God was dispatched to stock up on more dehumidifiers which now hum through the day gathering litres of water from the damp household air.

On a brighter note, through the cloud which sits low each day on the island’s peaks, I became aware of an unfamiliar tree which has burst into purple blossom all over the island in recent weeks. Thinking it might be a relative of the magnolias at home, I stopped the car in a passing place one day as we are descending the Peak and leapt out to pluck a single flower. Back home we looked it up on the internet.

It is Bauhinia Blakeana or the Hong Kong Orchid Tree and the national flower of Hong Kong which appears on the country’s flag, albeit in white. I am rather pleased at our discovery. I have learned a little more about this strange old place whilst the magenta blooms bring some much needed colour to a very grey season.