Fraidy-cat!

If you are viewing this photo on any other site than Yankee in Belgrade, this photo and text have been stolen!!! Boycott sites that steal photos!!

The 'fraidy cat' is actually not in this photograph. I'm referring to my dog, who was off camera, frightened away by this imposing tomcat. I'm afraid Bibi is a pussycat.

His shoes

If you are viewing this on any other site than Yankee in Belgrade, this photo and text have been stolen. Boycott sites that steal photos!!!
Regrets, we all have them. This is one of mine. Above is a pair of shoes my husband constantly wore around casually, and I hated them. They were run-down at the heel, the front part of one was becoming detached, they were all scuffed and smelly, and I only half-jokingly kidded him that they made him look like a bum. I threatened to throw them away so he would buy new ones, but didn't. Now, they are a dear, dear reminder of someone I loved and who would have been 63 today; he was too young to have left us at only 61. He was wearing these shoes in this photo, I'm pretty sure. If he were only here, I'd let him wear these shoes everyday, forever, and never nag again...

"Hey! Where'd everybody go?"--Reflections Weekend

This little sparrow seems to be asking, "Hey! Where'd everybody go?" I was taking a photo of a group of sparrows with him, when suddenly they all took off...except this little guy.

See other reflections at
James' Reflections Weekend.

Be afraid, be very afraid....

I fear the worst for this house that I have always called 'my house,' which I'd really like to own if I had the money. I am sorry that I don't have megabucks...someone beat me to it. You can see since the last post on the link I've inserted that the brush has been cut down, a lock is on the gate... I can only hope it will be renovated, not torn down to make room for some more modern structure like its neighbor in the second photo. I'll let you know...

Two men, three packs

Had lunch the other day at one of the older, more traditional restaurants here in Belgrade. It's a no-frills place, with good, basic, Serbian fare. I like to go to these places since many such have been bought out and revamped into yuppie modern venues devoid of any personality. The downside is that, although restaurants are supposed to have non-smoking sections, this law is often overlooked. Outside where I was, it didn't much matter, since I was upwind. These men had three packs of cigarettes on their table when I sat down and sneaked a zoomed-in shot, and were down to their last one when I left; non-stop smoking accompanied by a couple of beers...and a mineral water.

ABC Wednesday 'S'' is for 'Smiley'

Why is this bank smiling? I don't know, except perhaps it's happy I stopped to take its photo. Not along ago I captured another smiley on a bus and even longer ago one on a trip to California.
Hope you are smiling today.

Check out some other S's on ABC WEDNESDAY.

The priest's piglets

Where are the piglets, you ask? Right here in the foreground, with the sun shining through. 'Popino prase,' or the priest's piglet, as it's known here, is a type of grass sometimes called false barley, hare barley, or mouse barley in English. The strands of 'Popino prase' (POE-pee-no PRA-say) have a tendency to catch on some dog's coats and sometimes bore their way down into their skin, causing irritation. Fortunately, Bibi doesn't have that kind of coat.

The Moth

Do insects have a sense of humor? I am beginning to think so, for on one rare sunny afternoon last week (it's been raining and cloudy....) I glimpsed this colorful moth amidst some green leaves. I approached; off he went; ditto the second and third times. Finally he let me make a photograph, but only after he'd landed on an old rag...but a colorful one at that. I'm sure I heard him chuckle.

Hmmm....one blogger and one of my friends wrote to say this is a butterfly! I was looking at its fuzzy body, so I thought it was a moth... Well, whatever it is, the story's the same :)

The Bridal Bridge

I call this bridge The Bridal Bridge, though that's not really its name at all, if it even has one. Many couples, including my daughter who got married last September, have their photographs taken there. No one was around yesterday though, since it had rained and the ground was quite wet. A moment of respite for the bridge!

This bridge is for Louis La Vache's Sunday Bridges.

REFLECTIONS Weekend--downtown

Another drive-by shooting. While waiting for another traffic light, I glimpsed this window that reflects a wall across the street that's covered with very colorful graffiti and a billboard. There are also reflections of the automobiles below. All of this is for James' Reflections Weekend.

SKYWATCH--the looooong blue boat, and the sky, too

Can you believe how long this boat is? I was stunned at its length. It's a tourist boat, and I think it's the one that is described here. On that site they say it's 180 meters long and this one must be at least that.

