OBLIVIOUS

 I always rant about people's not noticing when you take their photo. Usually, be it with my camera or with my phone as was the case with this shot, I just point quickly and click. However, I tested myself here and really made sure the guy was in focus, decent composition, etc.

He never knew what hit him, so absorbed in his own phone was he. Hmmm.....maybe he was taking MY picture.

OYSTER MUSHROOMS

 They say young and small OYSTER MUSHROOMS taste best, but I hardly ever see anything but the big ones. They're still good.....

OUT FOR A RIDE

 These two ladies were 'strolling' with their dogs. The pug chose not to ride yet, but there is a small white dog in the red stroller on the lower shelf. Normally people use these strollers for elderly dogs, but these two were spry. Maybe they are for when Fifi gets tired.

SURE, WHY NOT? HELP YOURSELF....

 I am still angry.  I caught this woman red-handed yesterday while she was picking (stealing!) herself a bouquet of lavender from a a nearby public park. I took several shots before I called out to her and got her attention. I reprimanded her saying that the flowers were for everyone, not just for her. You can probably imagine that she didn't care at all, and kept right on picking. She did stop though when I called to her once more and got a face shot. Off she went. I wrote to the park police and I hope this lady will have her own personal 'wanted' poster...but I doubt it.

TITO'S BLUE TRAIN

 

Yesterday I visited former Marshal Josip Broz Tito's famous Blue Train, which he used to travel all over Europe. Luxurious (for the 60s), art deco, and with some adaptations for possible famous guests like Charles De Gaulle, who had a custom made bed. Hailie Selassie, Indira Gandhi, and Queen Elizabeth were only three of the heads of state who traveled on this train. Not to miss if you head this way. A real time machine.

Google Tito's Blue Train and check out Wiki.

COUNTRY HOMES

 Two homes seen on a recent road trip in the country.

SIMPLE STILL LIFE

 A still life from my day trip to Kikinda about three hours from Belgrade.  Every year they hold a pumpkin festival with all kinds of pumpkins, squash, gourds and products made from same.

You can read about the winning pumpkin BY CLICKING HERE, but for some reason, and I hope the paper corrected the error, it is written that the pumpkin weighed 716 kilos, but that was last year's winner.  This year the big boy weighed 865 kilos (around 1,907 pounds.) That's a lot of pie.

SHADOW SHOT SUNDAY--Manasija monastery

 Visited a friend in Despotovac, a couple of hours south of Belgrade. She took me to the 15th-century MANASIJA MONASTERY, beautifully restored thanks to UNESCO.

This is a sneak phone shot.  See other shadows on SHADOW SHOT SUNDAY.

WEEKEND REFLECTIONS--OLD AND NEW

 Like in many cities, Belgrade's downtown is rapidly changing. Buildings going up (and others out) everywhere. A 'reflection' of the times.

See other reflections on James' WEEKEND REFLECTIONS.

WHAT ONCE WAS IS NO MORE

 I went to the bus station yesterday to buy a bus ticket to and from a town about three hours from here where a friend lives.  The bus station is adjacent to the former, old, beautiful train station where I arrived in 1977 from Paris.  It has been closed for quite a few years now and replaced by a brand new one in another part of town.....all this to make way for highrises you can see through the grass grown over the rails.  Just to think, the Orient Express once passed through Belgrade.

DOGS JUST WANNA HAVE FUN

 There were two of these dogs, totally ignoring the 'Stay off the Flowers' sign, but they were frolicking so fast I could only capture one of them.  I envied them....

KILTS ARE IN

 I've noticed quite a few men wearing kilts recently. Honestly, they're cooler than trousers, especially if you know what they (at least Scottish men) wear underneath. 

MONDAY MURALS---CHEMISTS

 Three Serbian chemists peer down at me from a wall beside a park downtown.

See other murals on MONDAY MURALS.

