HAPPY BIRTHDAY

 It was my daughter-in-law's birthday yesterday and her mother had this absolutely scrumptious cake made. Nuts, bananas, chocolate, whipped cream... Not light by any means, but hey, birthdays come but once a year.

BACK TO WET

After a long dry spell, we're back to wet for the next few days. I am not sorry, nor is  this snail.
 

SIDEWALK ART

 

These little mosaics have been appearing on sidewalks around town.

GO GREEN

 

 You can have your picture taken with this green fellow for 200 dinars or just under $2.00. I opted out, but he is cute.

C'EST LA VIE

 About 2 weeks ago I bought four cute bowls. Each had a few French words inside: Bonjour, Merci, Bon appétit, and C'est la vie. Guess which one I broke...

TREEHOUSE

 I always wanted a treehouse as a kid. Maybe it's not too late.

STICK-TO-YOUR-RIBS BREAKFAST

 

Yummy breakfast on a cool fall day, which yesterday was. Hot corn flour mush with goat cheese and a drizzle of red pepper oil. I wasn't hungry again until dinner. 

PEARS

 

I didn't pick one but they sure looked good.

FUNKY CAFÉ IN THE WOODS

 In a more remote section of Fruška Gora National Park near Novi Sad (70 kms from Belgrade), some enterprising individual has set up a funky retro café with all kinds of memorabilia, including old Italian Fiat 500s, Yugos, or parts, usually transformed into seats or tables. (The motorcycle here is a guest's, so don't sit on it...)

RETURNING

 Returning home today from Novi Sad, a city about 70 kms from Belgrade, where I have been visiting a friend. This entire train was a work of art!

PREPARING....

 Not Belgrade, as you can probably guess. I have forgotten the name of this heritate hotel, a former palace, somewhere in Rajasthan, I believe... I need to go through my jillions of photos from India to find it.

This fellow was setting up tables, chairs, and tons of flowers for an upcoming wedding.

I'll be going back to India for a month in October.

WE KNEW YOU WHEN.....

NOVAK DJOKOVIC hardly needs any introduction to those familiar with the world tennis scene. Most recently he won the Olympic Gold Medal for tennis. 

My family met Novak long ago. in 2005 (and my daughter in the lower right met him in 2013). I can't say we are close friends or even if he would recognize us. In 2005, I had just finished 8 rounds of chemotherapy for Non-Hodgkins' Lymphoma and Novak, a rising star, was selected to give us survivors a 'diploma'.  These were presented in Kalemegdan Park beside the statue called The Victor and, unlike now, not too many people other than relatives and friends were there, unlike now when crowds follow him everywhere.

I put together here a very bad collage....need to do better.

SERBIAN DESERT PART 2

 The other day I showed your a local schoolyard's young pine trees planted as a class project.....and never adequately watered. Brittle, dry as bone; so sad. Here is a field not far from me. Also very dry, but grass always has a way of coming back. This field, right smack in an urban area, is home to hedgehogs, rabbits, and strangely enough even pheasants. I fear that the field will not be around long. Urbanization, trying to eliminate green areas everywhere, has been working top speed.

SKYWATCH -rooftop

 

Another shot frim my friend's roofstop terrace.

See other skies on SKYWATCH.

SHAMEFUL

For several years, and perhaps even longer, my children's ex-primary school (and now the one where my grandchildren go), has had various projects to teach children respect for nature, beautifying the environment, and similar. Most of these have failed miserably.

In the above photo you can see that pine trees were planted before the summer holiday, with the intention that each class would care for, i.e. water during the holidays and after. 

The failure of this particular project broke my heart for several reasons:  No teacher/school authority/environmental adviser seems to have paid any attention to the fact that sandy dry soil (and this part of New Belgrade was built  on sand and marsh (buildings still standing since the early Sixties) is NOT where pine trees grow in nature. Just as bad, they were planted in full sun, and we know how hot and dry this summer was. Also, it is not enough to ask children to faithfully water the trees; someone needs to supervise this project, especially since these were planted not long before the summer holiday when people go on vacation. 

Every day I pass by the schoolyard on my dog walks. Yesterday (and school begins today) I wrote a  letter to the director of the school summing up my thoughts and reprimanding the school for apparently 'just fulfilling a duty' and not following up.

I will give them two weeks to answer, and then a modified version goes to the public newspaper. I don't expect miracles, but at least I know I have in some small way made the authorities aware of the problem. I also plan  on sending by mail a letter to the school...someone may have just pressed 'delete'. And yes, they could toss the paper letter too.
 

SEPTEMBER THEME DAY--BRIDGES

 A view from New Belgrade toward the old town, which isn't visible here. French President Macron has come and gone, hence the French flags.

See other bridges on CITY DAILY PHOTO THEME DAY.