See other skies and maybe more boats at SKYWATCH.

Don't do it, you dummy!

Was this fellow just clowning around or did he make the plunge? Neither, actually, since you've probably now noticed he's a dummy, in the original sense. Like his suit?

ABC Wednesday "R" is for "ripped"

My grandmother would have remarked that we should pitch in and get this 'poor' girl a new pair of pants to replace these ripped ones. (You should have seen the front....)

See other r's at ABC WEDNESDAY.

Que sera, sera

Some of you may remember the old Doris Day tune 'Que sera, sera,' from Alfred Hitchcock's 1956 film The Man Who Knew Too Much. In English the singer wonders if she'll be pretty or rich, but her mother tells her, 'whatever will be, will be.' I was reminded of the song by this flowerbud, which actually doesn't even need to ask its 'mother' what it will be, since it will turn out just as pretty as she is!

Who's going to yield?

As the saying goes, "When life hands you lemons, make lemonade." For many days now, on and off but mostly on, we've been handed rain, so of course I photographed snails! (No, they did not end up on my plate.) I brought these two guys/girls (I think snails are hemaphrodites) up to my balcony for a photo. I placed them on the railing facing each other, and they 'argued' a bit about who would yield. One just slid down the side of the railing and let the other pass, how civil.

Sunday Bridges -the tram bridge and the Memorial

I've posted this in HDR for a more dramatic effect. The lighting was bad when I took this photo, and the HDR brings out the colors. The green bridge with the red tram is commonly called the Tram Bridge, but it can be driven over, too. It links New Belgrade with the older part of the city, and leads directly to the train station. I've posted about this monument that stands on the site of a former WWII concentration camp when I first started my blog.

Hey! If you are viewing my blog through Mozilla Firefox, be sure to look up and see the new little Serbian favicon I finally figured out how to install...sort of....with a help of a friend. It doesn't show up on most versions of Internet Explorer, for some reason.

Check out other bridges at Louis La Vache's Sunday Bridges.

Come on in; the water's fine! Reflections Weekend

That's what the 'wet' dog in this photo seems to be saying to his alter ego standing on the houseboat ramp. He didn't join his friend for a swim, but simply provided me with this photo for James'
Reflections Weekend.

SKYWATCH: Les Merveilleux Nuages

Our weather has been very, very changeable, alternating between showers, heavier rain, strong winds, and bursts of sun. Over several days the clouds were just unbelievably surreal. These made me recall my favorite French poet Charles Baudelaire's poem L’étranger (The Stranger), which reads as follows:

Qui aimes-tu le mieux, homme énigmatique, dis? Ton père, ta mère, ta soeur ou ton frère?
- Je n'ai ni père, ni mère, ni soeur, ni frère.
- Tes amis?
-Vous vous servez là d'une parole dont le sens m'est resté jusqu'à ce jour inconnu.
- Ta patrie?
- J'ignore sous quelle latitude elle est située.
- La beauté?- Je l'aimerais volontiers, déesse et immortelle.
- L'or?- Je le hais comme vous haïssez Dieu.
- Eh! qu'aimes-tu donc, extraordinaire étranger?
- J'aime les nuages... les nuages qui passent... là-bas... là-bas... les merveilleux nuages!
The Stranger
Tell me, enigmatical man, whom do you love best? Your father,Your mother, your sister, or your brother?
-I have neither father, nor mother, nor sister, nor brother.
Your friends?
-Now you use a word whose meaning I have never known.
Your country?
-I do not know in what latitude it lies.
Beauty?
-I could indeed love her, Goddess and Immortal.
Gold?
-I hate it as you hate God.
Then, what do you love, extraordinary stranger?
-I love the clouds... the clouds that pass... up there...up there... the wonderful clouds!
See other skies at SKYWATCH.

Daydreaming in the bus

This is another 'drive by shooting;' a photo I took from my car window (Yes, I was waiting for the light to change!) I like the contrast of the women's expressions with the cheerful yellow and musical notes on the outside of the bus. Looks like only on the outside of the bus is there a smiley face!

