Ow.

Yesterday I said you could tell a lot about a person by his or her hands. You can see here that my friend likes to bake, but who, like many of us rushed wives, is sometimes not careful. This blister is the result of a steam burn she got when removing a casserole dish from the oven....

She told me that she immediately ran cold water over the burn, then plunged her thumb into raw egg white and held it there (two eggs, I believe....) for 15 minutes, which soothed the pain. She says that if she had remembered to IMMEDIATELY plunge the thumb into the egg whites, she would have had NO blister....that's what Serbian folk medicine says...

ABC WEDNESDAY "H" is for "hands"

You can tell a lot about people by their hands. This hand belongs to my new daughter-in-law's father and I photographed it on the sly during a dinner party shortly after my son's recent wedding.

See other H's ABC WEDNESDAY.

Posterity

Have you ever carved your initials and maybe even those of your loved one on a tree or wall? If so, are they still there? I see '60' and '54' on this wall in Kalemegdan Park, so I'm assuming that's 1960 and 1954, which means some of these names and initials have been here for a while...for posterity.

Yankee, go home! (Who, me?)

No offense taken, of course, since the writer is undoubtedly a member of the Serbian Radical Party, a far-right, ultra-nationalistic party founded in 1991, whose leader, Vojislav Šešelj (name in Cyrillic painted on the left of the wall), has been under trial in The Hague for war crimes since 1993.

And besides, after 33 years here, I am home.

Sunday Bridges--before and after

One day fresh paint, next day (or almost) graffiti. This is the fate of many walls in big cities, like this one under a bridge over a highway in Belgrade.

Check out Louis La Vache's Sunday Bridges at his blog!

Reflections weekend-Tesla's ashes

A few weeks ago I visited the Nikola Tesla Museum in downtown Belgrade. A place worth visiting if you come; tours are scheduled in English.

The gold ball above, so they say, houses Nikola Tesla's ashes.

See Newtown Daily Photo for other reflections!

SKYWATCH--Sand martin nests

See the nests?

You won't if you're looking in the trees. These holes in the sandy soil of Deliblato Sands are sand martin nests. Sand martins are members of the swallow family. Deliblato Sands (Deliblatska Peščara) make up the largest sandy terrain in Europe, and were once part of a vast prehistoric desert. Part of the Sands is only about an hour out of Belgrade.

See other skies on SKYWATCH.

The airborne tower

This is Nebojša's Tower (NEH-boy-sha), located just below the Kalemegan Fortress's walls. It dates from around 1460. "Nebojša," which is also a popular boy's name, means 'not afraid of anything.' Legend says when, after a long battle in 1521, the Turks finally seized nearly all of the Belgrade Fortress, the tower rose into the air so that it could never be captured.

THEME DAY: Open-air markets/ABC Wednesday "Goodies for winter!"

Getting ready for winter...the beans are on the market all year round, but jars of pickled veggies are a sign of cold weather to come.

Check out other G's on ABC WEDNESDAY.


THEME DAY: Click here to view thumbnails for all participants

Water-related

It's been a hot summer, so I am ending the month of August with a water-related post. Going clockwise from the top left: a statue in New Belgrade; a small artwork called "The Sava and the Danube" (two rivers kissing!); a mermaid (though I think those look like feathers...) door handle; and one of the fountains on Belgrade's Bohemian District, Skadarlija.

A 'grate' work of art

I can see this hanging somewhere in an art gallery. "Such lines....such composition....," people would exclaim. However, this 'grate' work of art is just that....a grate on the sidewalk that hasn't been cleaned in a loooooong time.