Linden tea, anyone?

These are linden tree blossoms, and their heady, sweet fragrance is intoxicating. There are many different species of linden trees, but the flower is the part that is most frequently used in medical preparations. Linden has been used in European folk medicine for centuries for a wide range of health conditions, and is used by some cultures to treat anxiety, although no clinical trials have confirmed its effectiveness. Some trials indicate that linden tea can help people with mild gallbladder problems, upset stomach or dyspepsia, and gastrocardiac syndrome. When taken as a hot tea, linden flowers induce a mild fever, possibly helping to increase the immune system's ability to fight infections. The fever also causes sweating to cool the body off. Tea time!

Top chefs!

Caught these chefs taking a bit of fresh air on top of Belgrade's Hotel Slavija. Looks like they're looking at a sign advertising a cooking school, maybe the one they attend?

Winning smile, winning girl.

I was going to keep this for ABC Wednesday next week (W for 'winner'), but was too impatient. My husband took this photo on Tuesday inside Belgrade's City Hall where a reception was held for 21 year-old Ana Ivanovic, who won her first Grand Slam at the French Open this year at Roland Garros in Paris, making her the Number One women's tennis player in the world. When you consider that Serbia also currently has major players as Jelena Jankovic, Novak Djokovic, and Janko Tipsarevic, that's not bad for such a small country. In any case, bravo to Ana, who is not only a winner, but a gracious beauty.

ABC Wednesday. "U" is for "unusual"

Couldn't resist posting these two photos today, both taken about two months ago. Colorful, to say the least! The young girl has her hair attached with what at first looked like long stringbeans, while the lady, who appears to belong to one of Belgrade's many minority groups, fascinated me with her varigated patterns.

Who's there?

Often when walking Bibi we get barked at by dogs on the other side of fences, behind gates, and even from terraces. This little guy was very quiet, and had Bibi not stopped to sniff his nose, I wouldn't have noticed him....or her.

Truncated trees Part II

In an earlier post here http://yankee-in-belgrade.blogspot.com/2008/04/truncated-trees.html , I had shown how the city annually chops off its sycamore trees along some major boulevards, since their branches often interfere with trolley lines. This photo was taken about two weeks ago, and you can see the new little branches are coming right back! They grow very fast, and this same tree is sporting new tufts in addition to these.

Midriff bulge

This kiosk stands on Belgrade's walking street, Knez Mihailova, and as you see, is a source of information for concerts and other cultural activities. Its midriff expands over weeks and months (sound familiar for some of us?) and every now and then it undergoes tummy reduction "surgery" to restore its waistline. You'd be surprised how many layers are removed!

Please don't sit on the flowers!

Most people in Belgrade live in apartments that they usually own. However, although they fix up their own terraces, the common property areas around the apartment buildings are not regularly kept up. Those who really have a green thumb that's itching for more garden space take it upon themselves to take care of the grassy plots around their building, as someone has done here. His or her skills are limited to gardening, and it looks like a carpenter might be needed to repair this bench. In the meantime, don't sit on the flowers!

Electric ice cream!

Wouldn't you love a cone this big? I had a slightly smaller one last night, and it was delicious. Couldn't resist taking the photo of this big cone over the store's window display of their yummy ice cream. Little blurry; hand-held by me in one hand, with my cone in the other.

Double rainbow

A bit stormy part of the day yesterday, and when it cleared for a moment, we here in my part of town were greeted by a double rainbow. The dome you see is Belgrade's new sports arena, where the Eurovision Song Contest was recently held.

Triplet tree--ABC Wednesday

This is actually, I think, three trees that have fused together. Their trunks (like all these t's?) have merged together and make for a quite impressive tree-in-one. On the left of these trees about 50 meters away and several meters below is the Sava River. The embankment where the passer-by is walking is a sort of dyke to prevent flooding of residences behind it. However, a couple of years ago after major rains, the Sava (and Danube too, of course) overflowed, and here the water reached half-way up the embankment.