ABC Wednesday "Q" is for 'Queen in a Quandary"

...and seated beside rose quartz as well. I bought this little queen at the British Museum shop in London airport a few years ago. I love her expression, and that's just how I feel these days, for I'm in a quandary about a decision I have to make reasonably soon.

Check out other bloggers' ABC Wednesday posts.

Coffee and cake

Went over to my friend Nena's place the other day, and she offered me a cup of Turkish coffee and some of her homemade fruit and nut cake. All I can do for you is offer you a photo....but I hope you will enjoy it!

The Balloon Clown

Did you ever wish you were a clown? As a child, I did, but now I'm not so sure. I still enjoy watching clowns, especially this kind, the ones who make those fancy creations out of balloons. I wonder what he's writing...sketching a new design? Making his grocery list? What do you think?

Sunday Bridges--What a sky over Branko's Bridge!

The clouds last Friday were just gorgeous! Branko's Bridge that connects Old Belgrade with New Belgrade (from where I took this photo) isn't much to look at, but I needed a bridge for today, and who could resist that sky?

This post is part of Louis La Vache's Sunday Bridges series.

Exercising by the river

Inspired by Kim of Seattle Daily Photo, who has been posting some excellent shots created with a tilt-shift program (as opposed to a super-costly lens), I searched around on the Net and came up with this tilt-shift site. This shot isn't perfect, and I'll keep trying, but it's fun experimenting. Want to give it a try?

Skywatch and Reflections Weekend--two-for-one

Here we are at the ethno-village Stanisic (STAH-nee-sheech) in Bijeljina, Republika Srpska, where I traveled two weeks ago. Once again I thank Vlada from Fotkapofotka for the HDR program he sent me. Vlada, whom I've recently met, told me his mother has been after him to take her to this place, so Vlada, get going! It will be Mother's Day this Sunday, at least in the US!

The web page for this ethno-village is currently under construction, but it you go to Google Images and type in Ethno-village Stanisic, lots of photos come up!

This post is both for SKYWATCH and James' Reflection Weekend.

Roll 'em!

First of all, if B Squared of Fort Lauderdale Daily Photo is reading this, I should like to point out that this is not a stripped-down Yugo. This little two-wheeler...er...roller serves to flatten the tennis court that is to the right off this photo, adjacent to the soccer court you see here. Laugh if you like, but it's a rather ingenious contraption! Don't you just love the seat? And remember this little beauty?

ABC Wednesday "P" is for "pig out"

This little hot dog truck is red, red, red! There was no one around when I took this photo from my car while waiting at a red light. I wasn't hungry either, but had I been, this little truck, with its self-dosing hot dog, would have been just the place to pig out!

See what other P's people have posted on ABC WEDNESDAY.

The woman on the wall

This trompe l'oeil statue 'stands' on a wall at the lower end of Skadarlija, a street that makes up most of Belgrade's bohemian quarter. She appears to be decked out in grapes, but roof you see here that she's overlooking is part of a well-known beer garden.

The May flowers April showers brought

Last month Belgrade had a lot of rain. The old saying goes, 'April showers bring May flowers,' and above is the result. Belgrade has been blooming and flowers are in full force now, except for the dandelions, which for the most part, have turned from yellow into puffy white, ready to disperse their seeds at the first wind.

P.S. While doing some spring cleaning, I came upon somethingI'd been given by someone and forgot about. It's a Bower Super Wide .042x lens attachment. Screwed on one of my lenses, it lets me get very up close and personal. On a very wide angle lens, there is vignetting, which in some cases above I cropped out. In the same box with this little pearl was another Merkur .45 digital wide angle with macro, which lets me get even closer...ooooh. Stay tuned.

Sunday Bridges--the border crossing

I'm joining Louis La Vache's Sunday Bridges meme again. Above we see the bridge that one has to cross either before or after the border between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, near the town of Bjeljina that I visited last week. The girders seem pretty solid , but this is one narrow bridge and it's not in the best shape. I held my breath as this semi passed us.....

Join Louis' Sunday Bridges!

Theme Day-Statues "The Michelin Man'

This Michelin Man has seen better days. I remember seeing these guys atop many a tractor trailer truck when I lived in France in the late sixties/first half of seventies. Perhaps this guy jumped ship...er...truck, and decided to stay in the Republika Srpska where I photographed him. Someone even gave him a Šajkača to wear.

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants