Yesterday Spring Seemed So Close

Yesterday was filled with sadness and joy all in one day.

I first heard the news about my Kenya friend losing her child. Mother and family are going through an incredibly rough time right now; financially and emotionally and for the mom, physically too. See my blog post here if you have a moment.

Much later I went out for a walk.

The day was gloriously warm and sunny. A rarity in Vancouver over the winter months.

There were some early signs of Spring. 

I'm not sure what these blossoms are but they caught my eye.

The last time I took a photo of this fountain it was frozen solid. Yesterday it flowed freely.

Some rose hips were evident. I haven't noticed this bush here before.

A palm tree on someone's balcony beckons me to African shores.

I smiled as this senior cycled by on his tricycle.

A helicopter in flight. Can you spot it?

It seems like this kind of warm weather seems to happen around this time every year, give or take a week. Whether it remains is yet to be seen. At any rate, the real Spring is not so very far away from now.

As the sun was disappearing, it brought lovely pastel colours to the skies.

I like the look of the bare leaves like lace against the sky. The transit wires give added interest

I managed to take a shot of the half moon before the light got too low

I captured these pansies just before I stopped at the final store.  They are on the corner of two main city streets that get a lot of pedestrian and vehicular traffic. So you can see that pedestrians have been using the planter as an ashtray. What a shame!

 It was the end of my picture taking as night fell (just after 5 p.m.).

You can see the twin (mountain) peaks of the Lions way in back of mountains and the towers of downtown.

 Though it was sunny yesterday, today was a bit misty and foggy at higher levels.

In the east they are having winter storms.

I hope you are warm wherever you are in the world.

Joining in with Our World Tuesday

Thank you to hosts:

 
Arija
Gattina  Lady Fi
Sylvia
Sandy
Jennifer  

A Sad Story

A friend I met in Kenya many years ago had to be rushed to Tenwek Mission Hospital a few days ago due to complications with her pregnancy.

Sadly she lost the baby at 31 weeks despite the hospital staff making heroic efforts to save the child.

In her culture the unborn child must be buried within the day so several members of the community were at the hospital to receive the baby's remains and take him home for burial at the family compound.  The mother could not attend the burial as she is still in hospital.

Compounding the pressures on the mother and her family is the fact that the hospital bill for her care is enormous. It is a huge concern for them and I don't know how they will meet the cost. I can only pray.

I'm posting this so others can pray too. Not just for the bills to be met but for the grieving hearts and the physical trauma to heal properly. It takes time.

If you can spare a few minutes, please have a look at this short video. It is of the highway the young mom would have had to be transported on to get from her home to the mission hospital  She would have travelled for close to two hours as they rushed to the hospital in vain trying to save the baby.

Travel in Kenya is not easy. What is considered a short distance in North America takes much longer to travel on the highways of Kenya. It is usually a bumpy and jarring ride and is very tiring. Since my first trip to Kenya there have been many highway improvements but there is a lot more to improve.