Happy 1st Full Day of Spring (Northern Hemisphere) 2015! Orchids!!

Most of us know that orchids are one of the plants associated with seasons in China. The orchid is often associated with spring. *

Every year the New York Botanical Garden does a fabulous display of orchids.

Here are a few some lovely photos taken from their website:

 

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http://www.nybg.org/exhibitions/2015/orchid-show/index.php

Get to the show if you can.

Here follow a few orchids from Mahjong tiles;

top left:

four split Mahjong flower pots with butterfly
four split Mahjong flower pots with butterfly

 

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Always with a very delicate look to them, even though this tile was done by a German company, Ashton & Rietz.

 

And orchids painted by a Chinese artist:

 

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You'll note that the delicacy of theMahjong tiles are not that dissimilar to this lovely ink drawing by Zheng Xie (Chinese, 1693–1765) in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum

 

*I am able to remember this fact when I think of "springing" to buy an orchid,  that meaning of spring being the North American informal use of the word, indicating to pay for as a treat.

 

For those of you who don't yet know, there is a wonderful magazine, The Mahjong Collector. I am eagerly awaiting my copy.

You can find out more by emailing them at this address:

 

To see when I am doing author appearances, click here

You can now follow me on Twitter!

@MahJonggGregg

To learn more about Mah Jongg, you might want to take a look at this book that I wrote with Ann Israel, published by Tuttle.

www.mahjonggtheartof thegame.com

To order it click here:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/mah-jongg-ann-israel/1118759459?ean=9784805313237

or here from Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Mah-Jongg-Collectors-Guide-Tiles/dp/4805313234/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1414844427&sr=8-7&keywords=mah+jongg