SLIM PICKINGS

 "Slim pickings," for those of you who may not know, means that there's little success in getting something because there's not a lot of it left. Kind of like when you turn up late at a party....

This cat is very thin, whereas many city cats here are chubby.

Don't confused 'slim pickings' with the beloved movie star SLIM PICKENS, whom I especially loved in Mel Brooks' BLAZING SADDLES.

NEVER TOO YOUNG TO LEARN

 Dad was helping his getting his son interested in photography. 

As the joke goes, "Get your child interested in photography and he'll never have money for drugs and alcohol."

SKYWATCH--SUPER MOON

 A flashback to other night's super moon. It was playing peek-a-boo outside my window; mainly 'peek,' since I never saw it in its entirety.

See other skies on SKYWATCH.

BLUE HAIR = BLOND

 

Here in Serbia the word 'plava' (blue) is also used to refer to a blond man or woman. I don't know what color this young woman's hair really is, but she is certainly 'plava' here.

TWO ORANGES AND A DOG

 Don't bother looking for the fruit...just two people in bright orange and a dog. And of course another two people with a dog ahead of them.

WATCH OUT FOR THE BEES!

 I  may have posted this before a long time ago, but this statue of a woman holding a beehive caught my attention (again?)

I looked up what beehives mean and they seem to  be symbols of obedience, organization, and structure.

This statue is also making a fashion statement with her 'ripped' dress, reminding me of the ripped jeans craze.

TIMING IS EVERYTHING

I was lurking on a bench, on lap, waiting for prey. I saw this lady coming. Her dress and her black and white dog matched, so I got ready. And then the dog squatted..... Perfect example of what my muse, Henri Cartier-Bresson called 'l'instant décisif"!

Timing is everything.

SHADOW SHOT SUNDAY--sticking out his tongue

 I often pass this MASCARON on my way to a small supermarket where I shop. The house it adorns, sadly in disrepair, dates from 1901.

I always smile at this creature's attempt at being a rainspout. Any run-off water is going to gush mainly in the window below or at least down the facade.

See other shadows on SHADOW SHOT SUNDAY.

WEEKEND REFLECTIONS--street lamp in cycle mirror

 Fiddling around with my older camera, which has a terrific zoom. I was very far away.

See other reflections on James's WEEKEND REFLECTIONS.

THEME DAY--BOTTLE--CARS GO BETTER WITH COKE!

 Here I am back again after a long hiatus. I have to admit that this is not a new photo (It dates from 2009), when gasoline was still hard  to find at the pumps and had to be smuggled in (albeit very overtly!).

Since we had all been used to this way of selling gasoline for quite some time during the sanctions years before, most of us drivers could tell at a glance by its color which gasoline was best (pale green).

For years now gas stations are working like anywhere else, even if gas is expensive. Right now it is around 189 dinars PER LITER, i.e. around 4 times that for a gallon, give or take. Therefore, an approximate gallon would be 756 dinars or $7.00 a gallon (6.45 euros).  It's always been high, and I was always amused when I heard my American friends in the US complain about gas prices...

See other bottles on CITY DAILY PHOTO THEME DAY.

THE SWEET SHOP

 

I really want to splurge and try this sweet shop. Will take photos of their selections. And maybe sit on this bench, though I would get rid of the ashtray....

STYLISH WITH A FAN

 Had a cold beer at my favorite cafe the other night and sneaked a photo of this chic lady fanning herself. 

SENIOR SELFIE

 A quick sneak shot before they saw me.

SHADOW SHOT SUNDAY--NIGHT RUN

 I was touched by this scene of a person pushing another in a wheelchair. They both got some breeze on a very sultry evening.

See other shadows on SHADOW SHOT SUNDAY.

A MAN AND HIS DOG

 Just a man and his little Jack Russell terrier cooling off, or trying to, in this sweltering heat.

