Wednesday, April 21, 2010

A Reflective Day

I think it's safe to say that rainy season has begun. We had a ten-minute rain last week, but that hardly counted. We had a good downpour today which washed the dust away and lowered the temperature by about 30 degrees (90 down to 60). Now that's a guess, but I think it's pretty close.

We had a sad day as one of our Mashiah Foundation colleagues died today as a result of a motorbike accident. (I will write more about this later.) In my somber, reflective mood, I just walked around and took some photos of God's creation, which somehow seemed so evident today after the cleansing rain.

The amazing thing about these photos is that the vibrant colors have burst forth out of months of barrenness.

This is my neighbor's hibiscus bush, and I try to keep Lily from plucking the flowers.


Golden bouganvillea


Fuscia bouganvillea


My all-time favorite: the fragrant frangipani


Purple bouganvillea

The flame trees have been more beautiful than usual this year. A colleague told me that the more stress these trees endure, the more beautifully they bloom. Oh Lord, may the same be said of me! Check out the red carpet.


The growing mangoes are pulling the branches nearly to the ground.


Here's a cashew fruit and nut in the early stages. The fruit is the part connected to the vine while the nut is at the end. The fruit will become a brilliant yellow/orange color and grow to be about 3" long when it's ripe.


And my little friends, the Easter egg bugs, lovingly hand-painted by the Creator, came out today. Where have they been hiding since the last rain we had about a month ago? I have actually looked for them, and they have been nowhere to be found.

The beautiful bouganvillea is always a welcome sight to me.

2 comments:

LoieJ said...

I love flowers and I'm glad you post pictures. I was so surprised when I was in Uganda that I seemed to be the only person in the group that was noticing the flowers and plants. There was something that was wonderfully fragrant, maybe a coffee bush, but I'm not sure. Back here, now, we are still in drought conditions. The Forest Fire sign says "extreme" danger. The old brown grass is still crunchy, but of course, we don't have the dust that you do.

JoAnn Walthour said...

Thanks, Mary Beth, I so miss rainy season in Nigeria. Especially when it first starts! Sorry about the loss of someone special.