About spring and the hard part of living on the other side of the ocean

Lets just start with the hard part. One of the things that you never ever can imagine before you make the big step of moving to another country is that at some point you really want to be with your family on the other side.
Last week and now is one of those times for me.
Thursday my Mom was admitted to hospital to have surgery. We knew it was coming and we talked it through, if needed, I could be there one the first plane. But we would do that in case of emergency. My parents promised not to hesitate but let me know if and when.

Even though things looked good at first, it didn't go great and she ended up being operated twice within 12 hours.
Because of the time difference I only heard about it the next day and it looked much better after that. My sisters could visit and I get reports from one of my sisters twice a day.
Yesterday turned out to be another bad day, but again I heard the next day.
I know they are keeping a really good eye on her. My Dad is there and the rest of the family visits when they can.
But it doesn't feel right not to be able to give her a hug and tell her that she really needs to get better now.
Sending a card just isn't the same…

What I can do is take pictures for her of how Spring is in Pennsylvania knowing that she will enjoy them.
It feels good to know that both my parents were here and will recognize the things I took pictures of.
The quality won't be as good as normal since my Nikon broke down and is MIA now for almost two weeks.
Anyway, Spring hit hard here, really hard, like 30 degrees celsius hard for several days in a row. Which means that we have been wearing shorts now for almost two weeks.
Actually, my legs have more color already than they have in the Netherlands in July.

Spring here is pink and white.
A few yellow spots maybe from the daffodils, but mainly pink from the Redbud trees, the crabapples and cherryblossom trees, the white is from the appletrees and another tree that seems to be in every other garden here.
Also spring marks the beginning of fishing season.

Last weekend Jack took me to Boiling Springs to see how crazy that can be. They put out trout in the little lake there and that first Sunday tons of little boats are on it, packed like pickled herring in a jar. On the sides people stand so close together that I am surprised no one gets hurt by hooks, fishing lines or fish pulled out the water so fast they go flying.

Anyway, I'll post some of the pics here, hope you enjoy them also.