CANINE ABSTRACT

 In light of still attempting to see what sets off Facebook bots when  I post my blog photos there (the last three have been removed...but I still post just the photo, without the link), I am posting an abstract of my granddaughter's dog's ear.  I hope FB won't find it offensive. That said, you can find patterns everywhere, even in a dog's ear.

A MAN AND HIS COW

 My last two photos, one showing two women on a bench and the other a woman walking several dogs, have been flagged on Facebook as 'going against community standards'.

Let's see if this man, twirling his cow key chain, is also offensive.

MORE FUN WITH FRIENDS

 The more the merrier. I still admire people who walk other people's dogs (she is; I asked). My dog would not pee when so close to others.

WAITING FOR THEIR DATES

 Two young women, appropriately attired for this hot weather, await their dates on a bench downtown.  

MONDAY MURALS--out of the way

 An out-of-the-way mural  near a local green market. 

See other murals on MONDAY MURALS.

PRIME LOCATION

 Some lucky bird is going to enjoy this prime location....but then again, a birdhouse should be higher up than this. This one is just for decoration, I guess.

KITTY IN THE WINDOW

 But not a real kitty. This wooden cat, handmade in Poland, sits at one of my windows beside a Turkish coffee set on a Turkish table.  Yes, I know the window needs a wash....it got seriously splattered by our heavy rains.

SKYWATCH--SWALLOW OVER THE SAVA

 Went for a walk the other day along the Sava River in New Belgrade. In the background you can see one of Belgrade's bridges joining parts of the town to a large and popular river island.

See other skies on SKYWATCH.

A LITTLE SYMMETRY, ALMOST

 Passed this little cafe the other day. Nobody sitting there; been too hot.

GEOMETRIC?

 A little urban geometry for you. How many geometric shapes can you find here?

SORTING HER MERCHANDISE

 Gypsies or Roma, as they prefer to be called, live on the fringe of our society and do a great deal of salvaging cast-off items that they resell and also are major recyclers of paper, plastic, and tin cans. This woman was just setting up shop when I passed.

MAGENTA

 She whizzed by me,  I snapped her photo, and then she disappeared into a doorway. I wonder what she looked like from the front.

SHADOW SHOT SUNDAY: Who was Petar Kocic (KO-cheech)?

 That's exactly what I asked myself when I came across this statue of Petar Kocic in a park I'd never been to before.  The short answer is that he was a Bosnian Serb writer who died in 1916, but if you care to read more, see THIS LINK.

Linking to  SHADOW SHOT SUNDAY.

JULY THEME DAY: CLIMATE...

 You may wonder why this post relates to climate. It's summer, it's hot, people eat ice cream.  But this summer and just about every recent summer, it's been hotter. Fall is now arriving, at least here, in November, and winters are not what they used  to be, not to mention spring...

These children appear oblivious to all this, their grandpa (?) perhaps not so much.  And for me,  I can't help but feel sorry for future generations, which of course include my grandchildren, but I try not to think about that too much.

See other interpretations of 'climate' on THEME DAY.

SKYWATCH--moon over the Parliament Building

 Just what the title says, there's Venus, too.

See other skies on SKYWATCH.

PLAYGROUND OF YESTERYEAR

 The playground in the upper photo in the neighborhood where my kids grew up in is exactly like the playground they spent hours in. The bottom one is a revamped one.... Definitely more state-of-the-art, but more fun, I don't know.

ANOTHER RESTORED FACADE

 Yesterday I showed you a beautifully restored facade.  Part of that building can be seen on the left of this white facade.

Both buildings must be feeling very proud.

A BIG FRIEZE....

At the risk of sounding like a complainer since I was rambling on and on about our heavy rains that seemed to last forever, now it's time to complain about the blistering heat here. Don't get me started on climate control...

So, now what we need is a big freeze....but this large frieze will have to do.

 

RESTORED!

 This lovely building (I think I showed a photo of it before its restauration, but I cannot find it) has now been returned to its former glory, as has the smaller white one next to it.

Happy to see things like this!