SKYWATCH FRIDAY--traces...

A statue on the Republic of Serbia Government Building looks at the ruins of an army headquarters building, destroyed during the NATO bombing of 1999.

See other skies at SKYWATCH FRIDAY.

Back to the kafana....

Been a while since my friend Olja and I visited one of Belgrade's kafanas, like the one back in February before my US trip, but we made up for that today. Zora, (Dawn) is an excellent place to sample good Serbian food, and it's located right downtown off the main square. My friend's dish was a "Hunter Steak" with mashed potatoes, and I had grilled chicken with oven-baked potatoes. We shared the fresh salad of cucumbers, tomatoes, and fresh shredded cabbage..

P.S. If this seems like deja vu, it is...I forgot ABC WEDNESDAY was yesterday, so I moved this photo to Thursday..

ABC WEDNESDAY-'B' is for 'Belgrade bovines'

It's Belgrade's turn to do cows. I like this cloudy cow that matches the sky.

(If you visited me earlier today, you saw another photo....I'd forgotten it was Wednesday--that photo will be back tomorrow!)

See other B's on ABC WEDNESDAY

Another addition...

While waiting with my son for my daughter-in-law to appear with Baby Mila to go home, I caught these Gypsy or Roma kids with their grandmother. They seem to be waiting for their mother to bring them their newest family member. Pensive group... What are they all thinking?

Eco-friendly and practical

When I was a little girl, my grandmother in Pennsylvania used to hang our laundry out on a clothesline and hold up the line with long poles (clothes props). I used to love to watch the wind billow the laundry and the poles would sway back and forth.

That was long ago and in our yard. Now pretty much everywhere, although not that much here, people have clothes dryers. I have one, but only use it when I really have to. My son has one, too, and he shares my opinion of saving electricity. We both use these 'dryers'. I love to hang laundry on this apparatus.

Do you have something like this? How do you dry your laundry?

Sunday Bridges--a room with a view.....

Not much of a view, I'll admit, but we had other things to look at! This is the view from my daughter-in-law's hospital room. We were all looking at Baby Mila (see this past week's photos)...except me once when I took this photo.... The bridge is a Serbian-Chinese joint venture.

Oops! Goofed on who's making the bridge. See Vladimir's comment below.

See other bridges at LOUIS LA VACHE'S SUNDAY BRIDGES.

Reflections Weekend--fiddling around

Hard up for a reflections photo, so I grabbed what was at hand: a candlestick.

See other and probably better reflections at James' REFLECTIONS WEEKEND.

Skywatch--the moon and the stars

Not real, of course, but this is a sky my little granddaughter, Mila, (see last week's photos) will see when she actually can focus on things! These stars and moon come from TWILIGHT TURTLE, a wonderful toy/nightlight I'd bought for several people and now for her. Those of you who know me won't be surprised to know I also bought myself one....

And of course I think of the romantic song by Robert Flack, the first stanza of which takes on a different meaning for me now:

The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face

The first time ever I saw your face
I thought the sun rose in your eyes
And the moon and stars were the gifts you gave
To the dark and the empty skies, my love,
To the dark and the empty skies....

Little Mila makes us feel like this.

See other skies at SKYWATCH FRIDAY.

Rip 'em up!

If you are a new father celebrating your baby's birth in Serbia, please don't wear your best designer shirt to the party.... This is what it will look like, since it's customary for male guests to shred a new Dad's shirt. My son wisely wore an old t-shirt and brought along two other old shirts....to be ripped by friends who arrived a bit later.

See photos from Monday of this week about little Mila....

Don't you just love the guy's expression in the background?

ABC WEDNESDAY "A" is for 'angels"

Little Mila (see yesterday's photo) is in there somewhere.... Some things haven't changed here, and you can see that the babies are swaddled (but a couple seem to have their arms free) and stacked like little loaves of bread to be delivered to their mothers at feeding time. They did it like this when my kids were born, too. Mothers at home don't swaddle as a rule; I think this is just hospital efficiency!

Little angels.

See more A's on ABC WEDNESDAY.

A little sooner than we thought....

Baby Mila (MEE-la) arrived a bit sooner than we thought, weighing in at 2.8 kilos (6.2 lbs) and measuring 48 cm (19 inches). Isn't she cute?? And it you think it's cute how they write the baby's name on the diaper wrapping, wait until you see tomorrow's photo....